Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

Figure 7.11. (top) Flat front lightingcreates no depth, no sense of threedimensionality.It looks fake and “lit”— something we try to avoid.Figure 7.12. (bottom) Light from thesides or back (anything other thanflat front lighting) creates depth,dimension, a more realistic feel.Hard LightHard light is also called specular light. It is light that casts a clear,sharp shadow. It does this because the light rays are traveling parallel,like a laser. What creates a beam of light with the rays pretty muchparallel? A very small light source. The smaller the source, the harderthe light will be. This is an absolutely crucial point: how hard or softa light appears is a function of the size of the source.Outside on a clear, sunny day, take a look at your shadow: it will bethat it appears as a small object in the sky — which makes it a fairlyhard light.Soft LightSoft light is the opposite; it is light that casts only a fuzzy, indistinctshadow; sometimes no shadow at all. What makes light soft? A verylarge source. Go outside on a cloudy day and you will have little orno shadow at all. This is because instead of a small, hard source ( justthe sun), the entire sky is now the light source — it’s enormous. SeeFigures 7.9 and 7.10 for examples of hard and soft light.How do we make soft light on the set? There are two ways. One iswe bounce a light off a large white object. Typically we use things likefoamcore (a lightweight artist board often used for temporary signs ormounting photographs). The bigger the bounce is, the softer the lightwill be. You can use almost anything light-colored as a bounce: awhite wall, an umbrella, a piece of white styrofoam building insulation(also called bead board). For larger applications, there are severalmaterials that come in sizes from 4’x4’ up to as large as 20’x40’ andlighting basics111