Central method

The central method is to place the subject to be expressed and prominent on the most eye-catching and prominent center of the picture. The central method has the following composition methods:

​1. Foreground method: Put the subject to be expressed at the forefront of the picture, so that people will have a sense of “the ancestor is the main” and “open the door”, so as to leave a deep impression on the viewer and achieve the purpose of highlighting the subject.

2. Tonal method: express the subject with tone structure and color relationship, and use the contrast between warm and cold tones or harmonious relationship to set off the subject.

3. Light method: Use the illuminance of the light to highlight the main body. As the light shines on the main body part. The main body receives more light and appears bright and eye-catching, while other parts are in a dark environment. The contrast between light and darkness on the screen, and the support of darkness to light, enable the Lord to “brighten”.

4. Geometry: Use geometric figures in the picture to highlight the subject. There are various shapes in nature. When shooting, deliberately arranging the subject in a specific geometric figure can achieve the purpose of attracting the viewer’s attention to highlight the subject. For example, the intersection of lines in the picture is the most visually appealing. If you shoot the subject at the intersection, you can highlight the subject.

5. Perspective method; use a strong perspective structure relationship to highlight the main body. Strong perspective lines can most stimulate the viewer’s visual organs. Because the perspective lines have strong dynamic characteristics, they show a strong spatial structure near large and small, forming a greater visual impact. If the subject is placed on the meeting point of the line of vision, it will form a rest in the picture. Thus, the subject will be highly valued visually by the viewer.

6. Focus method: Use the relationship between focus point and depth of field to highlight the subject. In people’s visual habits, they pay more attention and affirmation to clear objects, like to repel and avoid the phenomenon of virtual movement, and use clear focus to express the subject. Use the depth of field to blur the background and companions to form The contrast between the real and the virtual, the clear subject is valued and approved by the viewers in the background of the blurry and blurred.​

Contrast method

The contrast method is to compare or juxtapose things of different forms and contents in the picture to emphasize their respective characteristics and make them more expressive.

The most commonly used methods of contrast in photographic expressions are movement and stillness, virtuality and reality. But in the artistic world of photography, the factors of contrast in nature abound, everywhere. For example: size, rigidity and softness, light and shade, shape, denseness, mood, tone, content, how many and so on. All in all. The method of contrast is the most popular and popular artistic expression technique. It is necessary to make full use of the method of contrast in photography to make the picture more attractive.

Horizontal line composition method.

When it comes to horizontal composition, I believe everyone is familiar with it. The so-called horizontal composition in photography is the horizontal composition. Some friends have to ask: “What is the difficulty of horizontal composition? It is better to straighten the horizontal lines of the picture. Already?” In fact, it’s really good. The premise of horizontal line composition is to flatten the horizontal lines in the scenery in the picture. But do you know other knowledge about horizontal line composition?

First of all, horizontal lines symbolize the tranquility and tranquility of nature, and horizontal lines can often be used to compose pictures in landscape photography. It is worth noting that when using the horizontal line composition method, generally do not let the horizontal line pass through the center of the picture, but can pass through one third of the picture, so that the composition will make the picture more harmonious.

Second, choose the right scene and choose the horizontal line. Our horizontal line can be the horizontal plane, the horizon, such as the junction of sea and sky, as long as it is a flat line, it can be used as an auxiliary tool for our composition, and there is not necessarily only one, but it should not be too many, but it should be noted that the proportions The arrangement needs to be carefully designed by the photographer. The choice of the horizontal line position in many ratios such as 1:1, 1:2:1, 3:2, etc., directly affects the harmony of the picture, and the proper proportion can reflect the picture. Sense of arrangement.

Finally, and most importantly, we must pay attention to the primary and secondary relationship between the foreground, background, subject, and companion in the horizontal composition, and the harmony on the screen to achieve a sense of harmony in space can be considered a good use of horizontal composition.

Vertical line composition

The vertical line composition form is composed of vertical lines, which can express the subject’s scene to be majestic, tall and full of momentum. The vertical composition symbolizes strength, dignity, and power.

The composition can also give people a sense of stability and balance, and can fully show the height and depth of the scene. It is often used to express the towering trees, steep mountains and rocks, cascading waterfalls, skyscrapers, and other pictures composed of vertical lines in the forest. The vertical line composition arranges the subject in a vertical position. For vertical line composition, not only can a single vertical line object be represented, when multiple vertical line objects appear at the same time, the overall strength and sense of form of the picture can be more specific.

The abrupt tree trunks stand upright and occupy two-thirds of the area of the picture, seemingly quiet and stable. Compared with the lush and leafy trees on the left, the feeling of desolation becomes more evident under the black and white colorless tones.

The walking passers-by, the railings on the roadside, and the slender lampposts are all displayed vertically. With the vertical shooting, the atmosphere of the whole picture becomes more serious and serious. Although it is warm orange, it looks very unreal. People are afraid of it. Perhaps it is the huge impact of sandstorms on people’s lives. Humans have to think about and treat it seriously.

Diagonal composition

Diagonal composition is also a technique often used in photography. The use of diagonal composition can reflect a strong sense of movement, and at the same time, it can make the image symmetrical.

How to compose a picture diagonally?

Generally speaking, diagonal composition can be divided into two types: full diagonal composition and near diagonal composition. Complete diagonal composition is relatively simple. It is enough to point the diagonal line in the picture to a corner of the picture. Regardless of whether the line is straight or curved, this kind of composition is called diagonal composition.

What does the near diagonal composition mean?

There are also two situations. The first is that when shooting a diagonal composition, try to straighten the picture a little bit, so that the two sides of the diagonal line do not touch the corners of the picture. In most cases, the picture will look more because it is not so deliberate. Comfortable. Although there are such diagonal lines in the picture, they are not completely diagonal.

Another situation is that the diagonal is not complete. For example, when shooting a landscape, one side of the mountain presses the top corner, and the other side only reaches the middle of the frame. The remaining position may be another mountain, a lake, or the sky. Or as in the picture below, the basketball hoop only reaches half of the frame, and the other half is the sky. This composition is also called a diagonal composition.

What can the diagonal composition be used for?

The first type is single-line things, such as the outlines of buildings, shadows, branches, railings, roads, mountains, and so on. The composition of this shot is easy to imagine;

The second is a dynamic picture. People often think that the horizontal picture is stable, but sometimes we need to make the photo look more dynamic. Some photographers will deliberately tilt the picture (obviously), so that the picture will look extra dynamic.

The third type is characters. No matter what lens equipment you use to shoot, if you sit on the ground and stretch your hands and feet and press the person on the diagonal of the screen when shooting, you can look more slender.

Curve composition

The curve reflects a soft and elegant beauty. In daily life, this technique is often used to show the beauty of the stream and the moving lines of women. People are more likely to be attracted by such lines and resonate.

In photographic composition, curve is a common way of composition. Compared with straight lines, curved lines can express a soft feeling, making the picture more fluid.

The curve is the most beautiful form of the line. The curve composition commonly used in landscape photography renders elegant and vibrant scenes. It not only allows the viewer’s sight to follow it to highlight the subject, but the beautifully curved form can also bring the picture agile Feel, make the picture more vivid and beautiful.

The curve is unique in that it contains a continuous change in direction, which seems to avoid any direct contrast between the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the frame.

However, many curves are aligned in a certain direction. On the other hand, a curve can be regarded as a series of continuously changing straight lines. In this way, the curve and the straight line will influence each other in the picture.

The gradual characteristic of the curve makes it have a sense of rhythm that a straight line lacks, and the feeling of moving along the curve, even acceleration, is more intense. Other feelings associated with curves are gentle, fluid, graceful and elegant. The curve has a natural appeal to most people, especially when the curve fluctuates.

Curves have a special character: they are smooth and gentle, and they can also guide the eyes. Therefore, they are an effective means of controlling how the audience views the photos. However, the curves are more difficult to introduce into the photos than the diagonal lines. Generally, oblique lines are straight lines in a certain direction that are changed by the viewpoint, but the curve must be real.

They can be viewed exaggeratedly at sharper angles, but the only optical means that photographers can use to actually generate curves is to use fisheye lenses, but this will not choose to transform all straight lines into curves, and sometimes they can pass through points. The arrangement produces a curve.

The curve composition is most suitable for expressing its own curvaceous scenery. In photography, you can choose the winding river, the winding path in the courtyard, the intestinal path between the mountains, the winding street lights, and so on.

