Placing light sources within shots – and how it can improve them.

Once Patrick Tomasso points it out to you, you’ll never again not notice lamps in shots:

“You’re augmenting something that exists rather than creating something from scratch,” says cinematographer Roger Deakins (via StudioBinder):

Arrival (2016) and Selma (2014) DP Bradford Young talks Lighting Practical Sources in Film (via Cooke Optics):

Try it Yourself

Lighting using Only Practicals

Lewis McGregor offers his Tips for Using Practical Lighting (via PremiumBeat):

Brady Bessette demonstrates Lighting With only Practicals:

Augmenting with Motivated Lighting

Practical light source(s) alone may not be bright enough, or may need to be further extended or controlled. Aputure‘s case study demonstrates that the way to supplement practicals with motivated light is by matching the colour and quality of each practical “source”:

Danny Gevirtz demonstrates how to manage motivated lighting between wide and close-up shots:

Light Spaces, Not Faces – if the scene is lit for the wide / master shot, it’s already lit for close-ups. The opposite is much harder. Justin Jones discusses taking this very approach in his music videos (via Indy Mogul, from around 7:33):

Further Viewing

A bunch more videos looking at the work of cinematographer Bradford Young:

Film School: the Cinematography of Bradford Young