Category: Studio Lights Education

Film and television post-production is to do post-processing on the film or animation produced by software to form a complete film, including adding special effects, adding text, and making sound for the film. [1] The later software can be divided into plane software, synthesis software, non-linear editing software, and 3D software.

Development Path

Based on the theory of visual communication design, master film and television editing equipment (linear and non-linear equipment) and film and television editing skills, and be able to perform film and television special effects.

Film and television media has become the most popular and influential form of media. From the fantasy world created by Hollywood blockbusters, to the real life that TV news focuses on, to the overwhelming TV commercials, all have a profound impact on our lives.

In the past, the production of film and television programs was the work of professionals, and it seemed to be shrouded in mystery to the public. For more than ten years, digital technology has fully entered the film and television production process, and computers have gradually replaced many original film and television equipment, and have played a major role in all aspects of film and television production.

But until recently, film and television productions have been using extremely expensive professional hardware and software. It is difficult for non-professionals to see these equipment, let alone skilled use of these tools to produce their own works.

With the significant improvement of PC performance and the continuous reduction of prices, film and television production has gradually shifted from the previous professional hardware equipment to the PC platform. The original high-profile professional software has gradually been transplanted to the platform, and the price has become increasingly popular.

At the same time, the application of film and television production has expanded from professional film and television production to broader fields such as computer games, multimedia, Internet, and home entertainment. Many operators in these industries and a large number of film and television enthusiasts can use their own computers to produce their own film and television programs.

Post-production Content

Generally speaking, the post-production of film and television includes three major aspects: first, the assembly of shots, which is usually called editing, and the second, the production of special effects, such as the special transition effects of the lens, fade in and fade out, and circle out. Circle entry, etc., now also includes the use of animation and 3D special effects. Third, the appearance of sound and stereo appearance into the film, we should also consider a later sound production problem, including the vertical montage that appeared in film theory later Wait. These three points are an indispensable part of film and television post-production.

Traditional TV editing is done on the editing machine. The editing machine usually consists of a video player and a video recorder. The editor selects a suitable piece of material through the player, then records it on the tape in the video recorder, and then looks for the next shot.

In addition, the advanced editing machine also has strong special effects, which can make a variety of overlays and wipes. You can adjust the screen color, you can also make subtitles and so on. But because the tape recording pictures are sequential, you cannot insert a lens between the existing pictures, nor can you delete a lens, unless you re-record all the pictures after that. Therefore, this kind of editing is called linear editing. It brings many limitations to editors. You can see that although traditional editing methods have their own characteristics, they all have great limitations, which greatly reduces the creativity of editors and makes Valuable time is wasted in the tedious operation process.

Post-production Process

Film and television post-production is basically a process of preliminary editing-formal editing-composition selection-special effects input-dubbing and synthesis.

First cut:

Also called rough cut. The current editing work is generally done on the computer, so after the filming material is transferred to the magnetic field, it must be input into the computer before the director and editor can start the initial editing. In the initial editing stage, the director will splice the shooting materials in the sequence of the script and edit them into a version without visual effects, narration and music.

Official editing:

After the first cut was recognized, it entered the formal editing stage, which was also called the fine cut. In the fine-cutting part, first of all, it is necessary to modify the unsatisfactory parts of the original cut, and then synthesize the work of the special effects part into the commercial film, and the work of the commercial film and the screen part is completed.

Composition or selection:

The music of the commercial can be composed or selected. The difference between the two is: If you compose, the commercial will have unique music, and the music can be perfectly combined with the picture, but it will be more expensive. If you choose a song, it will be more economical in terms of cost, but other commercials may also use this music.

Input of special effects:

This stage is a more critical stage. Special effects will be produced in places that cannot be shot or the shooting effect is not good. Here we will use very professional special effects production software. We have seen many movies with super visual effects. It is precisely because of the special effects input that this part is very well done.

Dubbing synthesis:

The narration and dialogue are completed at this time. After the narration and dialogue are completed, after the music is completed, the sound effects editor will match the commercial with various sound effects. At this point, the sound part of an advertisement has all been prepared. The last step is to adjust the respective volume of all the above elements to a suitable position and combine them together.

(To Be Continued)

Morphological scene shooting

At the same time, they are connected to the lens and the whole. The form of the film lens establishes various correspondences and becomes the most basic element in the structure of the film montage. When determining the shape of each lens, it should not be done in isolation, but should be considered comprehensively and the overall shape should be considered. Grasp, and implement them into individual shots and interrelationships.

When arranging a shot, you should take into account the specific layout of the shot according to the content of the story, which angle is more action or appealing, coherence, expected visual and emotional effects, editing plan, cut-out shots and insertion shots The use of, the form and structure of the story and the film, how long the width of the picture is appropriate, how to change and transform the audience’s attention, how to use subjective or objective lenses. How long should a scene occupy in a scene, and how to establish or change the relationship between the subject and the space, etc.

Connection method

Although individual shots have a certain meaning, they must be combined organically and naturally and fluently in accordance with the development of the plot to become a complete work, thus forming a complete set of lens assembly methods. Explicit; hidden; transform; cut; etc. This refers to the different connection methods between the lens and the lens

Display, also called fading; fading; this is the picture gradually emerges from blank or all black.

Hidden, also called fading out; Fading out, is the opposite of fading out, that is, the picture gradually recedes until it disappears completely.

If you combine fading and fading together, it will form an obvious sense of intermittent. This tells the audience that this is the end of a complete paragraph and the beginning of another paragraph.

Transformation, also called “melting” or “dissolving” The previous picture gradually disappears while the next one is appearing, called “transformation”, the next picture gradually appears in the gradual disappearance of the previous picture is called “transition”. Transformation; Transformation is usually used to show the time division between incomplete paragraphs. The use of dissolve can show the changes of someone or something over a long period of time.

Switching, also called “switching” specifically, can be divided into continuous switching and interspersed switching.

Continuous switching, that is, the action shown in the next screen is the continuation of the action in the previous screen or a part of the content shown in the previous screen. Many unnecessary performance processes are “cut” away, not only is the context clear, but also concise and smooth. This is continuous switching.

Interspersed switching is different from continuous switching. The latter shot is not a continuation of a certain action in the previous frame. It does not include some parts of the previous frame. But they have inherent related factors, which can be connected together in the chain of story development.

The above-mentioned combination of shots (pictures) are just a few of the various methods of film and television art editing. In summary, there are two major categories: skillful assembly. If the picture is combined with invisible; explicit; transformation, etc., certain optical techniques must be used when editing and combining, so it is called technical combination. Switching does not require any optical skills, so it is called non-technical assembly.

Regarding the various combinations of film and television images, they are actually the specific application of montage techniques in screen conversion and combination. Movies and televisions speak through pictures and become narrative art capable of telling stories only because they have one of the most basic means of composition-montage. Montage is not only the basic characteristic of film and television becoming a unique art, but also a kind of “grammatical rhetoric” for the basic narrative function of film and television pictures, or the basic means by which film and television can become perfect and independent art.

In the production of a movie, the content of the whole film needs to be broken down into many different shots. After the shooting is completed, the many pieces are scattered according to the original creative concept; different shots, according to the development of the story, Artistically edit; combine to make it coherent through the complementary relationship of the image and image; echo; suspense; contrast; suggestion; association; contrast, and different rhythms of speed, so as to form an organic; natural and smooth; expressive A film with a certain ideological content. When sound and color enter the film as the constituent elements of the film, a variety of combinations and combining techniques such as picture and sound, picture and color, and sound and sound are added. Therefore, montage is again It is an art category that is constantly developing and enriching.

Basic knowledge of lens language

Montage: The transliteration of French montage, which originally meant assembling and cutting, refers to the arrangement and combination of a series of shots taken at different locations, from different distances and angles, and in different methods. It is the main narrative and expression method of film creation one. It can be roughly divided into “narrative montage” and “performance montage”. The former mainly aims at presenting events, and general parallel splicing and cross splicing (also known as parallel montage and cross montage) fall into this category. “Performance Montage” is to strengthen the artistic expression and emotional appeal, through the connection of “irrelevant” shots or the mutual contrast in content to produce new connotations that they did not originally have.