The curve composition can make the scenes or lines on the screen be in a curve state. The curve has the characteristics of extension and change, which can well show the gradual rhythm and unrestrained situation in the movement of the subject, making people look rhythmic. Produce a beautiful and harmonious feeling. Therefore, the curve composition is particularly suitable for shooting artistic gymnastics and other projects with great artistic beauty.

Portrait photography-front side lighting

There are many techniques for taking pictures, especially when it comes to using light. Portrait photography must learn to choose the right lighting effect. Here I will introduce the advantages and disadvantages of the front side lighting based on my own experience.

First talk about what is the front side light. Front side light refers to the illuminating light projected from the rear side of the camera (left or right) and the optical axis of the lens at an angle of 30°～60°.

So what are the advantages of front side lighting? First of all, the front side lighting will form a wider light-receiving and narrow backlight surface on the subject. Because of the presence of shadows, this lighting effect can show the subject’s light and dark distribution and three-dimensional shape.

Secondly, the front side light performs better for the three-dimensional shape of the subject than the down light, and the tone will be clearer. Make the scene rich in tones, highlight the depth, and produce a three-dimensional fruit. Especially the texture of the surface structure can be displayed finely.

So what issues should be paid attention to when shooting with the front side light? First of all, it is best to choose the time before 9:00 or after 15:00 to sunset in the front side light application. The side of the subject is 1/4 or 1/3 facing the sun, so that most of the face is illuminated by the light. In this way, the light can perfectly draw the outline of the main body of the face, and produce a small amount of shadow contrast effect, outline the three-dimensional structure of the face, and can also express a moderate skin texture.

In addition, you should know that if you want to reduce the contrast of light and shadow outdoors, you can use a reflector. The reflector can choose a golden reflector or a white reflector according to the environment. If the reflector is not enough to fill in the light, you can use the flash.

Technical Skills

Atmosphere construction under the concept of dramatic light effect

Stars and stories are important elements of Hollywood commercial films.

The lighting concept of classic Hollywood films emphasizes the dramatic atmosphere rendering from the plot emotion. In the book “painting with light”, a lot of space is involved in the lighting methods and techniques of fire, candle, light, moonlight, rain, fog and other special atmosphere lighting effects, which shows the accumulation of Hollywood films in this aspect.

Alton, with a little infatuation, lists various scenes that can produce mysterious light effects: shipwrecked people in lifeboats, in the dark, the faint reflection of the rolling waves and the distant lighthouse with flashing lights, flickering neon lights; lights flashing through the dark wet streets, searchlights in prisons or concentration camps, lighted refrigerator doors in dark kitchens open and close…

Although these are the common shooting methods of black films, they also mark that the consciousness and skills of creating atmosphere with light in classic Hollywood photography have reached a certain level.

Limit

Self contradiction in the pursuit of image reality

Hollywood films, on the one hand, emphasize the fidelity and credibility of the image details, so that the audience can enter the play without being disturbed, but on the other hand, they hope the film has a strong emotional and welcoming visual beauty.

This undoubtedly leads to the contradiction between the concept and method of using light in Hollywood films. “Realistic” is a word constantly appearing in the book “painting with light”. Alton constantly emphasizes that the lighting effect of the studio must always simulate the effect of natural light in texture and direction.

However, due to the limitations of the technical conditions and the level of knowledge at that time, Alton’s book about realism is also full of contradictions.

On the one hand, he believes that since the Second World War, the audience has been tired of yesterday’s chocolate coated photography, and more used to those “no” photos black and white photography with light intensifier, no reflector, no butterfly cloth and no soft light cover. “

On the other hand, he spent a lot of time teaching how to beautify the stars in close-up shots with soft lenses, but his figure lighting system with eight lights obviously can’t find a realistic light source in the shooting scene.

This contradiction coincides with the image appearance of classic Hollywood, which is boasting to attract audiences, in addition, the emphasis on dramatic and decorative light often exceeds the requirements of reality and emotional atmosphere.

It was not until the 1970s that European photographers used a large area of soft light source to depict characters became the mainstream. Modern film photography finally found a new balance between aesthetic feeling and real texture, and the soft light mirror in front of the lens gradually faded out.

Light distribution and over lighting without light source basis

From the current perspective, the lighting method of Hollywood is too cumbersome and rigid.

Taking the stills and light bitmap of the fire scene provided in “painting with light” as an example, five lights are used for lighting, including two arc lights with low angle on the left and right sides of the fireplace, two main lights of two characters, one left and one right, and one astigmatic light in front of the camera.

To make a comparison with the current lighting method, first of all, the lighting of similar scenes in movies usually doesn’t use so many lights. The photographer may design to draw a window on the left, and put a headlight outside the window to simulate the moonlight.

In the room, tungsten filament lamp and soft light piece are used as auxiliary light to control the light ratio. The figure’s back will play a contour light to simulate the fire light, but it won’t be like that shown by Alton Alton’s lighting method ensures that the main light and the auxiliary light of the two characters are all available.

Alton pays too much attention to the character’s modeling, but less attention to the environmental rationality of artificial light (i.e. the basis of light source). From the situation reflected by the stills themselves, because the lighting is mainly composed of people, the face is very bright, but the fire light can not show. The illumination of the people is too high, which is not compatible with the overall indoor environment.

In current photography, the light may be controlled at low illumination, or even choose the fire light of the fireplace as the main light, and use smaller lights to decorate it properly.

In short, try to pursue the real nature Instead of beating the characters so brightly.

Conservative tendency in the use of motion lens

Compared with modern movies, classic Hollywood movies have much less motion scenes.

One of the important reasons was that the lighting method was complicated and the effect was “accurate” – the large lamps and baffles strictly delineated the actor’s performance area, which restricted the free movement of characters and cameras.

The concept of motion lens in “painting with light” was probably universal at that time. Alton thought that there was no reason for camera movement to affect the viewing effect of the audience, and using motion lens “was like putting a fan” into the audience`s eyes.

Too much camera movement is as bad as no movement when ketchup is applied to bad food. ”

From the information presented in the same period, we can conclude that the flexible and free camera movement was not highly praised by most photographers in classic Hollywood.

Color problem

Color and light are inseparable. “Painting with light” was published in 1949, 12 years after the first color film “flashy world” came out. As a professional book of photography and lighting, there seems to be a lack of color issues here.

This may explain the lack of color research and exploration in Hollywood films at that time. Although the Academy of Film Awards (Oscars), which are used to being extremely sensitive to commercial atmosphere, just appeared in color films, took the opportunity to divide the best photography awards into two categories: color and black-and-white photography, the winners in those years were almost covered by epic films, costume films and dance films (of course, this was the main type of color films at that time), the special art color company, which monopolizes color film technology, strictly controls the technical standards of color film to ensure the correct color reproduction of the film. At that time, any technical exploration that hinders color reproduction was prohibited.

For example, when the photographer Oswald mirros used smoke and filters to lighten the color of John Huston’s Moulin Rouge (1953), he was unexpectedly “destroyed” “Special Artistic Color” was charged.

With this kind of technological control, coupled with the limitations of the American film production system and the market mechanism to please the public, few films have conducted in-depth exploration and research on the color elements of films. At present, most European and Asian directors have not yet entered the shooting of color film, so it is not surprising that there is a lack of film color theory in “painting with light”.

With the popularity of black films in 1940s, low-key photography once got a good development in Hollywood. We can’t ignore the contribution of classic Hollywood black films in low light photography and atmosphere creation.

However, due to the technical limitations of lens light hole and film sensitivity, and the lighting concept of dramatic lighting effect, the practical use of low-key photography at that time was high illumination, and the display of the dark part level of the picture was far less rich and delicate than that of modern films.

With the popularity of color films, the destructiveness of this kind of high illumination is becoming more and more obvious. Under the irradiation of high-power arc lamps, color is highlighted.

The mature partition lighting in classic Hollywood period is often abandoned. The light structure of the picture becomes a simple color structure. Excessive lighting makes the Hollywood color films at that time Bright and gorgeous.

The method of color control and achromatic treatment by controlling the shooting light, the color of the subject and the later development process only appeared after the 1960s.

After 1960’s, in the process of Hollywood changing from the old to the new, its image form is also changing quietly. Influenced by European realism, American films pay more attention to the reality and atmosphere of film images.

