Ten Lighting Setups from John Note on Vimeo.
This was a project for my lighting class. Each shot had specific details on which to follow, which are explained in the video. In more depth, here are the ten shot assignments.
1. A three-quarter or waist-high silhouette of 1 or 2 people perfectly exposed for the background
with the foreground figure(s) completely dark. There should be enough distance between foreground
and background that the spill of one area does not interfere with the other.
2. Invert the lighting in #1, using exactly the same pose and framing with perfectly exposed
foreground figures at 4:1 key/fill (two stops) and completely dark or just barely visible details in the
background.
3. A waist-high person in soft (diffused) side light, no fill light, and a specular edge light from the
opposite side with the background as dark and unlit as possible. An incident reading of the edge light
should be about the same f/stop as the key light if the subject has light features, or one stop brighter
if the subject has dark features. Expose for the diffused key light.
4. Identical pose and framing to #3 but with added light and shadow (using barn doors, or other
shadowing material) shaping and highlighting the background (think of it as painting the background
with light and shadow).
5. A scene with a standing or seated person, a candle (either held by hand or on a table) seemingly
lighting the person but actually enhanced with additional light, and a circular glow simulating the
effect of the candlelight on the background.
6. A person reading in bed by lamplight at midnight (implied by light, shadow, framing, ratio,
composition, and a “practical”).
7. A person sleeping in bed at 3 am with shadows implying moonlight coming through unseen
foliage or blinds onto part of the scene. You may want to gel the moonlight source or the fill light
with a blue or other color gel.
8. A person in bed at sunrise (implied by light, shadow, color, and composition).
9. Simulate the pose, surface tones, and light of a specific frame from a film of your choosing. If
possible, also turn in a still image of that frame.
10.
Shoot an interior still with at least one person in it using whatever light sources already exist in
the location (lamps, overhead lights, windows, etc.), but without showing any of those sources in the
frame. Now, turn off/cover those sources and replicate, as nearly as possible, that scene using only
artificial lighting. Also shoot wide shots of both the “natural” lighting sources and the artificial
sources.
Since it is available in video, instead of using gels, I white balanced off of different color swatches, for a greener look, I white balanced off of a magenta tone, blue look, orange tone, etc...
I also lowered the blacks and raised the mids in Color, to give the video a more filmic look.
Over all, a very fun assignment
