Photo Lighting Techniques that Translate to Video
Lesson 18 from: From Photo to FilmAndrew Scrivani
Photo Lighting Techniques that Translate to Video
Lesson 18 from: From Photo to FilmAndrew Scrivani
Lesson Info
18. Photo Lighting Techniques that Translate to Video
Lessons
Class Introduction
10:34 2How Photography Skills Translate to Film & Video
16:46 3Terminology
07:58 4Concepts
06:43 5Opportunities Within Video & Film
24:33 6Crew Roles
14:34 7Interview - writer & Producer, Julio Vincent Gambuto
29:13 8Phases of Video - Pre Production
14:37Phases of Video - Story Color & Design
16:36 10Production
05:57 11Post Production
08:01 12Camera Rigs & Gear
10:05 13Camera Movement
21:18 14Camera Placement: Interview Set Up
15:46 15Communicating Your Vision & Expectations
11:36 16Production Protocol
25:57 17What Gear Do I Need to Get Started?
27:12 18Photo Lighting Techniques that Translate to Video
08:58 19Shots You Need for Coverage
26:20 20Planning Your Shots
05:09 21Moving into Post Production
08:41 22Available Tools & Assets
12:01 23Understanding Continuity Basics
11:08 24Editing and Media Considerations
07:32 25Video Examples with Final Post Production
06:59 26Opportunities to Start Incorporating Film & Video
09:53 27Lone Wolf vs. Collaborative Approach
05:23Lesson Info
Photo Lighting Techniques that Translate to Video
lighting techniques that translate. I'm gonna call back some of the stuff that we talked about yesterday, including this picture, which was sort of like an extreme version of like the way we lit a particular thing of that was a strobe light application. So, um, one of things I want to talk about is that the lighting techniques? And I think I mentioned this yesterday. Lighting techniques that are typical to food photography translated pretty well. And then I think I was doing some research and reading a little bit and understanding that we want to avoid front lighting, right, because that flattens out your subject. And that's something again that in cinema is also kind of a no, no, you don't want to just front light everything because then it just then you have nothing there. There's just no depth of field in your frame. Um, it you know, you want to create a distinguished kind of light characteristics in your and your set up. So, um, using things like backlighting and kickers and backgr...
ound lighting and practical Z just to create sort of an entire environment of light is the techniques that we tried to. I tried utilizes food photographer I have for a long time. I know that technically, there is no proper way to do food photography lighting. A lot of people do it a lot of different ways, but there are some pretty basic things. Like avoiding front lighting is a very good first start, right? So also, in terms of cinema lighting, you're talking about using shadows to create dramatic dramatic effect. Now I may be the best example of a food photographer who has done that pretty consistently throughout my career because I've gravitated toward a darker look. And then when I actually started to work with cinematographers and DP's, they were very tuned into the way I like things and the way my photography kind of is cinematic. So it was a fairly easy transition and also helped build a lot of confidence for me in that I understood that the lighting basics of cinema were something that I was already pretty familiar with. So I think if you are coming on, a lot of you clearly know me and you came to this class because you have worked in food. Um, understand that maybe you have a little bit of a leg up in understanding the way we use daylight the way we Kraft light for food the way we create dimensions on a table top and try to create depth because that's a really important concept in lighting for cinema. Um, using. We talked about this a little bit earlier about, um, using practical and in some of the work that I've done, you know, using the light that's there or modifying the light that's there to create the effect that you want is really on effective way to implement a more cinematic look, too. Your presentation you're framing, you know, whatever you're doing. Lamps, lights, overheads. You know, you kind of want to start with an Ambien base and then craft the light that you have available to you. So like like I said earlier, if we're in a small room and there's lamp in the corner and we have some kind of a soft light coming through the window, but it's still pretty dark, but that where we want to frame are seen doesn't have good light on it. That's when we bring in our light matter or a quasar tube or whatever, and we like that part of the room, but let the rest of the room be lit by what's there, what's available to us and modify that anyway. We want could particularly like as food photographers, using daylight the way we have shaping and crafting daylight. That is a you know, watching these kind of set ups like this. There's all this daylight coming in the room, right, and we're just supplementing it with the big key light and then using the neck's to kind of knock down the shadows or add the shadows where we want. So the reality is that this is just a