In terms of lighting skills, it is shown as follows: getting rid of the conceptual lighting conventions of the studio era, paying more attention to the reasonable light source basis, the application of area light source, the combination of point light source and area light source, and the low illumination photography which can better show the image details.

The concept of light based on reality makes the new Hollywood Screen present a variety of light forms.

Abstract

The classic Hollywood period of 1930-1950’s is the golden age of film and drama light effect. Later generations use “dramatic lighting effect” to summarize the concept and skills of lighting in classic Hollywood movies.

One is to distinguish it from the lighting concept of “natural lighting effect” which pursues realism later. The other is to emphasize the strong dramatic and aestheticism characteristics of lighting in movies of this period.

Hollywood movies, which seek the commercial selling points of movies with stories, stars and wonders, are keen to explore the light in the world They are more interested in packaging and beautifying stars with beautiful and fine light.

In order to improve efficiency and unify style, Hollywood quickly developed a set of patterned technical skills, and each blockbuster factory has also established a set of lighting rules and visual styles matching with the style of their respective film types – Paramount’s luxury and vanity, MGM’s star charm, and Leighton’s low-key style Even “each type is arranged with a main light tone and contrast range to meet the needs of its performance”.

All of these infiltrate into the production of every film as methods or rules.

John Alton was a first-line photographer in classic Hollywood.

His book “painting with light” was first published in 1949. According to research, it is the first professional book of cinematography written by a working Hollywood photographer.

From the basic concepts and commonly used equipment of cinematography to the common working methods, lighting concepts and complex techniques of creating various special lighting effects in Hollywood film production at that time, this book is a textbook style cinematography work.

Its content is based on the conditions of electrical technology and equipment in 1940s, and is closely related to the production practice of Hollywood films at that time.

Therefore, from the value of historical materials, we can see a precise examination of the lighting concepts and techniques of classic Hollywood movies in painting with light.

Lighting equipment

Classic Hollywood movies are dominated by hard light, and carbon arc lamps of large and small play an important role in movie lighting.

“Painting with light” lists arc lamps from 225A to 150A, 120a and 40A and their usages, which are indispensable lighting tools for various atmosphere lighting effects.

Tungsten filament lamps with Fresnel lens have appeared in the equipment list. They are widely used in the close range lighting of people, especially the 500W and 750W tungsten filament lamps.

Because of their relative lightness, the photographers at that time called them “baby”. At that time, the soft light lamps were mainly tungsten filament incandescent lamps, which acted as the lighting task of base light and background light in the film.

Hollywood’s golden age equipment and technical standards are far more complete and sophisticated than we think.

Take this equipment list to compare with some classic Hollywood movies, it will be more clear about the lighting technique of the film.

In “Casablanca”, which was shot in 1943, the division of lighting caused a rich level of change, and the shadow film was used to make the projection on the background.

The close range of characters is obviously the main light, the auxiliary light, the outline light and the decoration light. At that time, lighting aids such as softener and butterfly cloth had been used for shooting, but their use was far from as extensive as that since the late 1960s.

They were mainly used to soften direct sunlight or spotlight, usually not as the main light. In Casablanca, the modification of Ingrid Bergman is not the soft lighting, but the soft mirror on the lens.

Lighting concept

There are two basic starting points and reference systems for the establishment of lighting concepts and techniques in the period of classic films. The first is classical painting, and the second is stage drama.

Film photography is inspired by the principle of “three aspects and five tones” (light surface, side light surface, backlight surface, highlight, bright surface, gray surface, dark surface and reflection) of painting, and the thinking and method of “three lights and five levels” is established in light modeling Law,

Drawing nutrition from classical painting, “Rembrandt light effect” has become the mainstream lighting method.

At the same time, the film also draws lessons from the lighting method of stage drama, using different directions and textures of light (top light, side light, bottom light, etc.) to strengthen and render emotions.

This kind of light in pursuit of dramatic effect does not exclude realism. In Alton’s book, the purpose of film lighting is summarized as follows: in addition to the correct exposure, the four main purposes of film lighting are: first, positioning – to let the audience know the scene location of the story, secondly, to express the emotional atmosphere, thirdly, to give the painting aesthetic feeling, and fourthly, to express the picture space depth of field, perspective and 3D visual experience.

In concept, the photographer’s understanding of film lighting in that period was basically consistent with that of modern film lighting. But in the specific implementation, when the multiple purposes of lighting cannot be achieved at the same time, Hollywood’s lighting concept chooses to put the beauty and emotion of the picture in the first place, and often ignores the real environmental characteristics and light source basis of the film.

For example, “one night romance” (1933) such night lighting, dramatic film concept and profound commercial appeal. Hollywood’s particular classic style has contributed to it.

Technical skills

Accurate control of division light distribution and light and shade contrast

It can be seen from the films at that time that the division light distribution method of classic Hollywood films has reached maturity.

The light is finely cut out of the brightness, shadow and various light and shade levels required by the image by different forms of light blocking and light transmitting equipment.

Alton’s book analyzes this method from theory to technique — how to use the light and shade of light to structure the picture and express the space, including: creating the depth of field by placing a bright object farthest from the camera.

Many examples can be found from some films at that time, especially black films. It can be seen that the excellent photographers at that time were very skilled in grasping the light structure.

The light effect on the film stars

Star shaping is a compulsory course for Hollywood cinematographers.

In Hollywood, some top stars have the right to choose their own suitable photographers, and some photographers have long won in Hollywood because they are good at Star lighting.

“Painting with light” uses a special chapter to talk about how to take close-up of people, involving different shooting essentials corresponding to different facial features and shooting requirements, as well as the lighting methods and control means of eight lamp system including main light, auxiliary light, supplementary light, outline light, background light, clothing light, eye light and beam light. (Note: the so-called eight light system is basically the same as the star light effect of the classic Hollywood movie “all lights”, but it is more detailed in the decorative light.)

It can be seen from this that the photographers at that time had great efforts and skills in shaping the characters.

Both the soft light source and the soft light mirror can beautify the characters, make the rough skin delicate and soften the facial shadow.

However, the classic Hollywood movies chose the soft light mirror with more obvious modification instead of the later soft light source.

As the image fashion of the classic Hollywood, this kind of soft light mirror effect was popular until the mid-1950s and appeared in the color films of the 1970s Once again, and still has applications.

By comparing the photos of Ingrid Bergman shooting Casablanca in Hollywood with those in Italian Neo realism director Giuseppe Rossini’s films, we can see that the lighting effect of Hollywood stars is different from that of European realism films.

Key Points of TV Lighting Design

Throughout the whole stage, the shooting position usually ends with the shooting of characters to avoid the black side screen into the lens. Unfortunately, when the camera’s range exceeds the line of sight of the edge of the auditorium, the black side screen will be shot in. Sometimes, seats are placed on the stage where they don’t need to be illuminated, such as those above the stage.

The close-up lens requires the fineness of the light and provides opportunities. Many small details can be clearly seen from a short distance, but not from a long distance. Many problems need to be solved by the lighting engineer. The reason why the bridge of nose is too bright, the side light is too harsh and the shadow is too solid is that the luminous area of the light source commonly used in the theater is too small, which is different from the large area soft light source with reflective characteristics used in making movies.

In addition, we have to pay attention to the design of the actor’s eye light. When shooting “the story of winter” by the Brana company, lighting engineer Neil Austin and photographer Brett Turnbull used symmetrical double-sided lights about one person tall. This allows the actor to stand out from the environment. But when shooting close-up shots, the actor will appear flat and have strange shadows under his nose. Sometimes, just fine tune to reduce the uniformity of illumination on both sides and add a little front light to get the normal picture.

At the same time, Brett noticed that because the camera can only work in 2D mode, it is necessary to design a suitable backlight for the actors to make the picture more hierarchical, but the backlight can not shine on the nose, and the generated shadow can not enter the lens, so as to ensure that it is not too dark.

This kind of days of repeatedly adjusting lights can sometimes make people feel boring. Theater staff adapt to the fast pace of work in the theater. The repeated work of dimming, checking the camera, dimming, mobilizing the actors, dimming, recording the camera parameters, and mobilizing the actors is boring.

However, this kind of work also has an attractive side, it can let the lighting engineer to watch these familiar performances from a new perspective, to design a lot of lighting scenes, to do a lot of stage settings, will feel that time is always not enough. Therefore, we must do it step by step according to our own design scheme, so as not to make mistakes and affect the recording.

