Backlight, strictly speaking, includes forward and side backlight. To facilitate understanding, the light from behind the characters is collectively referred to as backlight.
The main function of backlighting is—
to outline the outline and express a beautiful and warm atmosphere.
In the movie “The King of War”, the male protagonist Yuri tricks the model Ewa to a beautiful island, creating an accidental “encounter” scene. This scene is the beginning of their love, and photography must present a romantic atmosphere. Let’s take a look at how the light is processed.
Looking at Yuri’s close-up shots, toasting, smiling, light-colored clothes, and blurred surroundings, his attention is completely focused on the charming model, completely ignoring everything around him.
To say a little off topic, when you are shooting film and television works, don’t abuse the lens that blurs the background, because the blur without thinking will make the picture look cheap. The emptiness and reality of the background have their specific meanings, and the blurred background often means that the protagonist is immersed in his own world and forgets the environment.
In most cases, we recommend taking a realistic shot of the background. Not only makes the picture more informative and lively and interesting, it also respects the audience without depriving them of their visual choice, and also respects the early stage selection and the hard work of the artists.
Now we return to the subject of light. Notice that Yuri’s head and shoulders are outlined by a bright light? This light is the backlight.
The backlight has completed the task of drawing the outline of the character. The backlight distinguishes the character from the environment, making the hero look strong and vigorous.
Look at the Eva sitting opposite Yuri, the same light-colored clothes, the blurred female background, the eyes are bright and bright, and it is obvious that he has a good impression of this uninvited guest.
As for the light, it is still treated with backlighting. The difference is that the backlight mainly hits Eva’s hair, which looks charming and moving.
Two backlights hit the character, it is sure to be beautiful, but is there a reasonable basis for the light? Look at the picture below to understand.
The two sit opposite each other, and the positional relationship is very clear. Think about it, where is the light source of this scene? Are you drawing left or right?
Observing the shadows on the tree trunks, you can see that the light source is on the right. So the problem is, Yuri is roughly in the backlight position, and the outline of the light behind him has a real basis. Eva is roughly in the light position. Where does the backlight come from behind her?
Don’t be too serious, this is a movie, a dream-making trick. In fact, even the backlight behind Yuri was the result of re-lighting. The natural light at that time might not have such a tough texture. Through this example, I mainly want you to understand that backlighting is usually used to outline the outline of a character, to modify and beautify.
Let’s look at another example, also from “The King of War”. Yuri participated in the International Arms Trade Conference for the first time. He was just an unknown man. At the trade fair, he met Simmy Wise, an arms tycoon with a prosperous career.
Look at this backlight, outline the tycoon from the crowd, absolutely exquisite lighting, meticulous contrast and level, portray the characters calmly, full of style!
Look at Yuri again, this guy was absolutely awkward at the time, admiring Wise. Look at his surprised expression, then look at the flat effect created by the low-contrast light in the picture, showing a weak and weak look. Of course, backlighting is impossible to use on him, and the two are not on the same level at all.
Backlight outlines the outline of the characters, men and women are different
Specifically, the backlight generally outlines the shoulders of men and looks like a man. For women, the backlight usually hits the woman’s hair, making the woman look charming.
Take an example from the movie “Walking in the Clouds”. The backlighting of this film is super beautiful, and there are beautiful backlighting effects everywhere. Those who are interested can find it to watch it several times.
Now let’s get to the point. In this scene, the male protagonist Paul visits the home of the female protagonist Victoria. When he is coldly treated by his parents, the kid feels uncomfortable. He walks to the small courtyard to breathe, and Victoria follows him.
Paul looked at the distance with his hands on his hips, motionless. Pay attention to the backlight behind Paul, which outlines the line of the character’s shoulders, which looks very tough. This is a common light effect that shapes tough guys. Victoria approached slowly at this time, but Paul didn’t notice it.
Victoria continued to approach without speaking.
Take a look at this scene. It can be said that the lighting engineer is in full control of the actor’s scheduling. The men and women must go to the appropriate positions set in advance, so that the backlight hits Paul’s shoulders and Victoria’s hair at the same time.
But the actor can’t move anymore. When he moves, the light effect is gone! Hi! Who cares about him, just stay like that for the sake of beauty.
Backlit silhouettes express strong atmosphere and tough shapes
Take the example of “Walking in the Clouds”. At the end of the film, the vineyard of Victoria’s home was reduced to ashes by a fire, and the family was devastated and distraught. This is the climax of the film’s mood.
Of course, according to the Hollywood ending, we must leave a bright tail and wait for the audience to leave the theater contentedly. The film progresses to this point, and there is still a conflict that has not been resolved.
One is that Paul, a poor boy, was not accepted by Victoria’s father. The second is that the Victorian family suffered such a devastating disaster and 10,000 acres of vineyards were burned down. What can be done?
Do not worry! The screenwriter has already arranged. At the end, Paul ran to a hill and found the surviving mother vine-the root of the vineyard’s first grape buried deep in the ground-and finally saved the entire family and won his own love.
Well, the story is there, the key is to put on a cool look to make the protagonist more handsome in the finale.
Backlit panorama, the figure is in silhouette, only the outline can be seen but the details are not visible, and the contrast with the surrounding light is huge, like a sculpture, full of weight. Coupled with boarding high places and shooting up the camera, the hero is born!
(To Be Continued)