Lighting and Light Effects

Whether natural or artificial light is used in making a film, it

has a big influence on the look and mood that is created.

Natural light can vary from bright, clear and sunny

Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story (1999)

to the softer English sunlight in Atonement
to dull and gloomy

which both reflects and is a metaphor for the mood of the

people in Whale Rider (2002)
to threatening, as in The Princess Bride

Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes

to the glowering winter light of Minnesota

Lars and the Real Girl

to the pouring rain…

… the skies weeping as the political prisoners are brought to the

detention centre that only one will leave alive, in V for Vendetta.
to the drama of storm in Moulin Rouge

Here the storm is more than just bad weather; it is also a

metaphor for the troubles facing the hero and heroine.
the importance of lighting
Lighting is responsible for significant effects in each scene,
as is demonstrated in these scenes from American Beauty.

The symmetrical composition is reinforced by the unified

effect of the lighting
the light falls in bars across Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) – a
metaphor for the way he is trapped within his own life.
Light can draw attention to specific areas of interest,
and create wonderful effects by its interplay with dark areas.
Lighting can give depth to a scene, while also bringing out
texture and detail in setting, decor, and clothing.

Patrick Kennedy and Keira Knightley in Atonement

qualities of light
high-key lighting
indicates a brightly lit scene with few shadows; usually
provided by one source of light (the 'key light').

Michael Sheen in The Queen

Kristen Stewart in Into the Wild
low-key lighting
is where the lighting is more towards the greyer and darker scale,
where there is a good deal of shadow, and where the key light is
less bright and does not dominate.

Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

'high-contrast' lighting
is where there is strong contrast between bright light and
shadow, with a small amount of in-between grey scale

Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge

This lighting scheme is often associated with "hard-boiled"
or suspense genres or styles such as film noir,

as in these examples from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

Light can be either hard or soft light.

hard light clearly illuminates

areas, sharply outlines and
illuminates characters, brings out
detail and texture, and markedly
separates light and shadows

soft light covers a wider area

with a more diffuse light,
diminishes outline and clarity of
characters, minimises shadow,
and reduces modelling of detail
and texture.
Spun-glass diffusers are used over the front
of studio lights to soften and diffuse their
beams, and to reduce the intensity of light.  

Umbrella reflectors create a soft

lighting effect in still photography.
 Soft light tends to hide surface
irregularities and detail, so the the
surface carving is barely noticeable

Hard light gives a hard, crisp, sharply

defined appearance, and casts a sharp,
clearly defined shadow.  

Sources include the light from a clear,

unfrosted light bulb, a focused spotlight, or
the noonday sun in a clear sky.
When hard light is used to illuminate a face, imperfections in
the skin stand out – a less than flattering look.

Pat Thomson and Barry Otto in Strictly Ballroom

the harsh light of Africa illuminates the scene of ambush
and murder in The Constant Gardener
and is pitiless in its illumination of another scene of murder
in contrast the light of London is soft, grey, melancholy
three-point lighting
Three-point lighting is the standard method used in visual
media such as film, still photography and computer-generated
imagery.

It is a simple but versatile system which forms the basis

of most lighting.

Once you understand three-point lighting, you are

well on the way to understanding all lighting.
The technique uses three lights called

the key light,

the fill light

and the back light.

key light

This is the main light. subject

It is usually the strongest and

has the most influence on the
look of the scene.
camera

The key light is placed to one side of the camera/subject so

that this side is well lit and the other has some shadow.

It provides hard light, like that from the sun on a clear day: a
bright light with hard-edged shadows.

It provides excellent modelling by highlighting the shape and

contours of the subject.
fill light

This is the secondary light and is

placed on the opposite side to
the key light.

Its light can be likened to

indirect sunlight or reflected
light from the environment.

It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will
usually be softer and less bright than the key and casts soft
indistinct shadows.

It is sometimes referred to as the 'highlight' as it is often used

to give a sheen or highlight to an actor's hair.
back light

The back light is placed behind the

subject and lights it from the rear.

Rather than providing direct lighting (which the key and fill
give), its purpose is purely for modelling – to provide
definition and subtle highlights around the subject's outlines.

This helps separate the subject from the background and give
a three-dimensional look.
illustrating lighting
The following images of a computer-generated apple are from an online lighting tutorial.

key light only

the key light has been placed to

the right of the camera and has
created very sharp shadows.

It looks okay – is identifiably an apple – but doesn't show

any real depth.
fill light only

The fill light is

usually on the
opposite side of the
camera from the key,
so in this case it is on
the left.

As it should be a soft light (created by use of filters or diffusers)

the effect is similar to the key except the shadows are less
defined. The apple looks flat and artificial.
key + fill

Using both key and fill gives that all important depth so that
the image looks more three-dimensional.
backlight only

The backlight provides very subtle highlighting to the

apple, most of which is in darkness.
key + fill + back

Beautiful! A
complete view of
the apple.

a fourth light could be used at the back to remove the

remaining shadows.
key light only fill light only key + fill

backlight only key + fill + back

lighting faces
How does this translate when people are photographed?

key light only

adding a fill light lightens the shadows

created by the key light
key and fill

back light creates more depth in

the composition, and puts a
highlight on her hair
These shots from Douglas Sirk's Written On The Wind (1956)
demonstrate the classical use of three-point lighting.