Recording and Adjustment of Lighting

According to the requirements of live television, the second day after the light was readjusted, the spare tape of the program was recorded. The actors and live audience of the first performance took the lead in appreciating the light after the rearrangement. From then on, it is necessary to record the camera parameters during the full seat rehearsal. The director, director assistant, cameraman, director, stage mechanic, etc. will walk the stage before the live broadcast. Pre-recording is to prevent the interruption of the live broadcast caused by the interruption of the satellite connection or some other malfunctions during the live broadcast.

After recording, the video is usually replayed in the cinema, which enables the lighting engineer to watch the whole play at a time instead of watching it scene by scene. Of course, in general, there is also a relationship between the two. Watching the video helps to solve some of the lighting problems that have been found on the day of the live broadcast.

Usually, it also makes the process of feeling messy clearer. Theater lighting usually has a certain rhythm and regularity, and it also needs to guide the audience’s line of sight, which may not be the same as the effect on the camera. The program of running lights with precise timing may not appear in the close-up lens, but occasionally a part of the camera will be captured when the camera is moving, and the same effect may be obtained when the lens is switched.

The fade in and fade out time of light should be adjusted accurately to facilitate the camera to perceive the change of light, and the light in point also needs to be fine tuned. The dark ups and downs at the beginning and end of the performance are also a challenge, because many directors are afraid to make the audience stare at a dark screen for too long. The common solution is to use special lights to illuminate the audience at the beginning of the performance, and quickly increase the brightness of these lights at the end, but the recording of TV programs will be different.

When the world tour starts, the same show will still have a large audience. After the broadcast of the publicity video, the performance started immediately. The lighting engineer is in the lighting control room of the theater, with two earphones, which are used to listen to the instructions of the guidance control room and control the lighting changes of real-time performance. A monitor and a switch are used to switch the camera of each stand. There is usually a lighting performance list, which is marked with lens number, exposure value and some important moments to remind engineers to keep focused.

A good lighting programmer can still contribute to the scene. When the actor has some unexpected situations or captures some bad scenes, and some clothes are not suitable, he can quickly make slight adjustments, but he must ensure that the previous scene is recorded normally, which requires a transition scene. Like any night’s physical performance, this is a live broadcast, which can’t be stopped after it starts, and it’s impossible to record it again.

Adapting the Photocamera to the Light

For the live broadcast, the end of the live broadcast is equal to the completion of the performance, because all subsequent broadcasts will use this video as the broadcast material. The TV station will take it directly and completely: the lighting production team of the theater has to ensure that the previous performance is restored (although the user has made a separate video play list in the main video file, he may still want to get a different performance file, so that the two versions can be compared, and there may be no need to modify those positions and color elements. The change of clothing was adjusted again.

For a movie, just in case you need to save the performance video file, you need to record the work content. Bruno pat, the lighting designer of the film Miss Saigon, points out that there is a lack of continuity between the scenes of the continuous performance and the cut scenes in the film. Performance brochures with long performance cycles often change, especially when new actors join or tour, they need to be re recorded.

“What you see through the camera is never the same as what you see with the human eye.”. Bernie Davis concluded, “but generally both can be accepted through constant adjustment, so we can watch the picture on the monitor with new ideas. There are many reasons for us to change the camera parameters. We just need to make a discussion about whether to keep these changes on the stage in the future. Don’t simply think that the process of rearranging the lights will make it worse. ” He added: “maybe half of my job depends on the camera, but I’ll adapt the camera to the light instead of setting it up and adjusting the light to fit it.”

Michael Phil cautions: try to keep the original level when revising. To be practical, only revise the parts that need to be modified. The lighting engineer is the one who knows the performance best. He boldly suggests that adjusting the camera angle may get a better picture, and highlight those important moments that need special performance.

The world is really fascinating, especially when the lighting engineer sees the dancing light and shadow on the screen, and the lighting art becomes the film and television technology. From the perspective of the audience and actors, it is also particularly meaningful to use close-up shots to capture the actors’ inner feelings

Heart, rather than the traditional sense of a group of actors performing on the stage. Critic Peter Bradshaw saw the first broadcast performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Brana company in the theater and the second in the cinema. He thinks the difference between the two is worth remembering.

No matter what views we hold on the advantages and disadvantages of TV broadcasting, it seems that there are more and more TV performances. As long as there are good partners, lighters need not worry about this form of performance. As a kind of resource and reward, this kind of form can make lighting design works long-term preservation in the TV archive.

That’s why it’s worthwhile for lighting engineers to do a good job. Even if you spend more money, you can’t just take a camera and record it on stage without any treatment (finally, don’t forget to light up the audience and the theater and make them look great when taking pictures before and after the performance).

The difference between the demand of TV lighting and the demand of live audience

In the past, performances in the theater could only be viewed in the theater, especially the artistic creation of lighting. Once the performance ended, it could only stay in the minds of the audience, and at most there would be a few pictures left.

Now, great changes have taken place in theater performances, mainly due to the impact of electronic media works and live broadcast. Electronic media works are shot and distributed in the form of digital or DVD, and live broadcasting can be seen everywhere. The live broadcasting in various places is mainly led by the national live broadcasting programs, and the United States is mainly led by the metropolitan theater.

The live shows are very interesting. The performances are recorded in real time by multiple stations, transmitted to national theaters in real time through satellite technology for releasing movies, and then relayed to theaters around the world according to the local time. At the beginning, people worried that this would reduce the demand for tickets for physical performances. At present, these worries are superfluous. Now people can watch the whole performance at one time instead of being limited to the whole performance cycle.

Interestingly, as a lighting engineer, he can be praised by friends who watch TV programs on the spot. This is the welfare of television. However, what is worrying is what the lighting effect will be like after the broadcast? What is the result of the picture entering the camera after photoelectric conversion, satellite transmission and video playback equipment?

For many stage lighting engineers, this is a challenge. They don’t understand and don’t have any experience. Therefore, the first thing to do well in TV lighting is to have people who understand these technologies, such as TV lighting designer or visual effects director. Especially when the stage lighting engineer is not at the scene due to other work, there will be a kind of uneasy feeling when handing over the work in this way, and the people in the program group will also have worries.

In terms of TV lighting, Mike Le Fevre is a veteran who has done many national live shows and made some performances of the Royal Opera House into films and TV. He is very clear that the first task for him to take over a play is to contact the TV lighting engineer to have a meeting (or dinner together) to discuss the requirements of the play for lighting, so as to formulate a lighting design scheme in line with the plot.

But the most important thing is to gain the trust of the crew leader, so that they feel that the work will go smoothly. Because some TV producers don’t like the lighting engineers in traditional theaters. They hope that they can shoot the performance well without spending any time and money to adjust the lighting. In fact, this is totally different. Once this happens, it usually will not lead to good results.

Michael faire and Bernie Davis are experienced in the field of television lighting. They said that the focus of the preliminary study is how to adjust the lighting, how to solve the huge difference between the TV lighting demand and the audience’s performance, and how much it costs.

Bernie Davis put forward three practical ideas on this issue: first, the camera is a low contrast device, which can process both under exposed and over exposed images, but it can’t process two kinds of images at the same time: in addition, the photographer won’t hear the audience leaving the Royal Opera House say, “the performance is wonderful, the actors are wonderful, but I think the light is too bright.”

In the end, the filmmaker will never hear an audience coming out of the theater saying, “I know it looks bad, but it’s better to watch it at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.”. What is emphasized here is whether the managers tell the audience of these TV theaters that they are looking at something different. Obviously, some have said it and some have not. Maybe they told the actors…

Key points of TV lighting design

In this case, how should lighting engineers cope with these changes?

Try to achieve the consistency between the shots, that is, it is similar to using a single machine to record the whole performance. Especially for the director and lighting engineer who want to record a single shot of a performance, they must make a recording script and shooting program.

In the interval of discussing the script with the director, the lighting engineer will get some dimming time. Ideally, the provided broadcast level cameras and high-quality, accurate setting and high-definition monitors (OLED in ideal case) can be used to adjust the lighting when walking on the stage.

When the lighting engineer has nothing to do, it is very important to have a programmer with traditional lighting on site. He not only knows how to program, but also can make changes quickly.