Editing: One of the film and television production processes, and also refers to the full-time staff responsible for this work. After the filming and TV series are finished, according to the requirements of plot development and structure, the pictures and vocal cords of each lens are selected, sorted and trimmed, and then grouped together according to the principle of montage and the most artistic order to become a film. Film and television works with complete content and artistic appeal. Editing is the decomposition and reorganization of film and television audio and video materials, and it is also a re-creation in the filming process.

Other nouns

Foreground: The person or object near the front or in front of the subject in the lens. In the lens picture, it is used to set off the subject, or form a part of the dramatic environment, and enhance the spatial depth of the picture, balance the composition and beautify the picture.

Back view: The person or object near the back or behind the subject in the lens. The background scene is sometimes used as the main or companion of the performance in the lens, but it is mostly part of the dramatic environment and sometimes directly constitutes the background.

Middle shot: The part in the middle of the screen. Generally, the subject will appear in the middle shot or the area between the front and middle shots.

Foreground, middle ground, and background are the basic levels of photographic composition. They can make the picture rich in layers and depth. The levels of some pictures are divided in more detail. For example, many pictures in Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” can reach seven or eight levels.

Interior view: also known as “interior view of the shed”. Refers to the scene set up in the studio (including indoor or outdoor scenes).

Exterior scenes: scenes outside the studio, including real scenes such as natural environment and living environment, as well as indoor scenes built outside the studio. The advantages are real, natural and life-like.

Photo studio: a special building dedicated to filming film and television works. Larger studios generally have an area of ​​more than 400 square meters to 1,000 square meters, with a height of more than 8 meters. The shed is surrounded by sky panels for drawing the background, equipped with various lighting facilities, sound conditions, as well as sound insulation, ventilation, temperature adjustment, drainage and other equipment. Various indoor and outdoor sceneries for shooting can be built in the studio.

Modeling language: In the traditional sense, it refers to the sum of the means and techniques of painting, sculpture and other art categories that use certain material materials to create a visual and intuitive image. For film and television, various visual modeling art methods and techniques (such as line, color, light effect, tone, composition, perspective law, material structure, spatial processing, etc.) and sound modeling factors (volume, tone, tone, etc.) Movement, orientation, distance, etc.), together form their modeling language system.

Voice-over: refers to the use of sound outside the picture in film and television works, that is, the sound that is not directly emitted by the person or object in the picture, but the sound from outside the picture. Narration, monologue, and commentary are the main forms of voice-over. The out-of-picture use of audio is also an important form of voice-over. The voice-over makes the sound get rid of the subordinate position attached to the picture and video, and strengthens the audio-visual function of the film and television works.

Screen: A film projection device made of reflective or semi-transparent material, and its surface can be used to project images.

Widescreen movies: A new type of movie that emerged in the 1950s uses a screen wider than the standard screen, allowing the audience to see a broader scene. At present, the most common method is to use an anamorphic lens that compresses the picture horizontally to shoot and project widescreen movies, so that the aspect ratio of the projected picture is changed from 1:1.33 of ordinary screen movies to 1:1.66 to 1:1.85, so it is called For anamorphic movies.

Blocked widescreen movies: Also called “fake widescreen movies”, 35mm film is used. When shooting and projecting, a frame is added in front of the camera and projector film windows to cover the upper and lower sides of the frame to compress the height of the picture, but Without changing the screen width, you can get the same screen effect as an anamorphic movie. The method of making such a widescreen movie is relatively simple and has been widely adopted.

Sound and picture synchronization: that is, the sound and picture synchronization, which refers to the natural relationship between the dialogue, song, and sound in the film and television works that are consistent with the action of the picture, and the sound (including dubbing) and the picture image are kept in sync.

Parallel sound and picture: A situation in which the sound and picture of film and television works are not synchronized, also called parallel sound and picture, and separation of sound and picture. It refers to the closeness of the thoughts and feelings, character characters, artistic style, and dramatic conflicts between the sound and the picture in the film and television works. But the speed and rhythm are not synchronized. The sound and the picture are developed according to their own logic and complement each other. Its basic feature is that sound (especially music) repeats or strengthens the mood, tendency or meaning of the picture. Illustrative music and rendering music belong to the parallel music of sound and picture.

Sound and picture counterpoint: Another situation where the sound and picture of film and television works are not synchronized, including two artistic treatment methods: (1) Sound and picture contrast. The sound is consistent with the content and mood of the picture, but there is a contrast in measurement and rhythm. ⑵ The sound and picture are opposite. The sound is completely opposite to the image and mood of the picture.

Scene and lens

“Scenery” refers to a single image on the screen and screen, which is an instantaneous spatial presentation. Different images are called “Scenes”. Both scenes and scenes are a spatial concept, but the “lens” heads are different. It is mainly a concept of time. A lens is all the images taken by a camera or video camera from start to stop. Therefore, a lens can be one scene, or two or more scenes.

Morphological scene shooting

Explanation

A lens can be drawn from the panorama to the middle, close or even close-up, or from the close-up to the close-up. The medium, panoramic and even distant scenes are determined and divided by the viewing distance. The so-called viewing distance refers to the distance between the camera and the subject. In a shot, or a movie sentence, it should include a variety of different scenes that have been strictly selected. Therefore, there are various sceneries.

Any film must use a variety of scenes, in a nutshell, it can be divided into five categories, namely long-range, panoramic, medium-range, close-up, and close-up. It is also divided into large panoramas and close-ups. The shape of each single lens is composed of the following four aspects:

scene

⑴ Scenery, distant view, large panorama, panorama, medium shot, medium and close shots, close shots, close-ups, close-ups. The definition of various scenes is based on the proportion of people in the picture. Such as the long-term view and the grand panorama, which mainly show that people are engulfed by the world around them or the fusion of people and nature. Panorama and mid-range mainly shoot the full picture or half of the person. It is closer to people’s conventional vision in life. Under normal circumstances, the application process is suitable for performance in such a balanced and stable scene.

Close-ups and close-ups refer to shots above the chest or shoulders of a person. They focus the audience’s attention on the details of the image and expression like a magnifying glass. When the director wants to emphasize the instant reaction or passion of the characters, and give the audience emotional impact. The close-up shots and close-ups play a prominent role in his close observation. Macro close-up generally refers to a certain part of a person’s face or a certain special object prop. This is rarely used, but once used, it is a kind of unforgettable shot.

Scenery determines the degree of our relationship with people and things on the screen, and the different compositions it produces create disagreements in various modeling expressions. Through the change of sceneries, the audience will be far and near, and sometimes sloppy. Timely careful observation, sometimes browsing taste and sometimes clear observation method, is an important reason for the charm of the movie.

angle

⑵ Angle, the selection of the mirror position in the horizontal and vertical directions, is divided into front, side, back, flat, overhead and overhead shots based on the different azimuth relationship between the camera and the subject.

Mobile form

⑶ Moving form, moving the lens to push, pull, pan, move, raise, lower and integrated lens. The various motion forms of the lens are the modification and expansion of the angle and the scene, the displacement in many directions of horizontal, vertical, and vertical, to achieve the effect of observation in motion, which is complementary to the static observation of the fixed lens. The continuous change of the picture space caused by the motion lens restores the visual experience of the active person in the active world to a greater extent, approaching (pushing), leaving (pulling), looking around, shaking the head, and leaning over (shaking down) Watching while walking (moving), keeping up (following), floating up and down (lifting) and various complex dynamic observations (comprehensive movement) are all necessary means to describe the action more vividly.

length

⑷Length, the time of the lens is converted to the length of the film. The camera shoots 24 frames and 1.5 feet per second; a 3-foot lens is 2 seconds, and a 90-foot lens is one minute. Usually the length of a film is one and a half hours, and the total length of the film is 90 (feet) x 90 (minute) = 8,100 feet (2700 meters). The number of shots in a story film is about 300-1000. If a 300-lens movie is 27 feet long and 18 seconds long, the average shot is 90 feet for a 900-lens movie. 6 seconds. From this rough calculation, we can see the meaning of the length of the shot-it is the medium through which the director creates the narrative rhythm of the film through time control.