bigger version of what we're talking about, so that the cinema aspect of what we do, what I've done in food, what a lot of you have done in food also translates to that bigger scale. So it's good. It's good to be aware of it and be comfortable in the idea that it's not that foreign to you, right, so that this is one of my favorite. I mean, I like I was snapping pictures like crazy when I was in that room that day, so it was really a lot of fun. One the other things I want you to be aware of, and I want you to reduce some research on is if you're going to shoot at higher frame rates, understand that certain lights will flicker. So you have to understand that the lighting that you're gonna use has to be able to withstand whatever frame rates that you're going to you. So the higher those frame rates go and you could do an experiment with your IPhone is do something in a in a lit room and then do it at high speed and watch how it flickers. This will let you know like the IPhone is a great example, because that's a 240 frames per second. So if you're lighting could withstand an IPhone test pretty much any camera you going to use at that point, unless you know, unless you're using a super high frame rate camera will be able to handle it. So think about that. In terms of that is one of those kind of things that you maybe not aware of, because if you've never used steady lighting before, this is one of those things that you have to be aware of, and it's good to research. So in terms of basic lighting, I think we've kind of talked about it enough at this point where I'm gonna I'm gonna let it go unless we have obviously some questions about lighting. But I think I'm just gonna let it go at this point because I think I've made the point I want to make, which is lighting for cinema is a particular job for a particular person. But in the beginning stages, the things you bring with you as a photographer are enough to start, and you shouldn't be afraid of it. And especially if you're comfortable in daylight and crafting daylight, you're gonna be able to use those techniques and those ideas to add lighting to your sets, build out these kinds of cinematic looks, compositions that have depth, you know, multiple lighting techniques, multiple lighting colors and different things in different settings. So feel comfortable knowing that you have a good baseline to move forward. So that's really the key message I wanted to deliver to about lighting because we're not going to do a whole lighting class today for using something similar to the light met. I'm just curious on the larger units. Are they big enough to use without diffusion? Or what do you use to help defuse those lights that might not have something like a soft box and easily attached Those lights, the light mats that I the light mats that I just showed you? The other thing that they have because they have that Velcro thing is that they have Velcro silks that go over them and they come in the package. So the other thing is, is you could use the same kind of flags and silks that you would use in a photo studio. I still use all of the same ones. Um, Big four by four. You know, that's as the ones I've built from my windows. You know, like you just build those yourself or you can get blank frames and build your own flags a lot. A lot of, ah, a lot of gaffers and grips do that. They build their own flags and this, you know, when you go into a grip truck and you look at all the different ones, it's all different diffusion materials that just put on a metal frame that goes into it goes into a C stand so, yeah, it's all the same. That part of it is that part of it is all the same, which is really nice to know any other before we move on from lighting. Cool. All right. Oh, homework. I want to tell you about homework, but look for the best light and think about how you would want to create it or look to scenes and try to figure out how they would link. Because I think this is a good kind of practice to, like, have a notebook and you're watching a movie, and you're saying I don't know how that was lit. I want to figure that out or you're watching a scene or you see a particular type of lighting that you like. You want to try to recreate it, even if it's just for one scene. It's a really good practice, and it's good way to do with still photography as well. To use that as the method is, I'm gonna I have a scene in a movie. I capture a freeze frame, are screen, grab and say, I want to create recreate the lighting that I saw in this picture and then you do it and take a picture of it and match it up and see if he did it. So it's a really good practice technique. Homework assignment. Azaz, a photographer transitioning into video to try to like things the way you know we've done this is photographers to is like You see a picture and he's like, I want to figure out how to like that. You do the same thing with motion, but you know, it's it's a good it's a good practice.
Ratings and Reviews
Nev Steer
A very well explained class on starting in film production from the viewpoint of a person with a successful photography background. Thanks Andrew.