To better understand three point lighting, we used tungsten lights at first before moving on to LEDs, and a rotolight, experimenting with them by placing them in different positions, and seeing what they looked like turned on together and separately. However, the F-stop of the camera is set roughly the same whilst testing all the different lights and setups, so what I would like to experiment with to further build on this work is changing the F-stop to see how this affects the quality of the picture.
Tungsten lights
Back light at F5:
By having just the back light turned on, it could be seen how it illuminates the back of the subject's head. This still makes the image quite flat though as the front of the subject's face is covered by shadow and not very distinguishable from the background. The F-stop the camera is set to means that the lenses is taking in quite a lot of light, which creates a shallow depth of field, so it is important that the camera is close to the subject.
Fill light at F6:
The F-stop is less wide when only the fill light is on as the light is brighter so as not to overexpose the subject the lens needs to be taking in less light. From this it can be seen how the fill light illuminates only the side of the subject's face, creating a hard light look as the transition between shadow and light creates a solid line. However, some separation between the subject and background is noticeable as there are no shadows on the background, and the shadows on his face have begun to make him look more three dimensional, for example, the shadows under his chin mean the solid line showing the contrast is at a different angle to the one on the rest of his face.
Fill and back light at F6:
Combining these shows how the contrast between light and dark on the subject's face can be reduced as the light becomes more balanced. However, there is still a dark patch on one side of his face which could be further balanced by a key light.
Key light at F6:
Having only the key light on shows how the front of the subject can be illuminated, however, as it acts like a spotlight, he is not separated from the background because there is no back light, meaning the picture looks quite flat. Where the fill light was there is a shadow on the subject's face, although this is a softer contrast than there had been when only the fill light was on.
Key and back light at F6:
Turning on the key and the back light shows how, although the light is illuminating both the front and back of the subject, a fill light is needed to get rid of the harsh shadows on his face. What would have made this shot better is if the key light was placed opposite the back light, as it is slightly off to the side, because this would have given a better impression of the shadows the fill light reduces.
Rotolight and LEDs
Rotolight at F6, temperature 3200K:
When the rotolight was set at the same temperature as the tungsten lights, it could be seen how the subject is illuminated with a colour close to white, but slightly yellow. This is a similar colour to the tungsten lights, but slightly softer compared to when only a tungsten was acting as the key light as the rotolight was here.
Rotolight at F6, temperature 4800K:
Increasing the temperature of the rotolight made the colour much colder, but still white, however instead of being slightly yellow it is more green. It makes the subject look much brighter than at 3200 Kelvin as it is harsher, creating slightly darker shadows.
Lighting setup for Once Upon A Time scene test:
This setup used a white LED as a back light, set at intensity 76, an orange LED as the fill light, set at intensity 95, and the rotolight as the key light, set at intensity 95 with the TV effect on so that it would flicker underneath the camera. The F-stop of the camera was at 4.2. What I liked most about this setup was how the white back light created the illusion of daylight/natural light coming through a window, even though it was set up inside, and how the flickering rotolight illuminates the subject's faces, making it seem that they are watching TV. What I would have liked to experiment with for this setup is how each light looks without the other on, as it is unclear how the white and orange LEDs balance out, and even if the orange LED is needed.
We then filmed this whole scene using the lighting setup. With the sound design, I think this lighting setup works well for the scene as even without a TV it is believable that she turns it on. The only thing I think that could be improved is filming around the lights better as the back light is slightly visible during the scene, and moving the rotolight closer to the subject so the flickering is more apparent.
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