The length of a lens is determined by internal and external factors. Internal factors are the constraints of the lens content and spatial form, and the strangeness and familiarity of the image content also affect the length of the lens. External factors refer to the need for the narrative rhythm of the scene paragraphs and the entire scene sequence. The calm story and the soothing method use long shots. Chase, violence, joy, horror scenes and thrills, wars, singing and dancing, etc. must be short. The lens is mainly. There is no uniform standard for the length of the lens. Scenery; angle; form of motion; length. Each lens is presented in front of us in the form of space and time, forming a content unit of the film.

Shooting technique

1. Push the lens

Pushing the lens is one of the commonly used methods in video shooting. The camera lens and the picture are gradually approaching, the outer frame of the picture gradually shrinks, and the scene inside the picture gradually enlarges, so that the audience can see a certain layout from the overall view. This push lens can guide The audience feels more deeply the inner activities of the characters and strengthens the emotional atmosphere.

2. Pull the lens

The zoom lens is a picture taken by placing the camera on a moving car and zooming back towards the person or scene. The camera gradually moves away from the subject, and the picture gradually expands from a part, so that the viewer’s point of view is moved back to see the connection between the part and the whole.

3. Pan

Panning is a shooting method in video shooting. It refers to a shooting method that changes the axis of the camera’s optical lens by means of the movable chassis on the tripod or the photographer’s own fulcrum when the camera is not moving.

4. Close-up

Close-up refers to the shot of the face of a portrait, a certain part of the human body, and a certain detail of an object in a movie. It was first created and used by early American film director Griffith and others. Its appearance and use have enriched and enhanced the unique expressive power of film art, which has always been film aesthetics.

5. Shift

The effect of the photo taken by the shift axis is like a miniature model, which is very special. The function of the shift lens was originally used to correct the perspective problems that occur when taking pictures with ordinary wide-angle lenses, but it was later widely used to create photographic works with varying depth of focus positions.

The basic scenes are as follows:

1. Vision: Don’t always think about shooting people when shooting portraits. Bringing the environment can render the atmosphere well.

2. Panoramic view: Panoramic scenes help to express the actions of the characters.

3. Close shot: In order to show the character’s expression better, you can use close shot.

4. Close-ups: Close-ups can make you fully pay attention to the details of the characters and are the best way to express details.

Lens language

The lens language is to use the lens to express our meaning like language. We can usually see the intention of the photographer through the image taken by the camera, because we can feel the content that the photographer wants to express through the lens from the subject of its shooting and the changes in the image.

Although the expression of lens language is different from ordinary speech, the purpose is the same. Therefore, the lens language has no rules at all. As long as you use the lens to express your meaning, no matter what lens method is used, it can be called lens language.

Basic knowledge of lens language

scene

According to the different distance and angle of view, it is generally divided into:

Extremely distant view: Extremely distant lens landscape, the characters are as small as ants.

Perspective: A far-reaching lens landscape, where the characters only occupy a small position in the picture. The broad perspective can be divided into three levels: large perspective, long perspective, and small perspective based on the difference of perspective.

Panoramic view: A picture that includes the entire subject and the surrounding environment. It is usually used as an introduction to the environment of film and television works, so it is called the widest lens.

Panoramic view: Take a full picture of the whole body of a character or a small scene, which is equivalent to the landscape in the “stage frame” of a drama and song and dance theater. You can clearly see the characters’ movements and the environment in the panorama.

Small panorama: The actor “stands upright”, is much smaller than the panorama, yet maintains a relatively complete specification.

Middle shot: commonly known as “seven-thin image”, it refers to the shot that takes the part above the calf of a person, or the shot used to shoot a scene equivalent to this. It is a common scene in performance scenes.

Half-length view: commonly known as “bust”, it refers to the view from waist to head, also known as “middle and close view”.

Close-up: refers to the film and television pictures taken from the chest above, sometimes used to show a certain part of the scene.

Close-up: Refers to the camera picking up the object at a very close distance. Usually, the avatar above the shoulders of the human body is used as a reference for framing, highlighting a certain part of the human body, or corresponding object details, scene details, etc.

Macro close-up: Also known as “detailed close-up”, it refers to highlighting a part of the head portrait, or a certain detail of the body or object, such as eyebrows, eyes, bolts, triggers, etc.

Shooting method

Push: Push shooting and lens pushing, which means that the subject does not move, and the camera moves forward to shoot. The viewing range changes from large to small. It is divided into fast push, slow push, slam push, and zoom push shoot. The difference.

Pull: The subject does not move, and the camera moves backwards. The viewing range changes from small to large. It can also be divided into slow pull, fast pull, and jerk.

Shake: The position of the camera does not move, and the body relies on the chassis on the tripod to rotate up and down, left and right, making the audience look around and look at the people or things around as if standing in place.

Shift: also known as mobile shooting. Broadly speaking, the various methods of sports shooting are mobile shooting. But in the usual sense, mobile shooting refers specifically to placing the camera on a vehicle, such as a rail or a rocker, and shooting objects in motion along a horizontal plane. Panning and panning can be combined to form a panning shooting method.

Follow: Refers to tracking shooting. Follow-up is one type, and there are more than 20 shooting methods including follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, follow-down, etc., which will combine more than 20 shooting methods such as follow-up and pull, shake, shift, rise, and fall. In short, the follow-up technique is flexible and diverse, which keeps the audience’s eyes fixed on the body and object being followed.

Rise: Upward camera.

Down: Down the camera.

Overhead: overhead shot, often used to show the overall appearance of the environment and occasion in a macroscopic view.

Yang: Looking up shots often have a tall and solemn meaning.

Flicking: Flicking the lens, that is, panning the lens, refers to throwing from one subject to another, showing a sharp change, as a means of scene change without showing the trace of editing.

Suspended: Suspended shooting, sometimes including aerial shooting. It has broad expressive power.

Sora: Also known as an empty lens or a scene lens, it refers to a pure scene lens without the characters in the play (whether it is a person or a related animal).

Cut: A collective term for conversion lenses. The editing of any shot is a “cut”.

Comprehensive: refers to comprehensive shooting, also known as comprehensive lens. It combines several shooting methods, such as pushing, pulling, panning, shifting, heeling, raising, lowering, pitching, tilting, spinning, swinging, hanging, and aerial shooting in a single lens.

Long: Refers to the long lens. Film and television can be defined as a continuous picture of more than 30 seconds.

Anti-shooting: Refers to the opposite direction shooting when the camera is shooting a two-person scene. For example, when shooting a man and a woman sitting and talking, first shoot the man from one side, and then shoot the woman from the other side (close-up, close-up, or half-length), and finally cross-edit to form a complete segment.

Zoom shooting: the camera does not move, through the change of the focal length of the lens, so that people or objects in the distance can be clearly seen, or the close-up scene can be changed from clear to blurred.

Subjective shooting: also known as subjective lens, that is, the lens that expresses the subjective line of sight and vision of the person in the play, and often has the effect of visualized psychological description.

Picture processing skills

Fade in: also known as fade in. Refers to the gradual increase of the luminosity of the first lens of the next scene from zero to normal intensity, just like the “curtain opening” of the stage.

Fade out: also known as fade out. Refers to the last scene of the previous scene from the normal luminosity, gradually darkening to zero degrees, like the “curtain falling” on the stage.　 Transformation: Also known as “melting”, it means that the previous picture has just disappeared, and the second picture appears at the same time. The two are in the state of “melting” to complete the replacement of the contents of the picture. Its purpose: ①used for time conversion; ②expressing dreams, imagination, and memories; ③showing the unpredictable and dizzying scenery; ④undertaking the transition naturally, and the narration is smooth and smooth. The process of transformation usually takes about three seconds.