It is also necessary to have a standard design manual on site, which is conducive to the better combination of video recording and lighting programming, which is part of the performance planning. It is also particularly important that the on-site staff will use gray cards for accurate exposure test, wear specific performance costumes, and the skin color of the testers is similar to the actual actors.

In the TV production scene, it is mainly to control the light ratio to ensure the accurate exposure of the camera, so that the actor/actress is separated from the background, and the brightness is moderate. For example, in “Blue Deep Sea”, the background wall is made of semi-lens gauze, Mike and lighting designer hall make this transparency visible in the camera by increasing the illuminance of the sky light.

By adjusting all kinds of parameters, they let the camera capture the signal with high signal-to-noise ratio, get enough illumination to obtain the appropriate depth of field, and let the photographer fix the focus section in special cases. The tracking light needs to operate in low illumination (some nd filters can be added), and the setting is a little loose. It can be adjusted at any time in a long distance to prevent sudden decrease of brightness.

Color balance must be paid attention to when using multi light source mixed performance. Although the lighting engineer may think that light blue in S4 LEDs has been matched with VIPs, the camera will tell the difference quickly and directly. The dark color beyond the color gamut of the camera needs to be corrected. The pre recorded tapes and session samples are helpful to find out the existing problems, so that we can get enough time to solve these problems.

LED lamps work reliably, but it is easy to cause flicker in the camera, which is a common sense. The driver without such problems is the most ideal, but usually it is not specially specified, because it is expensive, and the live program is determined after the selection. In addition, the sky screen lighting is very uniform to the human eye, but it is not ideal to see through the camera. Any folds on the screen seen on the monitor will drive you crazy.

Through this mission, theater staff learned a lot of experience. First of all, most of the work is done by looking at the monitor rather than staring at the stage. Second, in addition to adjusting the lighting, there are many ways to improve the image quality. Some of these methods are very familiar to every photographer, such as aperture, others may seem strange, for example, adjust the gain, adjust the white balance, adjust the gamma curve and adjust the matrix. When the screen looks dull on the monitor, it is important to cooperate with the relevant technical personnel, who will tell the lighting engineer how to deal with it.

Thirdly, the camera reduces the task of the theater lighting engineer, no longer need to consider the viewing position of the audience, now it is completed by the camera. In addition, there are some new issues that need attention. For example, the directors of TV programs and movies will switch shots at any time, and the panoramic, mid shot and close-up shots of TV programs and movies are set and recorded separately. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the seat and the light position.

The position of the front side of the stage is similar to that of the low front side light, which means that the lens is shot directly along a straight line under the light, and the actors will appear flat and have no three-dimensional feeling in this kind of lens. The audience can still remember that this was a prominent problem when shooting “deep blue”. Finally, this problem was solved by adjusting the seats and reducing the shooting range of the stage.

Studio lighting is not like natural light. Photographers can use subjective ideas and performance needs. On the one hand, it increases the difficulty of lighting. In order to improve the effect and speed of lighting, a skilled lighting technique is used to create a wonderful light and shadow effect. However, because the lighting in the studio is subjective and arbitrary, it allows the photographer to maximize the effect of lighting on the one hand, and generally follow the following steps and rules.

Determine the main light

The main light is the dominant light source, which determines the main tone of the picture. In lighting, only when the main light is determined can it make sense to add auxiliary light, background light, and contour light. In the process of determining the main light, it is necessary to systematically consider the light source, intensity, coverage area and the distance to the subject according to the shape characteristics of the subject, the texture performance, the distribution of light and shade, and the separation of the subject and the background. distance.

For most of the subject matter, generally choose softer light, such as reflector, soft light and fog light as the main light. Direct floodlights and spotlights are rarely used as the main light, unless the picture needs to bring a strong contrast effect from them.

The main light is usually higher than the subject, because the most comfortable and natural lighting is usually the light effect that simulates natural light. The main light is too low, the subject will form an abnormal bottom light illumination, and the main light is too high will form the top light, making the side of the subject contrast with the top surface.

Add Auxiliary Light

The illumination of the main light will cause shadows on the subject, unless the photographic picture requires a strong contrast. Generally, in order to improve the gradation and tone of the shadow surface, auxiliary lights should be added when lighting.

The auxiliary light generally uses soft light, and its light position is usually on the opposite side of the main light. When adding auxiliary light, pay attention to controlling the light ratio. The appropriate light ratio is usually between 1:3-1:6. The light ratio should be smaller for light subjects, and the light ratio for dark objects should be smaller. bigger.

When adding auxiliary light, you should also pay attention to avoid that the auxiliary light is too strong. If the auxiliary light is too strong, it will easily cause the light to be clamped and produce redundant and awkward shadows. In order to control unnecessary shadows, in addition to making the auxiliary light weaker than the main light when lighting, sometimes the method of appropriately lowering the light level or placing the auxiliary light as close as possible to the camera position is used to project the projection to the back of the subject.

According to the needs of the picture effect, the auxiliary light can be one or more. While using various lamps as auxiliary light, don’t forget to use reflectors as much as possible, which can often produce unexpectedly good results.

Set the Background Light

The main function of the background is to set off the main body or render the atmosphere. Therefore, when dealing with the background light, it is necessary to pay attention to contrast and harmony.

When shooting small objects, it is often difficult to light the background separately because the subject is very close to the background. At this time, the main light doubles as the background light. In the specific control of the ratio of the main light to the background light, it can be controlled by selecting the appropriate lamp distance, orientation and illumination range, or using various translucent diffusers or opaque shading objects at the appropriate position on the main light and background axis Perform occlusion to get proper brightness.

When the subject is large and there is enough distance between the subject and the background, the background can be illuminated separately. The background light generally does not interfere with the lighting of the subject, and it is easy to control the coverage, brightness and uniformity of the background light.

In the specific lighting process, special attention should be paid to whether there will be a phenomenon of “merging” between the subject and the background with similar brightness, or whether the large-area background with uniform brightness is indeed uniform in the center and the surroundings. For these two Under the circumstances, don’t trust your own visual inspection too much. It is best to use a light meter for serious detection, because human eyes are often insensitive to small changes in brightness, but the film will faithfully record it.

In addition, when lighting the background light of frequently shot high-key or low-key photos, it should be understood that their background light is not as bright as we imagined, or the darker the better. If the background brightness is too strong, the diffused light produced will not only easily cause glare to the lens, but also affect the light effect of the subject.

It is not necessary to control the background too dark when taking low-key photos. Generally, it is more appropriate to control the background brightness to an EV value higher than the brightest part of the subject when shooting high-key photos, and to control the background brightness to one EV value lower than the darkest part of the subject when shooting low-key photos.

Add Contour Light

The main function of the contour light is to produce a bright and bright outline of the subject, so that the subject is separated from the background.

Contour light is usually projected back from above or above the background, and the light level is generally one, but sometimes two or more can be used as needed. Contour light usually uses spotlights, which are strong and hard, and often produce heavy projections on the screen. Therefore, it is necessary to weaken or eliminate these messy projections when arranging the contour light. To eliminate or weaken these projections, in addition to adjusting the lamp position, sometimes clever use of reflectors for contour light projection will have unexpected effects.

When arranging the contour light, you should also pay attention to the light ratio of the contour light and the main light. Generally, the contour light is brighter than the main light. In addition, when lighting, you should choose hard light or soft light as the contour light according to the needs of the subject. There are usually two ways to obtain soft light. One is to place umbrella lights, soft lights, etc. as close to the subject as possible, so that the brightness of the contour light is higher than the main light, but this is often more laborious, the other method It is simpler, just use the diffuser in the spotlight to soften the light.

It should be clear that contour light is not a necessary light for every picture. It is only added when the picture needs it, otherwise, it will be superfluous.

Add decorative light

Decorative light is mainly used to decorate certain parts or details of the subject, and it is a partial, small-scale use of light. The difference between decorative light and auxiliary light is that it does not aim to increase the brightness of the dark parts, but to make up for the lack of image shaping of the main light, auxiliary light, background light and contour light. Catch light, luminescence, key projection light on the bright part of the subject, and partial lightening at the edge are all typical decorative lights. Generally, the decoration of decorative light should not be too strong or too hard. Too strong or too hard will easily produce light spots and destroy the overall perfection of the lighting.

