Table of Contents
Common movie lighting terms
Light incidence angle:
refers to the direction of illumination from a specific device, with reference to the camera / subject axis. Also called the direction of the light source.
Existing light:
the natural light of the shooting site. It may be outside sunlight or artificial light; for example, sunlight shining into a room from a window, or neon signs and street lights on the streets of a big city at night.
Background light:
light that illuminates the background with the same intensity as the main light. Sometimes it’s called set light.
False shadow:
Refers to the area that light can’t reach. Therefore, it is not a real shadow (caused by the object blocking the light), but a dark area on the subject that cannot be illuminated. In photography, it is equivalent to a shadow area. The false shadow is actually caused by the gradient of hue.
Range of brightness:
the range of brightness on the subject. In earlier terms, it refers to the overall range of brightness. We replace it with the term subject brightness range. Cast shadow: it is the standard shadow type. It is the shadow formed by an object or a person to block the light in a certain area of the lens.
Characteristic curve:
curve describing the reaction of photosensitive emulsion to light. During exposure, the cinematographer projects the brightness range of the subject onto the characteristic curve, which actually reproduces the brightness value as the corresponding density, first on the negative film, and then on the copy.
Swindle:
refers to the actor, props and lights slightly change position to get better effect. For example, having an actor turn around and get a more satisfying facial shadow, or moving a subject slightly to take a close-up of it. Deception implies that change won’t get the audience’s attention.
Eclectic exposure:
Exposure between the readings of the two poles, so as to retain the image tone of the two poles within the brightness range of the subject. A typical example is a person in front of a window. We read the light meter readings for the location and the exposure readings for the actors. Then exposure is made according to the intermediate value of the two. If we don’t have to compromise exposure, we can also line up the subject illumination where possible, making its brightness range easy to handle.
Diffuse reflectance or reflectance coefficient:
a percentage of the light reflected by most objects. This property of an object is represented by the term diffuse reflectance.
Exposure:
place the brightness range of the subject on the characteristic curve of the negative in a controllable way. In more technical terms, exposure is a scientific method to establish the relationship between the brightness range of the subject and the density value of the negative film and the final printing value.
Eye light:
it is used to make a reflection to make the eyes feel fresh. Eye light does not need to illuminate the whole subject from the angle of exposure, as long as the eyes have reflected light. The intensity of eye light is usually low. Any open incandescent bulb is enough. The eyes are often illuminated with main light and supplementary light, so there is no need to add additional eye light.
Facial tone arrangement:
it refers to the position of the face on the characteristic curve in the partition system. In the usual interval 5 exposure arrangement, the black facial tone is arranged in interval 4, the brown facial tone is arranged in interval 5, and the white facial tone is arranged in interval 6. Some cinematographers may set the facial tone to a higher or a lower range in order to have a good picture.
Sense:
refers to the emotional, subjective nuances of a lens – stanza
Play, texture, color and shadow tone value, so as to become an observer. For example, the lens is composed of emptiness, boredom, nostalgia and so on. Sense is used for the depth of image, which means grade.
Fill light:
It is used to control the black depth of shadow areas, especially the facial shadow areas. The main light determines the layout of shadows, and the fill light is used to illuminate those shadows to avoid the formation of new shadows. The fill light is almost always soft, even when the main light is hard, because the slow attenuation of soft light can provide more natural filling, and its effect is almost invisible.
Foot candle (fc):
the unit used by an incident light meter to measure incident light. Technically, when illuminated by a standard candle at a distance of one foot, the light reaches a surface of one square foot. Foot Lambert: a unit of reflected light used by narrow angle and average type reflectometer. Technically, light reflected by an ideal surface illuminated by a foot candle of light. The relationship between reflected light and incident light is as follows: ft Lambert = ft candle light × reflectivity.
Hair illumination:
direct illumination on the hair to enhance its backward and contour light. Commonly used in shampoo advertising and magic film shooting technology.
Hard light:
Term used to describe small, intense light sources, such as direct, high-intensity light from the sun. The inherent high illumination of hard light makes us think its shadow is very black and clear. Hard light is highly directional and concentrated, just like spotlight light. Direct sunlight, arc lights, elliptical and Fresnel spotlights are good hard lights source.
HDTV:
the rising TV technology has higher resolution than the existing TV system. It can provide higher quality TV images and compete with movies. The TV of this system will be in the form of large screen.
High key:
a term used to describe the lighting layout that produces a relaxed, bright and joyful overall mood. This term is subjectively used to represent an image with almost gray value.
High brightness method:
mainly concerned about the exposure method of high brightness tone arrangement.
Incident light:
light that illuminates an object. It can come directly from a light source: the sun, the sky or a light bulb, or it can be reflected from other objects onto an object. For example, the moon reflects light to the earth; a white wall reflects light around the room. The incident light meter measures the intensity of the incident light in foot candles.
Main light:
the light of the main subject, which sets the hue of the rest of the lighting and determines how the subject will be reproduced. Just as its name implies, the main light is the most important light source affecting the lens. It forms the lighting space logic and motivation source, and determines the position and shape of the facial shadow, so as to determine the overall image mood. Many light sources can be used to simulate the effect of a primary light.
Key tone method:
an exposure method that emphasizes certain key tones in exposure. In cinematography, facial tone is the most important. The middle region contains most of the facial tones, so when we arrange them on the characteristic curve, we should ensure that they have the best reproduction and the best resolution. Key tone method will be interval 4, 5. 6 is arranged in the middle of the characteristic curve.
Theoretically speaking, the key tone method is the same as the incident method discussed above. Conclusion: through exposure, we can arrange the key tone at the predetermined point on the characteristic curve; the rest of the interval will automatically fall on their respective positions.