Overlay: Also known as “overprint”, it means that the front and back images do not disappear, and some of them are “retained” on the screen or screen. It is through segmentation of the screen, showing the connection of the characters, promoting the development of the plot, etc. Due to planning: also known as “drawing in and out”. It is different from transformation and stacking, but a technique to change the content of the picture with lines or geometric figures, such as circles, diamonds, curtains, triangles, polygons and other shapes or methods. For example, the “circle” method is also called “circle in and circle out”; “curtain” is also called “curtain in and curtain out”, that is, like a rolling curtain, the content of the lens changes.

Entering the picture: Refers to the character entering the viewfinder frame of the shooting machine, and can go through multiple directions such as up, down, left, and right.

Out of the picture: refers to the character originally in the lens, leaving the shooting screen from top, bottom, left, and right.

Freeze frame: refers to adding a certain frame of a movie film or a frame of a TV picture through technical means to add several frames or frames of the same film or picture to achieve the purpose of the image being in a static state. Usually, each segment of a movie or TV screen starts with a fixed frame, changes from static, and ends with a fixed frame, changing from dynamic to static.

Inverted picture: Take the horizontal centerline of the screen or screen as the axis, and turn it over 180° to make the original picture from inverted to front, or from front to back.

Flip the picture: take the vertical centerline of the screen or screen as the axis, so that the picture disappears after a 180° flip, leading to the next shot. Generally express the strong contrast between the new and the old, the poor and the rich, the joy and the sorrow, the present and the past.

Frame: refers to the first frame of photography and the camera.

Falling frame: refers to the last picture before photography and camera stop.

Flashback: A method of expressing the inner activities of characters in film and television. That is to say, a scene is suddenly inserted into a very short picture to show the character’s psychological activities and emotional ups and downs at this moment. The technique is extremely concise and clear. The content of “flashback” generally refers to scenes that have appeared in the past or things that have happened. For example, it is used to express the imagination and premonition of the characters about the future or things that will happen, it is called “front flash”, and it is collectively called “flashing thought” with “flashback”.

(To Be Continued)

Silhouette-the balance point between prominence and omission

Silhouette is one of the most common light and shadow processing methods in movies. It can effectively omit the appearance of characters and divert the audience’s attention to more important places.

For example, in some action movies, the protagonist fights in silhouette. On the one hand, it can highlight body movements, and on the other hand, it also enriches the diversity of martial arts scenes. It is a way of expression that action movie directors love to see.

This high-rise fighting scene in “007: Skyfall” is the most talked about,

Not only is the action play coherent and beautiful, the jellyfish pattern on the background curtain wall also enhances the artistry of the play.

Hardness and softness are reflected in the same picture, beautifully.

In other words, light and shadow can divide the picture into two levels, juxtaposing two opposing elements in the same plane at the same time, in order to express a certain complexity of the film.

For example, at the end of “Fight Club”, in the foreground is a static silhouette of Jack holding a horse’s hand. In the background, we see a skyscraper crashing down, which is both violent and beautiful.

In this picture, the foreground symbolizes unity, and the background represents split, which coincides with the duality of deconstruction and reconstruction of Fight Club.

Sometimes the background in the highlighted part can be used as an atmosphere to set off the role. For example, in “City of Philharmonic”, lovers dance under the stars, and in “ET Alien”, the little boy rides ET through the night sky. …

The background creates a romantic and fantasy atmosphere for the relationship between the characters in the silhouette.

The most common time for this kind of expression in the film is at sunrise or sunset.

In film studies, this period is also known as the magic period, and it is called Golden Hour in English.

As the name suggests, because the angle of the sun’s rays is close to the horizon, the color temperature is low, and the whole picture is warmed by the orange-red light, which is especially suitable for the director’s inner drama of the characters in the foreground.

For example, in “Sunny Day”, there is Ma Xiaojun overlooking Milan and Liu Yi have a good relationship, which is particularly unpleasant in my heart.

In some cases, the silhouette does not need the assistance of the background. The reason why the director uses the silhouette is to hide more details and deliberately create a sense of mystery.

For example, Hitchcock’s classic “Scary” and master Dreyer’s “Vampire” have such applications.

This technique is common in horror genre movies, and shadows have almost become synonymous with evil forces such as demons and murderers.

Shadows-the key profiling of the characters at the beginning

Using shadows to introduce characters is also a way that many directors like to use.

For example, when Kubrick called “Perfume”, the magical film “It’s impossible to be put on the screen in this century”, director Tom Tykway puts the actor in a shadow at the beginning, revealing only his magical nose. .

The use of shadows is quite clever to simplify or even omit unnecessary visual elements, focusing on highlighting what you want the audience to see, and only one shot immediately makes it clear that this is a movie about smell.

“Lust and Caution” takes another routine. Ang Lee wants to introduce the spy chief Mr. Yi to appear on the stage. The character is mysterious enough, and the profession he is engaged in is also a hidden work, so he arranged for him to walk a long dark corridor. Until the audience can’t stand his temper, I will show you who he is.

Doing so highlights the eagle-like eyes of Mr. Yi, showing the ferocity and mystery of this person.

The opening chapter of “007: Skyfall” is also the same routine in the same world.

James Bond walked in the form of a silhouette from the soft focus of the background, and his face was illuminated by a beam of light only close up, which also highlighted the eyes, but this time the director wanted to express the sharpness and dexterity of the characters. vigilance.

Let’s look at the beginning of “The Godfather”. Coppola’s design scared Paramount. The first shot was not aimed at the protagonist, but at a small person who is not very important.

The lens is slowly opened, and the old godfather’s stretched and majestic back is shown in the soft-focus shadow area. This effect is much more advanced than the direct frontal shooting of the old godfather.

Seeing this, you must have discovered that all characters who appear through the shadows have the same characteristic, that is, mystery.

Especially those supernatural creatures are most suitable to appear in the form of shadows, such as the Mushu dragon in “Mulan”, the beast in “Beauty and the Beast”, the mop elf in “Fantasia 2000″…

Their first appearances are to meet the audience in the form of shadows, which can also be regarded as a kind of classic Disney routine!

The gradual escalation of a generation of godfathers

Speaking of the first person to use shadows, Hollywood has a “Prince of Shadows”,

He is the famous photographer Gordon Willis.

Without his classic dedication in the “Godfather” series, I am afraid that today’s filmmakers would not be able to play so many tricks on the knowledge of shadows.

Take the protagonist Mike as an example. In the initial stage of the first part of “The Godfather”, Mike had just returned from service in the army and had never been involved in the gang business run by his father. At this time, most of his face is in the highlighted area, without shadows.

But as the relationship with the family business became closer, the shadow area on Mike’s face became larger and larger.

Although the “Godfather” series is contrary to the cold image of the gangster we usually think. But Gordon Willis still defines the gang as an outsider, so the closer the character is to the gang, the larger the shadow area of ​​the face presented in the film.

When Mike successfully executed the mission and killed the boss of the opposing family, it also meant that he completely assumed the mission of the Corleone family. At this moment, the shadow occupies three-quarters of his face, which is also his deepest involvement in the family business since the beginning of the article.

However, the beauty of Gordon Willis is that the facial shadows he designs for each of the main characters are different.

For example, the old godfather played by Marlon Brando uses ceiling lighting every time he makes his appearance.

This lighting method will leave a large thick shadow under the high brow bones that are unique to Westerners, making it impossible to see his eyes, resulting in an unfathomable feeling.

Even under the big sun outdoors, the old godfather’s face is still wrapped in shadow.

Another distinctive shadow character is Tom Hagen, the son of the old godfather.

He often shows people with half of his face shrouded in shadow and half of his face clearly visible. This method of expression has three meanings.

One is that Hagen is responsible for the business of the Corleone family to the public. The half-darkness represents his duality of black and white.

The second is that Heigen is an adopted son brought up by the old godfather. He is both his own and an outsider in the Corleone family. The half-darkness represents his embarrassing situation.