Examine

In the above lighting process, because the light is added in one kind, the latter kind of light is likely to have an impact on the previous light effect. Therefore, after the lighting is completed, the overall light effect needs to be carefully examined, such as the lighting effect. There are no obvious shortcomings or unreasonable places, whether the projection density meets the requirements, whether the projection position is appropriate, whether the lighting of each light source is interfered, whether each light source enters the framing screen and causes halo, etc. You can examine these details Avoid abandoning all previous efforts due to a momentary negligence.

Studio lighting techniques

In order to achieve the ideal light and shadow effect, in addition to following the above-mentioned lighting steps and rules when lighting the studio, special attention must be paid to the following skills and essentials.

Control the light source area

The size of the light source area is directly related to the light-emitting properties of the light source, and the light-emitting properties of the light source affect the contrast of light and dark of the subject. Therefore, controlling the area of the light source and the degree of diffusion of the light source can better control the contrast effect of the subject. When low contrast is required, the area of the light source is large, and the degree of diffusion is also large, so that the light coverage exceeds the subject; when high contrast is required, the area of the light source is small, and the degree of diffusion is also small, so the light has directivity.

Ensure sufficient lighting brightness

Sufficient lighting brightness allows us to freely control the required depth of field through the aperture. Although the method of prolonging the exposure time or performing multiple exposures can be used to solve the problem when the lighting brightness is not enough, these two methods will bring inconvenience to shooting. Extending the exposure time will easily cause the exposure reciprocity law to fail, which will result in the film’s coarser grains, reduced contrast, and color deviation; the use of multiple exposures requires the position of the subject and the camera to remain stationary during the exposure, and the exposure calculation It is also more complicated, and the difficulty of shooting is greatly increased.

Choose the right light distance

First of all, the size of the lamp distance directly affects the light intensity of the subject. The light intensity of the subject changes according to the reciprocal of the square of the lamp distance, and the light intensity varies greatly with the lamp distance. In addition, the size of the light distance will also affect the contrast between light and dark of the subject. When the lamp distance is small and the area of the light source is smaller than the subject, the light source can be regarded as a point light source, and the contrast of the subject is relatively large. Conversely, when the lamp distance is large, the light source can be regarded as a surface light source, and the contrast of the subject is small.

Minimize the use of lamps

In lighting, it is not that the more lamps are used, the better. Too many lamps will not only make the lighting complex, but also bring chaotic projections, and the elimination of these projections is often difficult. Therefore, in lighting In the medium, it is necessary to use as few lamps as possible, and when necessary, a reflector can be used to fill light.

Use reflectors as much as possible

It is advocated to use more reflectors in lighting. In addition to not producing unpleasant projections, all kinds of reflectors can provide reflected light with different light properties, which is easy to control. The reflector can not only be used as the main light, but also can be used as auxiliary light for the dark part of the subject. It can even be cut according to the needs of lighting and the shape of the subject to fill some parts of the subject. Excellent control of the light domain.

In advertising photography, there is often a phenomenon that the number of reflectors used is more than the number of lamps. For an advertising photographer, whether the reflectors can be used flexibly and effectively is a sign of whether their lighting is mature.

Appropriate light ratio control

The light ratio control in lighting involves the contrast of the subject itself and the contrast between the subject, companion and background in the picture. It also determines the tone of the entire picture and the texture and detail of the subject. The light ratio control in lighting is generally based on the principle of truly expressing the inherent surface brightness, texture and color of the subject itself. For example, to show its elegance and cleanliness for a white subject, the subject should be treated in a high-key manner.

The black subject should show its depth and dignity, and the subject should be treated as a low-key. Of course, under the premise of not violating the advertising creativity, photographers can also creatively control the light ratio according to their own personality and habits to achieve the most ideal lighting effect.

“Lighting is to film what music is to opera”

– C.B. Demille [Brown 1996]

Lighting is commonly used in the film shooting industry. Through the application of lighting technology, the visual effects of film can be improved, and the recognition of audiences can be improved.

Section(Ⅰ)：https://www.ledsfilm.com/analysis-of-lighting-in-film-shooting-industry%E2%85%A0/

Section(Ⅱ): https://www.ledsfilm.com/analysis-of-lighting-in-film-shooting-industry%E2%85%A1/

4.Lighting style

4.1 The history of lighting style

In the past 100 years, some excellent filmmakers like to use their specific lighting styles when creating their works, and gradually define names for these styles. Ideally, a good filmmaker cannot make the audience feel that the lighting designers are manipulating the pictures. The theories and methods they understand should be quietly applied in the film shooting, in order to create a fascinating viewing experience. The audience feels like they are in the movie or are experiencing it. When the audience associates the reality he or she knows with what they see on the screen, they can clearly feel the world made by the filmmaker.

Since the early history of film development, lighting has always been one of the most basic elements of constructing a picture. As in real life, light is the foundation of images and everything the human eye sees. Everything the human eye sees is light reflected from objects with different color temperatures. Humans receive light signals through the iris, and after the brain’s analysis, the world is constructed into a three-dimensional perspective. The camera is a model that imitates the human eye. The image is recorded on a film through the iris-like membrane and reproduced in different proportions. In order to produce a three-dimensional image, the camera also needs the assistance of lighting to help the audience better understand the story or plot that the producer wants to express. Professionals in the industry have been working to improve the technology in this area.

The narrative forms of early human stories are generally carried out in the following common ways: novels, comedies, science fiction, dramas, etc. With the development of film and film lighting theory, different lighting techniques are associated with different types of stories to stimulate different emotional reactions and emotions of the audience.

There are three main lighting style terms commonly used by film producers that can achieve the expected narrative psychological effect: high key, low key and available light. Cinematographers can use these lighting techniques to greatly enhance the plot development, character characteristics, theme style and mood of the whole film.

For example, in film theory, photographers set bright lights and use less contrast to create a smooth and shiny appearance to induce emotional reactions of joy and happiness in the audience. In this style of lighting, things are usually interpreted as kind, cute, funny or heroic. This lighting style is defined as high key.

In the process of naming the style of movie lighting, the designers have conducted a lot of tests. In these tests, the data collected by the designers include: the emotional and physical reactions of the audience. The testing will be based on three basic types of lighting styles-high key, low key and available light. During the test, the three lighting styles are separated from other potential form variables that may affect the audience’s response, and the data is collected in a relatively short period of time to prevent the audience from causing false reactions due to fatigue or repeated viewing.

4.2 High key

High key, this lighting style, was used in comedy in the early days, it was the earliest and the only lighting style at that time. Bright lights shine on the characters, giving flat lighting and washing. The argument about whether it is ‘first lighting style’ seems to be controversial in the history of film development, but it is basically certain that the first movie is a comedy-Fred Ott’s “Sneeze”. But regardless of whether this movie is really the first movie or not, comedy is also a very common theme in early movies. This type of film is basically shot under high-key style lighting, and it is often introduced indoors by means of physical reflections using sufficient external light.

Under high-key lighting conditions, the audience can clearly see all visual spaces, and the lights are tiled throughout the space without shadows, leaving the audience with a sense of security and positive feelings.

In 1927, sound became popular in commercial applications. At that time, panchromatic film was equally sensitive to all spectrum. Therefore, filmmakers could use tungsten lamps on the scene instead of noisy and dangerous carbon arc lamps. Producers began to include sound recordings in the movies, and dialogue began to appear in comedy scenarios. In the 1930s, grotesque comedies became very popular, and the content of confrontation and tension to be expressed in comedy was established through the plot line of the “war of the genders” type. Although this style of comedy has gradually evolved into a romantic comedy, high key lighting style has not changed: bright lights are set in an environment rich in elements, nothing is lurking in the shadows, everything is open and visible, even if in the night scene.

4.3 Low-key

The low-key lighting style, which has been used in theaters for a long time, has been slowly transferred to movies,

and mainly in movies of the Noir genre. Its characteristics are: high contrast, dark shadows, semi-bright scenery and faces. It is said that the low-key lighting style originated in the United States in the 1920s and was formed by a combination of tough guy novels and German expressionism. The low-key lighting style has a modeling style of dark shadows and bright light. This lighting style was very popular between 1941 and 1958 and is still in use today. In the same year, the application of panchromatic film stock gave filmmakers more freedom in setting up indoor lighting devices. In 1946, the film style of Firm Noir made a popularity wave among French artists. This style originated from France and became an important place in the United States, producing many well-known film works, such as “The Third Man”. In this style of film, the shadow prevails. The characters wander between darkness and light, and their faces often have shadow slashes. Even in the daytime, they are mainly gloomy and depressed, with pessimism and doom as the main line.

4.4 Available light

The most common lighting style used in documentaries is available light. When filmmakers make documentaries, they often get the lighting of the scene from any place where natural light can be obtained. The earliest recorded narrative film probably appeared in 2002, when advanced technology invented a commercial digital video camera. In the 1990s, American independent film production styles tended more towards low-key realism than fancy techniques. Programs such as

documentaries, traditional narratives and reality shows use only available lighting, aiming to give viewers a very real life experience. This type of work has rough picture quality and ordinary tone, even if the content may be a fictional story. Available light can make the audience lose their sensitivity to the perception of light, which is a very important discovery. Because it supports the fact that the audience knows that the film may not be carefully made, but at the same time it does not feel that the filmmaker is using technology to control the image. The available light will be considered a branch of the low-key lighting style to some extent, because the available light is often accompanied by many dark places. Perhaps the only difference between low-key and available light is the audience’s perception of whether it is controlled.

With the development of the Internet and the penetration of amateurs into all kinds of film and television works, this type of lighting style has achieved great success in the film production industry, and has gradually stood in various film festivals and even Netflix series. This was a great miracle of the successful combination of film art and real life display. The lighting style of available light can make the story close to life, become credible, and make it easier for the audience to manipulate for the filmmaker. The viewer believes that he or she is watching a true story. With the advancement of technology, as well as the higher and higher pixels, the picture quality is becoming more and more realistic for mobile phone cameras. Even the more average film and television makers can produce convincing realistic feelings through lighting and camera operations.

4.5 Realistic support for lighting style

The three styles of high-key, low-key and available light are created and implemented based on the development of human psychology. Some researchers have recorded a series of data in an experiment on “the effect of lighting on the perception of facial surface.” Participants recognize and judge faces and objects under different positions and lighting conditions. Researchers used different lighting techniques, such as top lighting, 45-degree lighting, and bottom lighting, to achieve occlusion effects on the front, side, and quarter faces of the facial contour. The results showed that the participants showed higher accuracy and confidence when watching the subjects under high key lighting, and showed doubts and self-doubt when there were more shadows. This will support the fact that high-key lighting conditions can bring people affirmative emotions, while low-key lighting conditions can bring people negative emotions. Therefore, although in the past, film theory has not yet formed a unified opinion in the film industry. But the factual evidence also gave filmmakers a lot of persuasion-different lighting will cause the audience’s emotional response to be significantly different.

Therefore, in subsequent studies, scholars believe that the audience’s reaction to the lighting style determines the major genres in the movie. According to the concept and market, directors and photographers develop the type of film suitable for their work, thereby designing the lighting style.

5.End

With the continuous changes in the film industry and the advancement of new technologies, various types of filmmakers have appeared one after another.

The camera not only provides a wealth of business information for the public, but also continuously upgrades the technology to allow filmmakers to obtain high-quality images under lower lighting conditions. More and more novices are able to pick up cameras to shoot movies. Through the developed communication channel of the Internet, many small movie works can be seen by the public, and even a lot of financial income can be obtained. It sounds like cinema lighting is no longer a necessary element. But we don’t think so. The audience will directly get different emotional reactions from different movie lighting conditions. Without the aid of lighting, these emotions can hardly be fully expressed. In an era when film production technology is becoming more and more transparent, the success of a film is more importantly reflected in its ability to resonate with the audience. So the role of lighting is declining? let us wait and see.

“Lighting is to film what music is to opera”

– C.B. Demille [Brown 1996]

Lighting is commonly used in the film shooting industry. Through the application of lighting technology, the visual effects of film can be improved, and the recognition of audiences can be improved.

Section(Ⅰ)：

https://www.ledsfilm.com/analysis-of-lighting-in-film-shooting-industry%E2%85%A0/

2. Cognition of movie theory

In the 1990s, the cognition of film theory gradually developed to analyze the influence of film on the audience’s emotional response. Light is very closely related to

our perception abilities, so the lighting of objects, people, events or scenes is especially important in certain situations. The audience has their own life experience,through these experiences, they will naturally associate the tone or emotion with the perceived light. If directors can use the emotional memory of the audience to reproduce the visual images which are familiar to the audience, it can enhance the transmission of information to the audience and the overall viewing experience.

Some cognitive theorists also put forward, “In addition to paying attention to human nature, the observation of human behavior also requires observing its living environment. The mental abilities that people have formed during the evolutionary process have their own different boundaries. Perceiving other people’s intentions ( The sixth sense) has always been the key to human survival. Shadow and danger, brightness and enjoyment or safety, the “correct” lighting is linked to human activities, which is in line with the mechanism of human evolution, survival and development, and is full of rationality. If directors can make good use of this original visual interpretation mechanism, they can enhance the audience’s emotional response, further emphasize narrative interpretation, and maximize the audience’s participation during the viewing period. John E Flynn is one of the first batch people to study the impact of lighting on the audience’s perception. He firmly believes that: “Lighting is a tool for changing visual effects and conveying information in the field of filming. The interaction between lighting and audience is important which will make a certain impact on their cognitive behavior and satisfaction.”

3. Architectural lighting&film lighting

3.1  The history and development of architectural lighting and movie lighting

The theory in the field of architectural lighting is closest to film lighting. They have very close histories, have many similar expressions in the vocabulary described, and have similarities in the theoretical applications of human psychology.

The original light sources of architectural lighting and film lighting are fire and the sun. When the early architects constantly adjusted the architectural design, they would consider the relationship between natural sunlight and the entire room, and use sunlight to adjust the brightness of the interior. For example, Thomas Edison’s first studio-Black Maria, used A retractable roof ceiling to get sunlight. Although both are artificial lighting, they have different illuminating capabilities for the space. With the development of technology, many different types of lamps such as oil lamps, gas lighting lamps, and electric lighting lamps have been invented one after another, and they have different color temperatures and brightness.

The common source of architectural lighting and film lighting are theater performances, but in order to express different artistic styles, different artistic designs have been added to their respective developments. For example, stage lighting involves the field of architectural lighting as well as the field of film lighting. Architectural lighting mainly focuses on the light rendering of real structures, and the intent of movie lighting goes further than architectural lighting– it strives to create imagination for the audience. Although stage lighting is just an example of an extension of the architectural lighting field, it involves lighting methods for different lighting effects and the tools needed to create these specific effects. Both of these factors can be extended to architectural lighting. But what’s interesting is that although there are many symbiotic relationships between film lighting and theater lighting, theaters are more like being forced to adapt to a lighting installation and lighting technology, because in the past, theater actors rely more on service and painting. The narrative style is focused on to resonate with the audience.

3.2 Architectural lighting, film lighting and perception psychology

Architectural lighting and film lighting also make use of knowledge in perceptual psychology when making people feel the space. Designers cleverly use people’s subtle psychological cues to illuminate buildings or rooms. They think about psychological reactions and how people react when they are affected by lighting. such as:

People think that the direction at the intersection of horizontal and vertical rays is the correct direction.

People will habitually take the brightest way, because the brighter the place is usually safer.

The bright place can grab attention.

The brightness of the lighting will affect the position of the object in the eyes of the audience.

In order to influence the audience’s mood and behavior, and to cater to the audience’s perception of space, lighting designers use different lighting methods to focus the audience’s attention on different places, such as changing the amount of shadow cast by light to create different shapes and range of perception, thereby creating changes in characters or plots. Each scene in the film is a new architectural space. When the space is illuminated visually, the audience’s reactions, emotions and behaviors are also affected.

To be continued…

Section(Ⅲ)： https://www.ledsfilm.com/analysis-of-lighting-in-film-shooting-industryⅢ/

The texture performance of lighting on the product

Since the structure, texture and surface texture of the object are different, the ability to absorb and reflect light is also different. Therefore, according to the different reflections of different textures to light, we can roughly divide objects into: light-absorbing body, light-reflecting body, and transparent body. This is just a general classification. Some products have textures between light-absorbing, reflective, and transparent, or composite products that combine light-absorbing, reflective, and transparent.

But only by exploring the lighting performance of simple and basic texture objects can we shape complex objects well. According to the texture characteristics of different still life products, we explored the commonalities and laws of the typical lighting and shooting techniques of various products, and on this basis, we draw inferences from one another and pursue a more perfect visual performance. Of course, this is only used to express different textures. Different lighting methods, if it is to express other aspects of still life products, then the lighting method should be created on this basis.

Shooting of light absorbers

Light-absorbent products include: fur, clothes, cloth, food, fruit, stoneware, rubber, matt plastic, etc. Their surface is usually not smooth (relative to reflectors and transparent bodies). Therefore, the reflection of light is relatively stable, that is, the inherent color of the object is relatively stable and uniform, and these products usually have richer visual levels. In order to reproduce the layered texture of the surface of the light-absorbing body, the lighting positions should be mainly side light, side light, and side light, and the light is relatively small, so that the level and color are more abundant.

Food is a typical light absorber. The texture performance of food is always related to its color, aroma, taste and other sensations, so that people can feel the freshness, taste, and nutrition of the food, and arouse people’s appetite. Figure 1 adds two soft lights on the top and right side of the subject, so the texture of all the food in the picture is very delicate, and the surface level is also very rich. A soft light is lit in front of the orange. This smooth light performance makes the surface color brighter and shows the subtle wrinkle texture on the orange surface very well.

Shooting of reflectors

The surface of the reflector is very smooth, and the ability to reflect light is relatively strong, just like a mirror, so the shape of the reflector is generally to give it a “black and white” contrast visual effect. The reflectors are metal with smooth surfaces or porcelain without patterns. To express the smoothness of their surface, it is impossible to make multiple non-uniform light spots or black spots appear in a three-dimensional surface. Therefore, the best way is to use a large area of ​​light or use a reflector to illuminate. The larger the area of ​​the light source, the better.

In many cases, the white lines reflected on the reflective object may be uneven, but it must be gradual to maintain uniformity, so that it appears real. If there are highlights on the reflective object with a bright surface, it can be passed through a weak direct light source obtain.

In order to make the upward side of the knife and fork receive uniform light and ensure that there are no flares and black spots on the knife and fork, a soft box is made of two layers of sulfuric acid paper to cover the main body, and a large-area soft light source (octagonal lampshade) The flash) is hit on the top of the soft box to make it richer in color, thus showing its texture. If the flash light source is directly exposed and the soft box is not used, then the direct light will appear hard, and the hard light has a very strong directionality, so the shape and size of the light will be directly reflected on the knife and fork, forming a clear spot, then Lose the texture of the object.

Although hard light can also express the characteristics of the reflector itself, it is more difficult to control and often makes the reflection more trivial. If it is not for special reflective effects, soft light is usually selected when shooting reflectors. Soft light can better express the texture of the reflector. It should also be noted that the lamp has a light source point, so it is necessary to hide the performance of the obvious light source point on the reflector as much as possible. Generally, the light source point is hidden by adding a lampshade and adding a soft light cloth in the lampshade.

Due to the reflective characteristics of the reflector, we must also pay attention to the reflection of the camera and the photographer, otherwise black spots will appear. I usually choose an angle that does not reflect to myself; of course, there are other methods, such as digging a hole in the soft box made of sulfuric acid paper, and sticking the lens in to shoot. The purpose is to hide the photographer and the camera as much as possible. .

The most important thing for reflector lighting is the treatment of the reflective effect, so in actual shooting, black or white cardboard is generally used to reflect light, especially for reflectors with inconspicuous three-dimensional surfaces such as cylinders or spheres. The black lines are reflected by the black strips of cardboard, but the cardboard should be used properly, otherwise it will form a lot of messy spots on the reflector, destroy the integrity of the reflector, and fail to express its texture.

In order to express the visual effects of the picture, many commercial photographers not only use black and white cardboard, but also use gray cardboard with different reflectivity for reflection, so that they can grasp the essential characteristics of the reflector and control the different levels of reflection. Enhance the beauty of the work.

Characteristics of light

Above we explained the shooting methods of several products with different textures, let’s study the knowledge and application of lighting when shooting products. The study and use of light is what we want to learn. In advertising photography, lighting is a creative work. It not only reflects the photographer’s personality and style, but also relates to the success or failure of the work.

The research of light characteristics generally starts from six aspects: luminosity, light quality, light position, light type, light ratio and light color.

Luminosity

Luminosity is the most basic factor of light. It is the general term for the luminous intensity of the light source and the brightness of the light on the surface of the object. Luminosity is directly related to exposure. Large luminosity requires a small amount of exposure; low luminosity requires a large amount of exposure. In addition, the size of the luminosity also indirectly affects the size of the depth of field and the clarity or blur of moving objects. Large luminosity is easy to produce the effect of large depth of field and clear image; small luminosity is easy to produce the effect of small depth of field and blurred moving image.

Light position

The light position refers to the direction of the light source and the position of the light source relative to the subject. In photography, the light position determines the location of the subject’s brightness and darkness, but also affects the texture and form of the subject. The light level can be ever-changing, but when the position of the subject and the camera is relatively fixed, the light level can be divided into six types: forward light, side light, back light, top light, foot light and scattered light.

Light quality

Light quality refers to the hard and soft characteristics of light. The so-called hard means that the shadows produced by the light are clear and dense, with sharp contours and high contrast, and the so-called soft means that the shadows produced by the light are soft and unclear, with gradual contours and low contrast. Hard light has obvious directionality, it can make the subject have a sharp contrast between light and dark, which is helpful for the performance of texture. Hard light tends to give people a sense of fortitude and vitality; soft light has no obvious directionality. It is suitable for reflecting the shape and color of objects, but it is not good at expressing the texture of objects. Soft light often gives people a soft and delicate feeling.

Light type

As far as the subject is concerned, there is often more than one type of illuminating light, and various types of light have different functions and effects. Light type refers to the effect of various light on the subject during shooting. Light types are usually divided into five types: main light, auxiliary light, contour light, decorative light and background light.

Key light: The key light is the main illuminating light of the subject, which plays a leading role in the expression of the shape, contour and texture of the object. When shooting, once the main light is determined, the basic lighting and tone of the picture can be determined. It should be noted that for a subject, there can only be one main light. If several light sources are used as the main light at the same time, the subject will receive equal light, and the main light cannot be distinguished, and the picture will appear flat; or Several key lights simultaneously cast shadows on the subject, and the picture appears chaotic.

Auxiliary light: The main function of the auxiliary light is to increase the brightness of the shadow parts produced by the main light, so that the dark parts also present a certain texture and level, and at the same time reduce the image contrast. In the use of auxiliary light, it should be clear that the intensity of the auxiliary light should be less than the intensity of the main light, otherwise, it will cause the effect of overwhelming the main light, and it is easy to have obvious auxiliary light projection on the subject, that is, “clamping light “phenomenon.

Contour light: Contour light is a light used to outline the contour of the subject. Contour light gives the subject a sense of three-dimensionality and space. Backlight and side backlight are often used as contour light, and the intensity of contour light is often higher than that of the main light. The dark background helps to accentuate the contour light.

Decorative light: Decorative light is mainly used to decorate a part of the subject or display the level of details of the subject. The decorative light is mostly narrow light. The eye light and luminescence in portrait photography and the flares of jewelry in commodity photography are all typical decorative lights.

Background light: The background light is the light that illuminates the background. Its main function is to set off the subject, render the environment and atmosphere. Both natural light and artificial light can be used as background light. The background light is generally wide, soft, and uniform. In the use of background light, special care should be taken not to damage the tone coordination and main shape of the entire picture.

Light ratio

The light ratio refers to the difference between the light intensity of the bright part and the dark part of the subject. The light ratio is large, the contrast between the bright part and the dark part on the subject is large; on the contrary, the contrast between the bright part and the dark part is small.

Generally, the intensity of the main light and auxiliary light and the distance from the subject determine the light ratio. Therefore, there are two ways to adjust the light ratio when shooting: ①Adjust the intensity of the main light and the auxiliary light. Increasing the intensity of the main light or reducing the intensity of the auxiliary light will make the light ratio larger, and vice versa, the light ratio becomes smaller. ②Adjust the distance from the main light and auxiliary light to the subject. Narrowing the distance between the main light and the subject or increasing the distance between the auxiliary light and the subject will make the light ratio larger; on the contrary, the light ratio becomes smaller.

Light color

Light color refers to the “color” of light, and is also commonly referred to as color temperature. For black and white photography, light color is not very important. But in color photography, the color of light is very important. When shooting, you must choose a lighting source whose color temperature is consistent with the balanced color temperature of the film. Otherwise, the captured image will appear color cast.