Importance of Lighting

"Just like with human eyes, a camera can only capture the images for a movie through light. Whether using available or natural lighting of the surroundings or using professional lighting equipment, every production requires a suitable lighting design according to the needs of the film's story and the director's vision. Every lighting set-up provides a specific mood, emotion, atmosphere, and aesthetics to the overall film viewing experience. Without light, it is not possible to see anything, and it is not possible to shoot a film."

The primary reason why lighting is needed in a film production is because of the technical requirement for proper exposure of every shot in the film. Just like with photography, shooting a scene without enough light makes the shot underexposed. In such case, the shot looks too dark, and there are only a few details that can appear on screen. In worst cases, what you see is almost a black screen that even the actor's faces and the props and sets around are not recognizable any more. On the other hand, shooting with too much light makes the shot overexposed. In such case, the shot looks too bright and the entire scene looks annoyingly washed out, even to the point of looking blindingly white with almost no details to make the scene recognizable."

This extract taken from a film production article, written by Rianne Hill Soriano, has highlighted the different aspects of lighting, as well as its effects on film. Despite the fact that for the opening sequence I will be filming outside, and therefore cannot control the lighting other than planning to film when the weather is good, I will be more careful when it comes to lighting my indoor shots. I have practiced this by playing around with a set of lights, looking at the effects it has on the face by placing them at different angles (photographed below).

"Even though natural light is usually available, a film production still generally needs to utilize lighting equipment to improve how the scene registers on camera. Without proper control of light in a scene, a shot usually looks flat, dull, and boring. And so, lighting enhances the look of the elements on screen. The film camera, while it is similar to the human eyes in terms of the technical process of processing images, it is still not like the human eyes that can adjust to various lighting conditions on their own. The person operating the camera provides the instructions on how the camera should work and how it should see and record a shot. At the same time, the camera requires the one operating the camera to known how to communicate what they want in technical terms, as how the camera is programmed to understand."