That is the question.
Well we all know that big production companies usually have all the light they could want but when you're starting out you have to be creative about how you shoot things because you don't always have access to things that you'd want.
This has been a problem ever since Leya and I started shooting things and we'd always have to either be able to light a scene or find a place that was already light in a way that we could shoot.
A few months ago a really cool guy (Branden Garrett) that we met trough Stage32 asked us to shoot a scene to showcase his acting and of course we were in.
But like always with every project I wanted to try something new or do something new and had no idea until we actually showed up and I saw how Branden was dressed and expediently wanted to make the scene have a 70s feel to it.
He was able to get permission to shoot at a high school and when Leya and I saw the classroom we used we immediately decided to shoot with only natural light.
So we played around with some curtains to get the right amount of light on him and then on the reverse shots we used some movie magic and moved the subjects closer to the windows and changed the curtains.
In esence the whole scene was shot without a single light, using only natural light which fit the 70s style just fine and it all came down to how well I was able to do the color grading.
All this got me thinking about some of the projects we've done and some of the projects that we've worked on and I had begun thinking that sometimes people are afraid of shadows and of using natural light.
I love natural light and love to use it as much as possible, no only as practical lighting but as a key light or even an edge light.
A lot of the time you can use natural light really well if you're willing to figure out the best way to do it.
With the cameras these days being able to shoot in lower light conditions this becomes much easier.
So here's my question do you guys use natural light or do you light your scenes with artificial light, do you prefer to augment the light?
1 person likes this
After starting in theatre where all light is man-made, indoor lighting, I'm really fascinated with manipulating natural light for the camera. Partly because it's more subtle, the manipulation, but also totally finicky - you really have to pay attention!
Yeah I know what you mean Karen "Kay" Ross. But on on hand I've always loved natural light and together with Leya we always try to find situations where we can use most of the location and available light.
I don't know why but I seem to really like it better when I have realistic looking lighting and I'd go even further, the less complicated the lighting setup is, the more happy I usually am with the final result.
I can honestly live with hard shadows because they still show shapes but no shadows it and a flat picture is the most boring thing I can think of for our stuff.
1 person likes this
Natural light is wonderful to shoot in. As long as the scene and coverage is simple and quick. Weather outside changes the quality of the light, the sun has the nerve to set, the light doesn’t completely flatter the sensitive ego of some random diva and we all know that the ball of fire in the sky moves. Those are merely things you have to watch out for and be prepared to deal with.
I am going to assume that by loving natural light, it is not the time savings in picking up a quick sequence with minimal lighting that you love but the look, the feel of the light. Anyone that has earned the title of Director of Photography can certainly create that look on a stage or on location when the existing light doesn’t work. Look closely at the light on your subject. Think carefully about what you like about it, what works for the feel of your specific picture as, of course, we do not use the same lighting to support a full range of human emotions. Some considerations are how soft/hard is the key light what is the colour temperature of that light, what is the contrast ratio you are lighting the scene at, do you need positive or negative fill, eye light, separation of the subject to the background, does the light on the actors face denote the emotional the scene, additional colours or different colour temperature to accentuate the image. These are just some of the considerations. The faster cameras with much greater latitude do make using natural light easier, but do nothing about the changing environment outside changing the light inside. Which is always a consideration that goes hand in hand with how long you will need to shoot the scene.
Additionally, if you mean softened exterior light coming in through a window, the additional grip equipment needed to shape and contain that light is a consideration. Look at the image of the frame Vital posted, more attention could be drawn to the actors face if the relative ratio between his face and the wall behind him were changed to make the wall darker in relation to the face, this can be decreasing the amount of light on the wall, increasing the light on the actor, or a combination of both. If the choice was to increase the light on the actor, the decisions of quality, colour and amount of light come into consideration. That image also illustrates the concept of where the actual source is compared to what you see. The light on the actor does not have to be from the window in the background. Within a quite large range, if you have a light source on one side of a frame in the background, and the light on the actor in the foreground is from approximately the same direction, the actual angle, intensity and colour of the light on the actor can be adjusted to create the image you want.
It need not natural, but the impression that it is natural, that is important.
Consider this a learning opportunity, re-create the look of Vital’s image, on a stage or in a room at night and make the light on the actor’s face a little better for the story your head. Then in the cold light of day, be very critical of what you have created with one main thought, “does this bring out the emotion desired while looking natural”.
I did a scene that carried an actor through a number of rooms in a long series of complicated moves. Because we were shooting in a real house, and only had a short amount of daylight (time of year) to use, we made the decision to shoot at night. This allowed shafts of ”sunlight” to be strategically placed and they didn’t move, combined with camera filtration the windows blew to exactly as I wished, and I could create the light I wanted on the actors face in specific places to accentuate the story. Looked perfectly natural to the point that in one screening I was sitting net to a counterpart who asked about it being natural light after the first screening. Later I showed him the scene again with a hint, “look at the angle of the sunbeams”. Worked wonderfully for that specific shoot. Feeling natural was a much better choice in that case than it being natural.
1 person likes this
Thanks Andrew Sobkovich! Very interesting and thank you for pitching in.
I would love to see the scene you mentioned with the shafts of light.
To clarify the scene I added above was in fact shot really quickly the whole thing including the coverage and some B roll was shot in about 45 min.
The room also had large windows and green curtains with which I controlled the light. Of course there are limitations of how much can be done with natural light but the curtains let me control some and for me it was actually enough for this scene.
Also this was a quick no budget shoot which in our situations are a lot of things where we don't have much of a budget it's tough to have expensive lighting setups and we're forced to use what we've got.
That being said of course if you're able to shape light on set that's even better but like I said it usually requires a lot more money and time.
I'm actually really proud of Leya and I because in the projects that we've had we've always been able to do a lot with very little resources and on our last project we actually planned the shoot to have the best possible sunlight and it worked out fantastic.
1 person likes this
Vital I think the piece you posted is very nice indeed. The suggestion was how I would look at anything I shot once it was edited. We all need to look honestly at what we’ve done with the aim to improve in a similar situation. Within the time frame and restrictions you had, you absolutely should be proud of what Leya and you achieved.
Controlling natural light coming through windows usually means either blocking part of the light coming through over all or part of the window. This is often best accomplished from the outside as it will be easier to not see the material. Scrim, rolls of diffusion, cloth, plastic drop sheets, bobbinette, cardboard, flags etc. can all be used to do things like control a curtain or background wall you can see but let light through the part of the window that is not it the frame. These materials can also be used on the interior, but taking care that they are not seen.
Any of these ideas come from the basic approach of seeing what is there and imagining what would make it better.
Thank you James Scott and yeah we do that too. Find references what we'd like to have it look like and then most of the time we take it a step further and go to the actual locations and do camera tests and also do a color grade test.
But this project was unique because it was decided to shoot this quick little scene a few hours before, we didn't actually know where we were going to shoot and what it was going to be like. So everything was basically improvised and I'm really happy it worked out great.
We had some basic lights with us but decided not to use them because it would take too much time and decided to try and make something with only playing around with some green curtains on the windows and design the light that way.
Thank you James Scott. It was really short notice but it worked. Because we could use the curtains to shape the light. Plus I really liked how it looked.
1 person likes this
Oh wow this is great! Thanks for your post.
Thank you Kristin Holloway! My pleasure. :)