New to Lighting: A Tutorial (Part 2)

In the first piece I wrote on lighting, I offered a basic look at lights, and how to setup a generic system of 3 point lighting. But whilst 3 point is a sort of Swiss Army knife of lighting, it is not necessarily the best for all occasions, and certainly not the best if you are trying to create a specific mood for your still shot, video, film or vlog.

In this article, I’ll cover more specific lighting types under certain circumstances and give you a starting point to experiment for your own setups.

I’d like to thank Sydney based Kayell who are the Australian distributors for Aputure for their assistance in these articles. I have also used the Set.A.Light3D software to create some of the diagrams showing how to place you lights, models and props etc, and you can download a trial of this from www.exlixxier.com.

But I do recommend buying the software as it is inexpensive indeed for what you get. A full review is here.

Creating Hard Light

I am a great fan of UK police dramas – think Line of Duty, Grace, Prey and so on (but not necessarily Midsomer Murders as that is mostly fun stuff disguised as a police drama). These shows make great use of hard lighting in order to determine there is some dastardly action afoot, but not necessarily the show face of the perpetrator, or other detail. This is created by using a hard light technique, also referred to as Chiaroscuro lighting.

(Chiaroscuro is an Italian term used to describe the technique of using light and dark in artwork, particularly in painting).

In film and video usage it creates specific areas of light and dark used for creating suspense. Famous films that used the technique brilliantly include The Godfather and Casino Royale. Citizen Kane also used it to great effect.

In its most basic form, Chiaroscuro lighting – often also called Low Key lighting – is created with a single key light and a dark background. The angle of the light on the subject against the background dictates how much effect you get. To soften the background, you can also use a reflector to bounce some light back.

In this example, I have also added a gobo to give the banded effect for extra drama.

An excellent light to use as a key in this circumstance is the Amaran 100 (pictured at top), a 100W /  RGB LED based light that uses either AC power, or if you are on location with no access to AC  has an optional battery pack. It also contains on-board dimming controls, and all features can be controlled wirelessly by a smartphone app. For more power, say over a larger distance, there is a beefed-up Model 200. Both have a ton of other features making them a versatile light for many circumstances by the way.

Built in effects allow heaps of creative control and of course colour and temperature are all controllable.

Placement Lighting

Let’s say you have an indoor scene being shot at night, and have a need for light to be coming from a specific direction. A good example harking back to my UK police dramas is the baddie holed up in an attic with a single window. To the viewer, outside that window – but unseen of course – is a dark straight on a rainy night with a single street lamp. During the scene, you might see the blue lights of a police car gradually appearing.

Another example on the same vein is to simulate a neon sign that might be outside a la say Blade Runner.

These are perfect uses for LED tube lights such as the Aputure Amaran Pixel Tube. There are varying lengths of Pixel tube available and all offer full RGB, powered by rechargeable batteries. Built in effects allow all sorts of possibilities when you need specific lighting needs, and these are controllable via a smartphone app.

Flexibility

Tube lights like the Amaran Pixel Tube are also very good in other ways due to their flexibility. For example, if you want to light a subject for an interview, having a tube light vertically lighting the person will give you a harder light than if the light is horizontal.

Further, as they have full RGB colour that is switchable, Tube lights are excellent for lighting a scene where different colours are needed; for an artistic shot, you might want to have your subject coloured with one light, but the background be a totally different colour.

This is called colour harmonising by the way. If you want a leg up helping to choose multiple colours for different situations and making sure everything matches, Adobe has a great online tool available at https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

Bear in mind, also shooting a scene with a single colour can make a difference to the vibe of that scene. In the UK police dramas, the studio that shot Spooks had a tendency to use a grey / blue light to make the scene look a drab part of London. Sci-fi films using blue is another example.

Product Lighting

Like many, I used to use a combination of a ring light and a light box when shooting product – something I have not done for a while admittedly, except for personal amusement. But I since discovered that if you use a tube light, you can get a whole new feeling and atmosphere to the shots, and it’s quite easy.

With just a pair of tube lights like the Amaran Pixel Tube, some stunning shots can be taken – video as well as still photography. My searches of the internet found some truly astonishing product shots that when you delve into the setup are very simple to setup with two tube lights each with a diffuser in front.

Here is a brilliant example.

One light is placed to the right front of the bottle of gin and the second to the left front with the diffusers placed between the lights and the bottle.

Using tube lights and playing around with the colours available means the possibilities are endless, and all for a budget price.

To view the actual lights I have spoken about here, visit Kayell Australia.