Digital Video - May 2008 - (Page 45)

BY JAY HOLBEN DV 101 CHARACTER STUDY UNDERSTANDING QUALITY OF LIGHT AND HOW TO CONTROL IT. L ight has two main qualities: hard and soft. Hard light has a very short transition between light and shadow, meaning you get very sharp, clearly defined shadows. Hard light can show the texture of an object, which is sometimes good, sometimes not so much. If you’re lighting an actress in a romantic scene and she has imperfect skin, hard light is not the way to go. Bright noon sun on a cloudless day is an example of extremely hard light. The hard light gives you harsh shadows and high contrast; contrast, of course, being the difference between the brightness of the highlights and darkness of the shadows. Soft light, inversely, has a long transition between light and shadow. With very soft light, you can eliminate shadows altogether. Soft light can hide the texture of an object. A completely overcast day is an example of soft light when you get very diffuse, if any, shadows and low contrast. There are a lot of different types of diffusion material sold to the film, video and theatrical market to soften lighting. The higher the density (more opaque) the diffusion, the more it will soften and spread the light. What most people don’t understand is that diffusion alone does not really affect the quality of the light; it’s the size of the source and the distance to the subject being lit that affects the quality. The sun is, by far, the largest source of light known to man, but it is extremely far away, so it only appears as a little ball in the sky. Hence, the light from it is very hard. A bare light bulb (clear glass) is a very hard source of light www.dv.com Top left: Hard light from a 300-watt 3" Fresnel without diffusion 2' from the model. Top center: Clipping diffusion on to the doors only succeeds in spreading the light a bit, but doesn’t change the overall quality. Top right: The same Fresnel through a 2'x2' piece of diffusion. The Fresnel has been moved back. The diffusion is now 2' away from the model and the exposure has been adjusted for the reduction in light. Above: Using a larger piece of diffusion and positioning it away from the lens allows for a larger light source and a much softer quality. because it is very small (just the size of the filament). If you light a person in a room with a bare bulb, you will get very hard shadows, just the same as a person standing outside in bright, harsh sunlight. If we replace that same bulb with a “soft light” bulb — one dv may 2008 45 http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - May 2008

Digital Video - May 2008 Contents DV Update Close-Up AJ-HPX3000 Camcorder Sidecar Raid Zoom H2 Recorder Instant Expert 324 Flat-Panel Display Extreme 35MM Adapter Type-S JIB How Slow Can You Go? Global Gastronome Mixing It UP Long-Distance Runaround Tools & Technology DV 101 Production Diary

Digital Video - May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.