Introduction to Lighting in Production & Greenscreen

Dear Diary,

Yesterday me and the class were introduced to the different types of lighting in production and the use of green screens. We went into the TV studio and got the chance to re-arrange the lights and use gel filters.

(A diagram that was presented in class from my tutor Emma)

(Testing and seeing how the lighting is)

We learned about Back Light, Key Light and Fill Light and last but not least 3 point lighting.

What is Back Light lighting & when is it used?

Back light lighting helps highlight a subject from the back. What it does is help divide the subject and the background. The stage lights and the viewer look at each other with the product in between, resulting in a beaming glowing effect being formed. Their is different types of back light lighting.

(A diagram I made which shows how backlight is created)

You can get different types of effects and shadows if you choose to locate the light differently.

Overall there is different types of back light lighting in which people try and achieve such as:

HAIR LIGHT - focuses specifically on the hair and sometimes shoulders.

A DIAGRAM I PRODUCED BELOW ON HOW PEOPLE ACHIEVE A HAIR LIGHT

(A hair light should be lifted above your subject)

You can get different types of effects and shadows if you choose to locate the light differently.

*The hair light is positioned behind the subject *

Hair light helps add definition to the hair in scenes and also helps the hair look more detailed. It basically just over exaggerates the hair. I would say that using a hair light is beneficial if you want your audience to see a lot of detail in your production or if your production focuses specifically on hair.

AND KICKER LIGHT

Kick light are lights that tend to be quite vibrant and harsh on our object or person. What they do is make the person appear as if they're glowing, normally kick lights are positioned lower or behind your subject. It makes the person look important and over exaggerates the look of someone. Ive seen a lot of ways in which people use kick light in their productions, such as wrestling and in concerts. Some even say that this type of lighting creates a supernatural effect as if the light is coming from their bodies.

What is key light lighting & fill light lighting?

The key light is very significant. A camera man / woman or a scene creator will definitely use this style of lighting on set. When using a key light it helps make a scene high in contrast, this would definitely happen if the scene/ background is not bright. A key light can be harsh, focused or soft.

What a fill light does is defines more details to areas that may be dark and unnoticeable.

What is 3 point lighting?

image source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting#/media/File:3_point_lighting.svg

Three point light is just all the light that I have wrote about combined together to create an greater effect ( fill light, key light and a back light) Which can help show the characters emotions and feelings depending on the way you position the lights.

Three point lighting is a lighting method which is commonly used in video, film, photography and computer generated imagery. What people do in order to achieve this lighting is by using individual positions where they place these types of lights on our object or person.

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CLIP OF ME AND MY TEAM EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIGHTING

It was great opportunity to get to experiment with different types of sets and lighting equipment. When experimenting it allowed me to figure out how to get a perfectly lit green screen and where to move the lights if a shadow is present.

Overall lighting is very important when it comes to producing films. Lighting can help show the audience wether a person has authority, what mood a scene is set in and many more beneficial things an audience would need to know whilst watching a movie.

Its also good to have good lighting in a film because you would want your audience to see everything clearly and without any struggle.

For example in some horror movies, They might use gel filters to emphasise a situation or to help showcase that a person is dangerous. It is even used to make an environment look mysterious. People use gel filters on lights for various reasons and genres of films.

It could be used in a :

• Horror

• Comedy

• Action Movie

• Thriller

• Scifi

What is a gel filter?

A gel filter is a transparent, dyed sheet of material which is used in theatre, cinematography, photography and videography to help colour correct or enhance a scene. Some gel filters are formed in gel frames.

The use of gel filters and the difference

(Without a gel filter)

(With a gel filter)

Image source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8PD7y6CVk

As you can see the filter has colour corrected the tank and allowed the photographer to get a more detailed and professional shot. Where you can see the true natural colours of the fishes and the fish tank.

Webography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8PD7y6CVk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flg_x935MCY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlighting_(lighting_design)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_gel