Third, Heigen waved in confidence in the Corleone family after losing the protection of the old godfather. The half-darkness represented his wavering heartfelt, which can be said to be very ingenious.

Another special case is the eldest son of the old godfather, Sonny, who was originally the first heir to the throne of the godfather, but was indirectly assassinated by the enemy because of his too hot temper.

When photographing this character, Gordon Willis deliberately did not put any shadow on his face, considering his direct character.

Sonny in the audience is shown with a bright face, which also reminds the audience that Sonny is definitely not the ultimate successor of the godfather.

The shadow, whether it is fifty shades of gray or fifty shades of black, did not expect that there is so much attention to it.

Under Gordon Willis’ pioneering research and experimentation on shadows, finally “Film Noir” no longer just stays in the subject of black, but has further achieved a unity of black at the level of light and shadow art.

Is there an absolute standard value for color temperature? The answer is no. However, according to the different needs of various industries, some color temperature values are defined as so-called standard values. For the field of photography, what is the standard value of color temperature?

   We will discuss this standard value later, let’s first explain the light itself:

   To know the standard value of color temperature, we must first understand the standard value of “light”. In most fields, we will regard “white light” as a standard light. Ancient and modern scholars, such as Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers, scientists, and educators who lived in 382-322 BC, Cheng Dachang in the Southern Song Dynasty in China, and the famous French scientist Descartes in the 17th century, all believe that : White light is pure and uniform, the essence of light, and color light is just a variant of white light.

   Recall the junior high school physics textbook, Newton’s prism dispersion experiment, which uses a prism to decompose white light into continuous colored light bands:

This experiment fully proves that white light is a composite light of multiple colors, and white light contains visible light of various colors. The continuous spectrum formed by visible light colors is also something we are familiar with. Think of the rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. This is the beautiful natural landscape formed by the dispersion of white natural light. Scientific experiments in various fields all use white light as the standard of light. Even in the audio field, the standard noise is called White Noise. The name of white noise comes from White Light, because white noise is like white light. The average includes all frequencies from 20Hz to 20KHz that the human ear can receive.

　　 Now, let’s think about the details of life: What color light can a piece of white paper reflect white under the illumination? Of course it is under white light. If it is under colored light, the white paper will be dyed by light. This has been shown in a similar example picture in the previous section.

　　 After a lot of data accumulation and analysis, we know that the color temperature of daylight is changing, and the average value of the ever-changing daylight color temperature is about 5500K. What is the color temperature of the light source emitting white light? It is exactly 5500K. Interested friends may wish to check the professional photography lamp bulb parameters online, without exception, marked as “5500K”, the color temperature of flashes of various brands is also 5500K, because only the lamp that emits this standard white light can let The color of the object being photographed has an accurate representation. This is the reason why I repeatedly mentioned the color temperature of 5500K in the last section. Of course, this is also the reason why the color temperature of daylight film is fixed at 5500K, but why the color temperature of daylight film is fixed at 5500K. We will expand on this in the follow-up article. Explanation.

　　 Therefore, in the field of photography, we regard the color temperature of the light source capable of emitting white light as the standard color temperature, which is 5500K. So, what is the relationship between color temperature and color? This must be something you really want to know now. Let’s take a look at the picture below:

Still in the same ideal environment as in the previous section, with a light gray background and bottom surface, a pure white light with a color temperature of 5500K illuminates the scene, there are red, green and blue spheres in the scene. The question I want to ask now is: Why do the red balls look red, the green balls look green, and the blue balls look blue?

Some friends will answer without hesitation: the red, green and blue balls are originally red, green and blue, but of course they are red, green and blue. More friends will raise the question to the philosophical level: because the red, green and blue balls are first red, green and green. The blue state exists, so we perceive it in red, green and blue colors.

Let’s analyze it from a scientific point of view: Let’s take the red ball as an example. The first thing to be clear is: you don’t really see the red ball, but the light reflected by the sphere into your eyes makes it in your eyes. Imaging, you finally saw this red ball, this is the second place in color temperature and color that does not match common sense. Although more awkward, you must strengthen your memory.

In extension, what we see is not the object itself, but the image of the light reflected by the object into our eyes, such as the table and chair at home. You don’t really see them, you just see the light reflected from them. We cannot see objects that do not reflect light.

What are objects that do not reflect light? Air, absolutely ideal and pure glass, etc., which are objects that we previously defined as “transparent” in our brains. The existence of these objects is absolute, but because they do not reflect light, we Can’t see them.

  Why does the red ball look red? Because it can only reflect the red part of the entire spectrum contained in the white light, while the other parts are completely absorbed and not reflected. In the same way, the green ball is green because it can only reflect the green part of the white light, and the blue ball is blue because it can only reflect the blue part of the white light.

  Next, we keep the various parameters in the scene unchanged, the positions of the red, green, and blue balls remain unchanged, except that the lighting is changed from the 5500K pure white light to 2000K warm white light, and then take a look at the result:

You will find that the light gray background is dyed orange-yellow by the 2000K light source. The red and green balls can basically maintain the red and green color attributes, but only the blue ball becomes black. Why?

Analyze according to the logic described above: the reason why the blue ball can appear blue under the illumination of white light means that the blue ball can only reflect the blue part of all the light colors contained in the white light, and the reason why it cannot present blue now means that The orange light of 2000K must lack blue light compared with the white light of 5500K. The blue ball can only reflect blue light, and the lighting in the scene lacks blue light. The blue ball can reflect without light, so the natural blue ball is currently black, that is, colorless.

The 2000K orange-yellow light still contains part of the red light and part of the green light, so the red and green balls can still roughly appear red and green. But you will find that the red and green balls of the red ball at this time are different from those under 5500K white light illumination:

The reason for the difference is that in the 2000K orange light, part of the light color contained in the white light is missing, and the red and green balls cannot fully reflect all the light that can be reflected. This phenomenon that objects cannot reflect all the light colors that they can reflect in an environment that is not illuminated by white light is what we often call color cast.

  Let’s go back to the beginning of this section and discuss the question raised by the white standard light: What color light can a piece of white paper reflect white under the illumination? According to common sense at that time, everyone can directly answer “under the illumination of white light”. Now, everyone can use theoretical knowledge to answer why white paper appears white under the illumination of white light: because white paper can reflect all the light colors in white light, that is, reflect white light, then what we see is naturally white.

  If you take this white paper under a yellow incandescent lamp, what color do you see that the white paper should be at this time? Of course it is yellow. According to the previous habit, we will explain it like this: the white paper is colored by the light of the incandescent lamp Colored yellow, but after studying in this section, we should come to this scientific conclusion: Although white paper can reflect all white light, the light color emitted by the incandescent lamp lacks other light colors except yellow light, so white The paper looks yellow under an incandescent lamp. The scientific method of explanation is more complicated, but you only need to understand this logical relationship. In normal times, you can still say: the white paper is dyed by the yellow light, so it appears yellow.

  Some friends may think: I can understand the theory and facts that white paper is white under white light and yellow under yellow light, but in real life, I take blue things under yellow light, and there is no I found that blue things turned black. For example, blue plastic slippers did not turn black under the incandescent lamp in the bathroom. Why?

  In fact, the answer is not complicated. First of all, my three-color ball experiment above is not an absolutely ideal environment. The scenes you see in life are not ideal. In this non-ideal environment, It is difficult for the object itself to accurately reflect a certain color, and the light will be reflected by various objects in the scene to form a diffuse reflection. Therefore, blue slippers can be seen more or less basic blue in an incandescent bathroom.

The Role of Photography Light in Film and Television Art

The role of light in film and television works

Cinematography is a photosensitive material for recording images, while TV photography uses the camera’s CCD to convert the light and shadow images of the object’s shape and color structure into electrical signals that can be converted into screen images. Both have the limit of accommodating the brightness range of the scene-latitude. Both must be under sufficiently bright lighting conditions to form an image.