Laurel Bacall and Rock Hudson are made to look glamorous by

the balanced lighting.
Lighting affects the appearance of a character, defining or
diminishing facial characteristics and making faces appear
attractive or unattractive.

balanced lighting enhances the face of Kirsten Dunst, here with

with Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man
side lighting and shallow focus create the opposite effect on
Willem Dafoe.
lighting manipulates our responses to characters, as we see in
these shots from Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge

Christian – innocence Zidler – sinister

Warner - threatening Marie – concerned

 Satine
glamorous and exciting

sincere

playing a double game

Side lighting, if angled carefully, can model the face and bring out
detail, as in these shots from 10 Things I Hate about You (1999)

Larisa Oleynik

Heath Ledger
and Juno
but it can also highlight only half the face, leaving the other
half relatively undefined or in shadow,
suggesting bewilderment

Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro

in The World's Fastest Indian (2006)
or a two-sided or mysterious personality.

Hugo Weaving in V for Vendetta

Here it is a metaphor for the way Briony is torn between her
affection for Robbie and her fear that he is attacking her
sister.

Saoirse Ronan, in Atonement

The heavy shadow is a visual metaphor for the curious half
life that the depressed Barbara Fitts leads.

Alison Janney in American Beauty

side lighting can be used to create a sinister effect
Top lighting creates deep shadows in eye sockets and
under the nose, which can be stern or threatening.
while bottom lighting shadows and distorts the face,
making it appear sinister or evil.
though not always

Thora Birch in American Beauty

 Back lighting does not bring out details in the face, but
highlights the edges of a character, creating a kind of rim or
halo around the head and especially the hair while separating
the individual from the background — as a result it tends to
make the character more angelic or ethereal.

a judicious mixture of front and back lighting creates a mystical effect for
Frodo's first sight of Arwen (Liv Tyler), in The Fellowship of the Ring
time of day
The most obvious function of light – apart obviously from
allowing us to see images – is simply to establish time of day

the Rooster, T.I. Fowler, greets the day in Chicken Run

though this can result in some stunning shots:

Burt Munro sleeps in his car on the Bonneville Salt Flats,

in The World's Fastest Indian
Robbie (James McAvoy) rereads his letters from Cecilia by the
light of dawn in France in Atonement.
Viola de Lesseps' home in the morning, in Shakespeare in
Love
and in the early evening
 the sun goes down in
Danny the Champion of the World
Magic Hour
The hour of sunset, when the lighting is said to have a magical feeling which
can be imparted to the film.

Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (1989)

Jeremy Irons walks home late at night, in
Danny the Champion of the World
time of day can have metaphorical significance

the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space

Odyssey opens at the dawn of humankind – appropriately set
and shot at dawn:
 creating mood
and atmosphere
Using bright, clear, even illumination suggests
sunniness, joy, and security, and is therefore frequently
used for comedy.
as in A Knight's Tale
and Sione's Wedding
no shadows – literally or metaphorically – in the story
of The World's Fastest Indian, with Anthony Hopkins
 the family members in Little Miss Sunshine, on the other
hand, face all sorts of problems under the relentlessly blue
and sunny sky
Billy Elliot faces his problems under a greyer sky.
More diffuse, greyer lighting

can convey inclement weather;

can communicate the more sombre and unhappy

spirit of a serious drama;

or can be a metaphor for the emotional

distress of characters.
An opening scene like this one, with Ryan Gosling in Lars
and the Real Girl, can set the tone for the whole film.
Helen O'Hara, writing of Lars in Empire, suggests that "In the bright
light of a more Hollywood sun, such a delicate love story could never
have survived."
Most films, however, will have many changes of
mood within the course of the story.
Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing opens
with a picnic scene in a bright sunny Tuscan day.
but mischief is planned by the villainous Don John
(Keanu Reeves) in a dimly lit room.
 Franco Zeffirelli opens his film of Romeo and Juliet in a
brightly lit piazza, where young men quarrel as their hot
blood stirs in the summer heat.
but the melancholy Romeo appears from shadow, in softer light
The light in Finding Neverland is that of a lovely sunny
day, reflecting the pleasure that JM Barrie and the
Llewellyn-Davies family have in one another's company.
But when Barrie (Johnny Depp) goes home to his wife
Mary (Rhada Mitchell) and his unhappy marriage,
the light is more sombre.
He invents wonderful and fantastic stories for the Davies boys
to act out. These sequences are lit with a clear, bright, hard
light.
the uniformity of the light echoes and reinforces the
uniformity of the housing in Spider-Man
the light in The Truman Show's Seahaven is even, bright, always
sunny – what people are supposed to want it to be all the time.
 except that it is artificial – Truman's home is inside a huge
dome and the weather is controlled by a computer program.
 the viewers at home

– or in the Truman Bar

– are lit more naturally

.
So lighting is an important tool for creating mood and
atmosphere in individual scenes as well as for an entire film:
 the flatness of the light and the grey décor powerfully
communicate the severe depression of Barbara Fitts (Alison
Janney) in American Beauty.
the gloom of war is captured in the pinkish-grey
light of France in Atonement
Light is a primary means for creating sinister or disturbing
moods

the wicked Maman (Ankur Vikal) in Slumdog Millionaire

Russell Crowe as 'John Nash, spy' in A Beautiful Mind
Ryan Philippe in Crash
behind prison bars in Richard 3
styles of lighting
Two general schools in cinematography have been referred to
as 'naturalism' and 'pictorialism'.
The first favours a key light that seems to come from a
source in the scene or from a natural outside source;

Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham

Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot
Jason Bateman in Juno
the second favours any placement of the key light that gives
the most striking visual image.

Mena Suvari in American Beauty

Don Cheadle in Crash
 In practice, many films will use both, as these shots from
Atonement show.

Keira Knightley and Brenda

Blethyn, lit naturally

Saoirse Ronan, lit pictorially

 natural

pictorial
and from Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

natural lighting
pictorial
 pictorial

natural
pictorial
natural