Lighting In Film: Direction

Lighting is a crucial element when creating a film and this is because it obviously helps audiences to see what is happening and with the right lighting techniques, it helps to enhance the mood of certain scenes, giving the right tone to the film in general. In this blog, the techniques of lighting will be discussed in one of four different key factors, direction, quality, source, and color as well as the name of the person in charge of lighting and the responsibilities the title has.

In charge of the lighting in film is the cinematographer. With the first job of a cinematographer already mentioned, the two other things that the cinematographer is in charge of are the looks and color of the shots and for framing every single shot of the film.

Direction in lighting is simply defined as where the light is on the set and where the light points to. In relation to direction, some shots use three main lights: the key light, the fill light and the back light. The key light is placed in front of the subject and can have angles from 15 degrees to 70 degrees with 45 degrees used most often. The key light is the primary light in a scene and is meant to illuminate one section of the subject. 

The fill light is considered as the second light of the shot/scene. As its name suggests, the fill light's purpose is to fill in dark areas due to the shadows of the subject. It can be used in many ways, but it is most common to see the fill light opposite to the key light in relation to the camera. The fill light is used by many filmmakers to not only add depth to the subject, but to bring out detail on the other side of the subject.

The backlight is placed on the same side of the key light and behind the subject, often placed slightly higher than the subject. The backlight is considered the third light that is position when setting up lights on set. Backlights are used by filmmakers to bring their subject from looking two dimensional or 2D. It is also used to show contrast between the subject and the background.