  No matter what the situation, only the correct exposure in photography can correctly restore the shape, color, level and texture of the subject on the screen and meet the visual effect of the human eye. This is the most basic and fundamental requirement for the use of light in photography. .

  Of course, in order to achieve a special artistic effect, it is also possible to achieve the goal through technical variation-underexposure or overexposure. The second is the role of modeling. Whether it is a movie or TV, whether it is a feature film or a feature film, as long as it is filmed, there is a modeling problem. And light is an important means of photographer modeling.

  In film and television, the audience can only visually judge and imagine the shape, color and texture of the original object. The modeling task of photography, like other plastic arts, is to express the object’s shape, quality, color, movement, space and time.

  The difference from other art is that film and television modeling not only uses lines and colors, but uses light. The role of light in film and television modeling is unique to film and television. It also shows the space and time occupied by the movement of the object under certain lighting conditions. Especially time can only be expressed by light for vision.

The characteristics of film and television lighting

First of all, film and television lighting can simulate any outdoor light source and ambient light source effect. The outdoor atmosphere can be shot indoors, and the special effects of sunlight and reflective light sources can be combined arbitrarily outdoors. Most of the basic exterior scenes can be expressed indoors, making more thematic photography more effective and easier to complete. Secondly, the relatively broad, novel content themes and active pictures brought by the film and television lighting are conducive to increasing the order rate of the studio.

At the same time, film and television lighting allows actors to have a free space for play. The picture is more relaxed, changeable, and has a stronger plot. The light for film and television can arbitrarily adjust the brightness relationship between the main light source and the reflective light source. Widely expressing the artistic conception of various subjects allows actors and photographers to enter the role at the same time to increase the efficiency of the process.

Finally, the film and television lighting has expanded the shooting content and themes, and the advantages of multi-screen and multi-sex festival bring greater convenience to the early art design, which can let the art design enter the professional design track.

Lighting Techniques for Film and Television Shooting

Outdoor shooting skills

When shooting outdoors, sunlight is the main light in most cases. When shooting in bright sunlight, you must first pay attention to the adjustment of the aperture. Generally, the automatic iris method is not used, but manual iris control is used. The specific method is to push the lens zoom to the face, use the automatic aperture to meter the light, and then switch to the manual aperture. In addition, be careful not to choose a bright background, it is easy to darken the face of the subject as the subject or the light ratio exceeds the range of 30:1.

Light techniques for shooting on sunny days. When shooting outdoors on a sunny day, the light mainly includes direct light and scattered light. Direct light refers to sunlight, and scattered light refers to sky light. In this case, sunlight is often used as the main light, and sky light is used as the auxiliary light. When the sun is the main light, it is generally in the front light and side light. When the sunlight is in the backlight position, the contour of the subject is very clear, giving the scene a strong sense of depth. At this time, if you shoot the water surface, there will be strong reflections, making the picture very vivid. In the backlit situation, you can shoot the dynamic beam effect by shooting trees.

The technique of using light when shooting on a cloudy day. When it is cloudy, the shooting environment is full of scattered light, the ground scene has a large contrast between light and darkness, the tone is dark, the light color temperature is high, and the scene tone is blue. At this time, the lighting should make full use of the dark background, because the dark background can improve the brightness of the details of the person, and better show the detail level of the subject.

Indoor shooting skills

In film and television production, shooting in the indoor environment accounts for a larger proportion. Since the indoor illuminance is acceptable, normal shooting can be done directly without supplementary light. Of course, as far as possible, choose the brightest light in the whole day. At this time, the indoor reflected light is also the strongest. You can use the reflector to reflect the outdoor light to Indoors, supplement the indoor light and make the natural light in the room stronger. At the same time, pay attention to the direction of natural light, illuminance, and color temperature when shooting. The camera lens tries to avoid the strong light window, and uses the window light to form the smooth light and side light in the light modeling.

When performing normal indoor artificial light source lighting, if the conditions are not available, an artificial light source can be used to selectively illuminate the room, using the scattered light of the artificial strong light source from indoor wall objects to increase the illuminance effect. If conditions permit, the three-point lighting method of main light, auxiliary light and background light can be used respectively.

Generally, the main light is to directly illuminate the object at 30 or 45 degrees behind the camera, so that the object has an illuminating effect and a shadow. The main light must be selected with the shadow effect, and the shadow map or other options must be selected. The light intensity should be slightly higher. The higher the intensity, the more obvious the shadow. The auxiliary light is generally a 90-degree side light, and the shadow area is filled with a soft light source that is more uniform and non-direct. At the same time, the depth and level of field are formed. The brightness is generally 50% to 80% of the main light.

The background light can be used side backlight, mainly to highlight the main object, but also to distinguish the subject from the background. Therefore, when lighting, the position and intensity of the main light should be determined first, then the auxiliary light should be determined, and finally the background light and decorative light should be allocated, so that the primary and secondary lights are distinct and complement each other.

In short, the method of using natural light to use light has become the mainstream of current use of light in film and television art. Television is an art that uses the role and means of light to shape images. Light is the soul of film and television and the “source” of visual art. Understanding, familiarizing and recognizing light and making good use of light are of great significance to the improvement of audiovisual art. In recent years, digital video camera technology has developed rapidly. If you want to shoot high-quality TV images, it is not only necessary to master the knowledge of photography. It is particularly important to understand the lighting technology carefully and master the lighting skills of TV shooting.

With the development of the film and television industry, the film and television lighting technology is constantly integrated and innovated. In the film and television creation, lighting art not only plays an irreplaceable key role in visual presentation, but also provides many aspects of supplement and help for the emotional expression and ideological sublimation of film and television works.

Good lighting art design can not only make the film and television picture more appropriate and real, but also create an appropriate atmosphere for the character’s internal quality and plot depiction. In this regard, this paper studies the visual analysis of lighting art in film and television creation. Firstly, it discusses the main contents of lighting visual effect in light, shadow and color in film and television creation, and then analyzes the lighting techniques in the process of film and television creation.

Lighting construction in film and television creation

In the creation of film and television, film and television lighting is initially just to illuminate the subject, but with the professional development of film and television lighting equipment and the improvement of public art taste, how to make use of the characteristics of light, the law of change and structural characteristics, through specific means and ways of visual presentation has become the main content of the development of lighting art.

Generally speaking, in the creation of film and television, the main function of lighting construction is to use lighting for modeling design, use lighting effect to create environmental atmosphere, and use light shadow and color visual effect to express light meaning. At the same time, lighting construction can also bring different visual effects to the narrative expression of film and television creation. Artificial light is a commonly used light source in film and television creation.

Through the selection and shooting of light and shadow angles such as smooth light, backlight, side light, top light and foot light, we can fully integrate different light effects such as main light, auxiliary light, ambient light, background light and decorative light, as well as the use of different light colors, so as to not only highlight the character’s shape, but also express the character’s emotion through light, shadow and color.

Lighting Techniques in Film and Television Creation

The lighting art design of the studio

Studio film and television production is an extension of traditional film and television theories and experience. Different styles of studio layouts will bring about different substitutions and content settings. Therefore, the lighting must first be set according to the basic content and style of the screen. . Specifically, in the selection of light effects in the studio, the light source should be selected from the content of the film and television drama, focusing on the detailed capture and substitution of the psychological activities of the characters in the film and television works and the characteristics of the surrounding environment. . In the filming process of film and television works, the light effect in the studio should be unified with the real light effect. Therefore, attention should be paid to the connection with the real light in the lighting in the studio. The light effect direction is connected to avoid the piercing caused by the uneven light effect or lack of change.

Lighting art design of night scene light

First of all, we must give vitality to the night scene lighting design. We plan the night scene from emotion, style, depth, etc., and use people’s intuitive vision as the carrier to elicit the resonance of people’s comfort and happiness in the city and architecture controlled by light. In the environment of objects, landscapes, roads, and business spaces, experience a scene where light follows the shadow and the shadow follows the emotion.

Then we refined the highlights of the night scene lighting from the elements of the lighting objects, sorted out the lighting highlights, and summarized the lighting system, space landscape, historical elements, and green corridors, and used lighting techniques and light technology to highlight the background and details of the lighting objects. Features, forming a unique conceptual design of night scene lighting.

The steps of night lighting concept design:

Understand the function of the lighting carrier, study similar achievements, structure the light scheme, and establish the lighting concept,

Meet with the design engineer of the lighting carrier to conceive the overall night scene lighting design,

The regional positioning of lighting space and environmental functions, determine the night scene lighting method, lighting control architecture, and the use of lighting means,

Determine the installation method of light source lamps, clarify the strength and illuminance of the light source, draw electrical construction drawings,

The construction organization plan of the night scene lighting project is finalized and adjusted.

Generally speaking, the night scene lighting concept design is not only a brainstorming lighting design, but also the result of the lighting team’s cooperation.

The role of photography light in film and television art

There is no photography without light. The art of photography is, in the final analysis, the art of light. Light is the material basis of film and television photography, and it is also the material basis of film and television production and development. Without the role of light, there can be no film and television art. In film and television creation, light can not only complete the main body shape, such as outline the outline, show the details of the object, form a three-dimensional feeling, etc., but also express the texture of the object. Therefore, light is also essential for the art of film and television creation. The prerequisites for expressing the external characteristics and internal meaning of an object.

As a film and television work of audition art, the picture is its basic element. If there is no light, there is no shadow, if there is no shadow, there is no shape, and if there is no shape, there is no audiovisual art. The use and construction of light is crucial. Therefore, in the creation process of film and television works, creators always put the use and processing of light in the most important position. The purpose is to give full play to the nature of light and achieve the creator by constructing a specific shape of the film and television screen. There is a certain strong demand in our hearts for the artistic expression of film and television works.

In film and television art, there are many ways to use light. In essence, the use of light is mainly to achieve the three major functions in the photography process. The first is to improve the camera’s ability to recognize the subject, and the second is to perform accurately. Color restoration, and finally the necessary artistic treatment.

The artistic expression of light

First of all, light can render a scene with the same atmosphere. Different atmospheres can be formed under different lighting, and this specific atmosphere can affect people’s psychological mood. At different times of day, night, and dusk, there are different light properties and different atmospheres. Different light atmospheres can give people different psychological feelings and even affect people’s emotions. The sunlight during the day makes people feel cheerful, the dark clouds rolling in the sky make people feel uneasy, the dark night makes people scary, and the bright moon makes people feel refreshed… These are the psychological basis for using light to render the atmosphere and highlight the emotions of the characters. .

Secondly, light can shape characters. The character image is the main body of the film and television narrative. The film character image is different from the literary character image. It is the visual image of the activity. In addition to the actor’s performance kimono, transformation, and Tao modeling, the photographic light plays a key role in the shaping of the character image.

The role of light in film and television works

The most primitive role of light in film and television photography is exposure. Without light, images cannot be captured. With light, there are still technical problems in exposure.

(To Be Continued)

Importance of the direction of Light Projection

Photography is the control of light. We must learn to judge the direction of light in order to process light effectively. In the future, we will elaborate on the use of light in photography through several articles. Today we will first understand the direction of light.

The reason why we can see bright objects is because the objects form various reflections under the sunlight. Depending on where the sun is irradiated, constantly changing light and shadow will occur on the object. Therefore, we can regard a subject as the center of a three-dimensional spherical sphere, and the light in photography can shine on the subject from any direction around the center of the sphere.

For the convenience of presentation, we roughly divide the direction of light into forward light, side forward light, backlight, side backlight, top light, and bottom light. The classification standard is to change the incident direction of the light source to distinguish between the subject and the camera while keeping the relative angle unchanged. Of course, the incident direction of the light source mentioned here is not limited to the light source and the subject being in the same plane. Changing the high and low angles of the light source will also have different light and shadow changes. Next, let’s see what are the different effects of light from different directions.

Forward Light Photos

   Forward light means that the illuminating direction of the light source is in the same straight line as the camera and the subject.

   By observing the light and shadow changes of a photo, you can see the direction of the light in the composition. In the light photo, a darker shaded area is formed on the back of the character. The forehead and nose of the character form a bright area. The shadow on the lower part of the chin is very close to the chin. We can say that the lighting of this photo is with the camera. The incident angle is in the same direction.

In photos taken with forward light, the advantage is that the face of the person is shot very clearly, the light is evenly received, and it can cover many face defects of the person. The disadvantage is that it lacks a sense of three-dimensionality. People photographed with front lighting will make the faces of the people you photograph very flat and lack the relationship between light and shadow. If the person is dealing with an outdoor environment, shooting with light will also make the person’s eyes unable to open, and finally make the eyes in the photo uncoordinated.

Side Light Photo

Our standard for defining the side light does not necessarily have to be constant at a 45-degree angle formed by the camera, but at this angle, the shot will be more three-dimensional. Therefore, we often use 45-degree sidelights when shooting indoors or outdoors.

From the angle of the subject and the angle of light and shadow, we can roughly think that this is a side-lighted photo, the light-receiving part has uniform brightness, and the unlighted part forms an obvious dark area, like the tip of the nose. When light is received, a dark area is also formed. So such photos are full of three-dimensionality, which is also the most commonly used lighting method in portrait photography.

The side light shooting makes the photos have rich tones and levels, and at the same time increases the three-dimensional sense of the photos, but it becomes difficult to control the light when shooting. We need to find the appropriate light metering points during the side light to ensure the photos. The highlights and shadows in the middle have layers. It is recommended to find the secondary bright area of the picture for side lighting during shooting. If the light ratio is too large, we can appropriately increase the fill light in the dark area to avoid the loss of dark areas.

Backlit photos

Backlit photos refer to the direction of light irradiating and the camera shooting direction is exactly opposite.

Backlit photos often give you a warm and fresh feeling, mainly due to the obvious warm colors in the picture. When shooting against the light, the characters will have obvious contour light, which can effectively separate the characters and the environment.

Backlighting photos can form a clear contrast between light and dark. When shooting people from the front, the light is shining in from behind, it is easy to take the people into big black faces. Therefore, when we are in the side light, we should choose the sub-dark area in the picture for metering, try to ensure that the highlights are not exposed, and ensure that the dark parts of the characters have a certain level. Of course, when necessary, we can use the high-speed synchronization of the flash to fill the light or use the bracket exposure method to shoot.

Side backlight photo

Side-backlit photos refer to the angle of 135 degrees between the illumination direction of the light source and the illumination direction of the camera.

In fact, there is not much difference between side-backlit photos and back-lit photos. When we take back-lit photos, we will always be out of focus because the contrast between light and dark is too large. However, side backlight photos can effectively avoid this problem. The side backlight illuminates the partial contours of the back of the person including the face to form a partial contour light, so that the facial area of the person will receive a certain amount of light, which is convenient for the operation of focusing.

Side backlight photos have a strong sense of space. When shooting, we often find a shooting angle with side backlight. The purpose is to use the side backlight as a modifier light to give a contour light to the person’s back and side position to make the background and the character Make effective separations.

Side light photo

A side-light photo means that the illuminating direction of the light source and the direction of the camera form a right angle of 90 degrees.

When shooting portraits, we use the side-lighting method to shoot people’s faces that are bright on one side and dark on the other, which is what we often call yin and yang faces. The subject has an obvious light-receiving surface and a backlit surface, which makes the photo have a clear three-dimensional effect and texture.

We often use side-lighting to shoot men’s portraits to highlight the silhouette of men and show a masculine atmosphere. It is recommended that you use less side light when shooting women’s portraits. Women are more suitable for shooting with positive light, which is more gentle.

Top light and bottom light photos

Top light photos refer to the light source shining into the subject from the top, bottom light refers to the light source shining into the subject from the bottom.

This picture is a top-light photo taken at noon, we can see the obvious shadow under the woman’s neck. Since the sunlight is just above the head of the subject, the shadow formed is naturally the projection of the person’s face. Top-light photos are a place that must be paid attention to in shooting. We often say that photography is the control of light. When shooting people, under normal circumstances, no obvious shadows can be formed on the faces of people. In such a photo, the light transition is uneven. When shooting, we can place a soft light cloth on top of the person’s head. Minimize the shadow of the top light.

The bottom light makes the character’s chin and the lower part of the nose form a bright area, and the recessed position of the character’s eyes form a dark area. This kind of lighting is often called “ghost light” in photography. If we don’t express such a theme deliberately, we should try to avoid the formation of light and shadow.

During shooting, if your assistant camera takes a lower reflector, this is a wrong way to fill light. So be sure to raise the reflector.

When we take photos, we often use side light, back light, and side backlight shooting. Of course, the different angles of the light source can also form different light and shadow. Learning to recognize the direction of light helps to accurately control the size and intensity of shadows during shooting.

Photography Method

13. Underwater photography

One of the methods of film and television special effects photography (elephant) is to photograph (elephant) in the water. The photographer (elephant) carries a camera (elephant) with a protective cover and diving equipment, and dives into the water to shoot directly. Underwater photography (image) can truly reflect underwater scenes, such as the life of aquatic animals and plants, geological data of the seabed and riverbed, archaeological discoveries, etc. Underwater photography (elephant) is widely used in scientific research, military technology, sports, teaching, etc.

14. Water tank photography

Most of the underwater shots in the film and television textbooks were taken in the studio using the water tank photography (image) method. The water tank used for filming movies and TV is like a huge rectangular fish farming tank. In the water tank, various rocks and sand are arranged as the scenery of the seabed. A background board is placed behind the water tank, and various water plants or other backgrounds are painted. When shooting, place the camera (imaging) on ​​the front of the water tank. Just pay attention to the fact that there is no reflection on the glass and there is no border of the water tank in the picture. The picture taken will be as real as shooting in the water.

15. Composite Photography

One of the film special effects photography. With the help of one exposure or multiple exposures, models, photos, and pictures are used to replace part or all of the real scene or the scenery, so as to achieve the effect of replacing the big with the small and the fake; or using complex methods such as optics, chemistry, machinery, and electricity, The scenes captured by the location are combined in the same frame to create some scenes that cannot be actually shot. This kind of photography is safe and economical. Commonly used synthetic photography includes: scene photography, background projection synthetic photography, active matte photography, optical technique printing, etc.

16.Portrait photography

It is a (modeling) photography that uses the appearance of a film and television character to express the character’s temperament. The shooting angle is directly related to the perfection of portraits: a higher angle can make a thin person a little more plump; a lower angle can make a fat person a little more beautiful; the two cheeks should be shot sideways; double cheeks If the nose is too high, it is better to take a straight shot; if the nose is too high, it is not suitable to shoot sideways; if the facial structure is flat, it is not suitable to take a front shot. To make portraits fully reflect the character of the characters, we must also pay attention to the close-up, close-up, mid-range, and panoramic shots of the characters and the scene scheduling in the film and television, as well as the plot of the entire film and television teaching materials to organically combine the atmosphere, tone, and space status. , The landscape environment is combined with the shots of the characters.

17. Wrong focus photography

A type of film and television special effects photography (elephant). That is, a polygon mirror is placed in front of the camera lens for shooting. Due to the effect of the polygon mirror, multiple images overlap in the captured screen. Mis-focus photography (elephant) is often used to express the vision of a drunk or unconscious person. The wrong focus camera is also often used in TV commercials.

18. Infrared photography

One of the special techniques of film photography is to use infrared as the light source, and the photosensitive film used is sensitized by cyanine dyes that absorb infrared wavelengths. The infrared spectrum used in photography is in the range of 700 to 1300 nanometers. When shooting, add a dark red to black color filter in front of the lens to filter out ultraviolet and visible light in sunlight, or use an infrared light source to illuminate the subject. The photosensitive film is exposed to only infrared light and a small amount of red light, and then undergoes general development processing. And get the positive film. Since infrared rays can penetrate smoke, dust and mist, they can get a clear image of scenes in long-distance and high-altitude photography. TVs are mostly used to imitate night scenes in daylight.

19. Polyprism photography.

A method of photography using a prism made of the principle that light is refracted through a prism. Each plane of the polygon mirror can refract an image from the subject. How many images are needed depends on how many planes there are on the polygon mirror. Generally there are 3 to 8 planes. The polygonal lens is set in a rotatable frame to adjust several images in the best position. When in use, the polygon mirror needs to be installed in front of the main lens. The polygon mirror is suitable for shooting a single object, so that the picture has a magical special effect.

20. Perspective composite photography

This kind of photography is done on a special lens synthesis device. The working principle is to transform the rays of the animation camera and the film frame-by-frame projector. The sacred sac of the rose is lying dumb, the woman is glaring at her daughter-in-law, and the woman is staring at her daughter-in-law. Huang Bao? You? He swept away the miracle dome Pang Chen? Pang Che neo rice ang? Heyun slowly milled the tips?

21. Event matte photography

An important means of special effects photography, a kind of background synthesis photography. Usually, the actors’ performance is captured in front of a curtain illuminated by monochromatic light (infrared light, ultraviolet light, sodium light or blue light), and then the exposed black silhouette is taken with the help of a black silhouette that is exactly the same as the actor’s performance. Cover the part for protection, and then take any required background scenes to make it a complete picture. This technique is often used to express certain thrilling scenes or unrealistic fantasy scenes in movies because the actors’ performances and the things that happen in the background are shot separately and then combined together.

Also known as “stop and shoot again.” That is, the photographing method of taking an object that has been photographed, and then taking another object in the original position. When the film and television textbooks filmed in this way are shown, the original item will suddenly become another item. Mélière used this stunt photography method for the first time in the film “Cinderella” filmed in 1899 based on the mythological drama.

23. Special photography

Not exactly the same as the concept of special effects photography, special effects photography mainly refers to the methods and techniques of photography. Special photography depends more on shooting equipment, such as photomicrography, X-ray photography, etc., which are all special photography.

24. Animation Photography

The main feature of the photography method used when shooting animated films is to shoot frame by frame. That is to say, an animation artist needs to draw pictures into pictures, and the movements of the scenery and characters in the pictures are coherent with each other. Then take these pictures one by one (frame by frame). During the screening, these interconnected faces produce the effect of cartoons.

Picture tone

The so-called color tone refers to the mutual arrangement and interconnection of different colors in the screen of the film and television teaching materials. The factors that determine the hue of the picture are the color characteristics of the subject, the lighting conditions during shooting, various filters and optical accessories used on the camera to correct the hue of the scene. For movies, the performance of photosensitive materials and the technical control in the process of processing are also factors that affect the color of the picture.

1. Bright tones

One of the types of film and television tones. In the area of ​​the screen, the white and gray parts account for a large proportion, and the black is less. This tone emphasizes a clear and lively atmosphere. However, it is not easy for Zhenji to shoot a clear picture, which requires the cooperation of the director, beauty, lighting, props and other departments. There should also be a small amount of black or gray in the bright picture to create a sharp contrast, make it more lively and bright, and create a certain mood and mood.

2. Plain tones

One of the types of film and television painting. In the area of ​​the picture, the black and white part is less, and the gray area occupies a large part. Because it gives a sense of flatness and cleanliness, it is called “flat adjustment”. It is not advisable to use lighting for rendering when shooting this kind of tone. It distributes the light neatly with an objective attitude, without large shadows, and without deep shadows, so that the audience can concentrate on watching the performances of the actors and the colorful costumes and backgrounds.

3. Dark tone
Also known as “low-key”, it is one of the types of film and television tones. The dark tone is in the area of ​​the screen, and the black part occupies a large area, and only accounts for about 25%. The white bright part is often used to highlight the main body, play a role of emphasis, and sometimes also play a role of contrast. The dark tone gives people a heavy, deep, and sad mood, and can also create a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere.