I ignored this part of lighting for years (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:01) [music] (00:00:01) One aspect of lighting that I often (00:00:04) overlook and still to this day I have to (00:00:06) remind myself about is how am I lighting (00:00:09) a space? (00:00:11) This is a mistake a lot of us make. We (00:00:13) think about lighting our subject first (00:00:15) and not about the actual environment (00:00:17) that the shot is, which arguably is more (00:00:19) important than even just the light (00:00:21) hitting your character cuz it is (00:00:22) actually in fact more of your shot. It's (00:00:25) more of your painting. It's more of what (00:00:26) you're creating. And so today I want to (00:00:28) go over four different aspects of how (00:00:30) you can approach lighting a space and (00:00:32) we'll get into some real practical tips. (00:00:36) [music] And this video is sponsored by (00:00:38) Sennheiser. (00:00:41) The first aspect of lighting a space I (00:00:43) want to talk about is practicals. And (00:00:45) this is essentially just bringing lamps (00:00:47) into a space. It's hiding lights or (00:00:49) switching out bulbs. Practicals are just (00:00:51) essentially any light that you could (00:00:53) justify being in that space. And you can (00:00:56) kind of begin to push this and have a (00:00:58) lot of fun with it. Like some of these (00:00:59) lights in the space I've added, but some (00:01:01) of them are just the lamps I have. And a (00:01:03) few quick tips for you as a (00:01:04) cinematographer. Everyone should have a (00:01:07) couple lamps in their car at all times. (00:01:09) And also a set of light bulbs. Whether (00:01:11) it just be some light bulbs that you've (00:01:13) gotten from the hardware store that are (00:01:14) very warm, in some cases cool, but I (00:01:16) tend to really like warm lamps. Or you (00:01:18) can even get something better like the (00:01:19) Aperture B7C lights. Those are light (00:01:22) bulbs that you can screw into any sort (00:01:24) of fixture. and the control with the app (00:01:25) so you have full control of the color (00:01:27) temperature. And I really recommend if (00:01:29) you're going to be going to set, don't (00:01:30) just think about having like a big 150 C (00:01:32) softbox like I have here or a couple (00:01:34) even just tube lights. Bring a few lamps (00:01:36) and bring a few bulbs that you can swap (00:01:39) out. And this is where too is once you (00:01:41) begin to create these pool lights, you (00:01:42) can begin to justify hiding some other (00:01:44) lights. Like I'll I'll actually just (00:01:46) take you through the space here. Right (00:01:48) now in this space, I have this lamp here (00:01:51) on a dimmer. highly recommend having (00:01:52) your lights on a dimmer so you can (00:01:54) change them unless you have one of those (00:01:55) like aperture bulbs because then you can (00:01:57) just do that from the app. Then I also (00:01:58) have a little aperture MC light hanging (00:02:02) back here and then I can control that (00:02:03) and I have that to the warmest (00:02:05) temperature setting I have. And then (00:02:07) this LED light here, this is genuinely (00:02:10) turn down my ISO so you can see it. It's (00:02:13) genuinely one of the warmest light bulbs (00:02:15) I think I own. Claims 1,800. Not quite (00:02:18) sure. Sometimes when you buy it online (00:02:20) they're very cheap. But then what we've (00:02:21) also done here is just added a couple (00:02:24) LED lights on here. This is nothing (00:02:25) special. The key is that we've added (00:02:28) some tape along the edge here so that it (00:02:31) pulls the light down rather than shining (00:02:33) off the side cuz that little LED there (00:02:35) actually the light will come off the (00:02:37) edge here. So we've just put this white (00:02:39) tape on here and it's created the pools (00:02:41) of light. So that way when we come back (00:02:43) to our shot over here can see it's much (00:02:47) softer. It doesn't just shine directly (00:02:48) into the light. It creates that little (00:02:50) pocket. As you can see from the shoot we (00:02:52) did for our course cinnipath pro. We (00:02:53) just put the twinkle lights in the (00:02:55) background and that just again adds a (00:02:57) little more visual interest, a little (00:02:59) more texture to the space. And and you (00:03:01) can even just begin to use candles as (00:03:02) practical lighting. We did this in the (00:03:04) basement over at Evil Empire Studio so (00:03:06) that the space wasn't just one big black (00:03:08) void. We went and we put candles all (00:03:10) along the side there and then turned off (00:03:12) a few of the work lights but left a few (00:03:14) of them on the wall. Again, one of the (00:03:16) easiest ways to make an environment look (00:03:18) interesting is block as much light as (00:03:20) you can. I have a skylight in this room. (00:03:21) And then just begin to add pockets of (00:03:24) different color temperatures or like I (00:03:26) do here, just all warm. [music] (00:03:32) One quick piece of advice, too, when (00:03:34) you're lighting your subject, the closer (00:03:37) you can get your key light to them, like (00:03:38) I have here, I think I only have this. (00:03:40) This [music] is a 150. I think I have (00:03:42) this just down at like maybe 7%. Oh, no. (00:03:44) We're up at 10%. See, I just like bring (00:03:46) my lights in so close. I can't believe (00:03:48) how many people don't do this. They (00:03:50) don't just have their light super close. (00:03:51) So, when you look at the shot here, it's (00:03:53) very, very soft. Which, while I'm here, (00:03:55) spin this back over, talk about today's (00:03:58) sponsor, which is none other than (00:03:59) Sennheiser. They have a huge sale going (00:04:01) on right now for both the MK 400 and the (00:04:05) workhorse, the MK600. (00:04:08) This mic years ago, I swapped over onto, (00:04:11) I think, when I was shooting the film (00:04:12) Chase It from the South. I began using (00:04:14) this for my vlogging and I have just not (00:04:16) gone back. Truly, just one of my (00:04:17) favorite parts of it is that it has the (00:04:19) integrated shock mount on the inside, (00:04:22) which essentially [music] means your mic (00:04:23) isn't just out here flopping around like (00:04:25) it's it's right in here. I don't (00:04:26) recommend holding it by this, but this (00:04:28) has been my workhorse. I use this for (00:04:31) anytime I'm vlogging. The Synheiser mics (00:04:33) have been a huge part of my documentary (00:04:35) workflow. Whenever we're on set, I make (00:04:37) sure that all of our cameras are (00:04:38) equipped with at least a 600 or the 416. (00:04:41) And this mic just runs off little AAA's. (00:04:43) And also to a very obvious green light (00:04:45) to know if the mic is actually on cuz I (00:04:48) don't know if you've been there but I (00:04:48) have where I've been recording. And (00:04:52) what's great too with the 600 is it (00:04:55) comes with a slot for double yeah one (00:05:00) single double A I believe. You put that (00:05:02) in there. We take our FX3. (00:05:06) Look at that. (00:05:08) And now we have even higher fidelity, (00:05:11) higher quality shotgun phantom powered (00:05:14) sound coming right into our FX3. $249 (00:05:17) getting shotgun quality like Sennheiser. (00:05:19) There should be no excuse for going on (00:05:21) to Amazon and buying one of those crappy (00:05:23) third party shotguns. This is an amazing (00:05:25) sale that Sennheiser's on. I think it's (00:05:26) to celebrate their 10,000th anniversary. (00:05:29) They've been around for 10,000 years. (00:05:30) Moses actually recorded his uh vlogs (00:05:33) with the Ten Commandments on a 400. (00:05:37) You can check them down below. I'll put (00:05:38) a link for them. And thank you (00:05:39) Sennheiser for always being an amazing (00:05:40) sponsor to this channel and helping (00:05:42) support all my documentary work. (00:05:46) The next way to light a space is (00:05:49) actually lighting it from the outside. (00:05:52) This is where you're going to bring a (00:05:53) much larger light and you want to have (00:05:54) it closer to 5600 or even cooler (00:05:57) depending the time of day to recreate (00:05:59) daylight coming through those windows. (00:06:02) Now, if you want to make it more of like (00:06:03) a golden hour, you can warm up the light (00:06:05) or you can change your white balance in (00:06:06) your camera, but I love to light from (00:06:09) outside spaces cuz for me as a (00:06:11) documentary filmmaker or someone trying (00:06:12) to adjust my cameras when I'm doing (00:06:14) interviews is there's more flexibility (00:06:16) when the light's just coming in through (00:06:17) a window because we now no longer have (00:06:20) fixtures in the space. And sometimes you (00:06:22) get lucky where if you're lighting from (00:06:24) the outside in, you can actually use (00:06:26) that light for your shot. Again, coming (00:06:27) back to Evil Empire, you can see the (00:06:29) shot with Elisha. We had been creating (00:06:31) moonlight from the space and in turn (00:06:33) that moonlight that was just supposed to (00:06:34) be a pool of really really cold light in (00:06:37) the background. We actually put her in (00:06:39) that and that could have been in one of (00:06:40) our shots there using that lighting from (00:06:42) the outside of the environment to create (00:06:44) that look coming in. And once you've (00:06:47) established one real window with a light (00:06:50) coming through, you can begin to bring (00:06:51) other lights then into the space to (00:06:54) recreate the repetition. What I mean is (00:06:55) again coming back to the shot with (00:06:57) Elisha here, we had that pool of cold (00:06:59) light down at the far end, but then we (00:07:01) put tube lights at different stages down (00:07:04) the hallway to repeat the idea that (00:07:06) there is a skylight. Going back to a (00:07:08) film I shot many years ago, Beauty and (00:07:10) the Battle, we actually lit that entire (00:07:12) environment by just punching in huge 18K (00:07:15) lights through the ceiling, through the (00:07:17) skylights. Cuz of course you can use (00:07:19) sunlight, available light. Like this (00:07:21) doorway here, that is just sunlight (00:07:23) coming through the windows back there. (00:07:25) But every once in a while, you're going (00:07:26) to see a truck go by and it'll change (00:07:27) and that's interesting. But if I didn't (00:07:29) have to shoot this in just 20 minutes (00:07:32) here, if I was [snorts] shooting this (00:07:33) interview over a few hours, this would (00:07:35) become a problem because that light (00:07:37) wouldn't be consistent. So I could (00:07:38) actually set up another light in that (00:07:40) space. But then also too, you don't want (00:07:42) to just shine one big block through a (00:07:44) window. You want to think about breaking (00:07:46) it up. So you see me do it all the time (00:07:48) on many shoots from the Chris Williamson (00:07:50) interview to some of our stuff in (00:07:51) cinematic IR course. And this breaks it (00:07:53) up so that it's not just one big white (00:07:56) square on the background. Now one other (00:07:58) really cool approach to lighting outside (00:08:00) of an environment into a room is you (00:08:02) should go watch the video I did with (00:08:04) Stephano Ferrari. He's one of the best (00:08:06) documentary DPS on the face of the (00:08:08) planet. Most Netflix series right now (00:08:10) have been shot by him. him and I spoke (00:08:12) about his approach and he will actually (00:08:13) create a white cove using a tent and (00:08:16) fire lights reflected into the space and (00:08:19) this is how he'll actually light big (00:08:20) chunks of his interview. He'll use that (00:08:22) light coming off onto his subject's face (00:08:24) and then you'll add a couple other (00:08:25) lights inside the house. (00:08:26) >> There's been instances where I put (00:08:29) branches of trees and stuff to give you (00:08:31) the the sense that there there is stuff (00:08:34) behind in in in that window and it's not (00:08:37) just a lighting source. [music] (00:08:41) The third way to approach lighting a (00:08:43) room is what I'm calling slashes. This (00:08:44) is where you bring in slashes of light (00:08:46) from with inside the space. One of the (00:08:49) easiest ways to do this, and I have a (00:08:51) whole video on it, is using something (00:08:53) called an e-lect. This is just like a (00:08:55) flat disco ball because this gives you (00:08:57) lots of specular highlights, lots of (00:08:59) little reflections all across big blank (00:09:01) surfaces. I love using the e-lect when I (00:09:04) have a big white wall as it does break (00:09:06) it up. And having those speckles across (00:09:07) there just makes it way more interesting (00:09:09) to look at. And it's really fun too if (00:09:10) you have the shallow depth of field as (00:09:12) it's kind of like a double bouquet. (00:09:14) Another way to do slashes is getting (00:09:16) like a gobo like this. And you can add (00:09:17) in you can actually just like Can we see (00:09:20) through this? There we go. Let's just (00:09:21) leave a little slash light. Oh, there's (00:09:23) my lips. Hi. Hi. Oh, this is like that (00:09:25) uh craft dinner commercial. [music] (00:09:28) And that would come through. If I set (00:09:30) this up with the other Juan light, you (00:09:32) would see it would just be like a little (00:09:33) hack of light. The flashes of light's (00:09:35) cool. The issue I have with it is (00:09:37) sometimes it just looks like that. (00:09:38) Slashes of light. You can tell I really (00:09:40) love realism in my shots. Probably being (00:09:42) a doc filmmaker, I like things looking (00:09:44) at least semi-natural. But the slashes (00:09:47) begin to feel, like I said, just like (00:09:48) you set up a light and out of this hack. (00:09:50) But you can get creative with the goos. (00:09:52) Or you can make it feel like just like (00:09:55) this, like you have a little bit of (00:09:56) light coming in through a window. One of (00:09:57) my favorite shots from Killer Be Killed (00:09:59) was when Joel was sitting on that bed (00:10:01) and we just serendipitously had hard (00:10:03) sunlight coming through. You'll see some (00:10:05) directors doing this sometimes where (00:10:06) they'll just have a slash light across (00:10:07) their character's face or across their (00:10:09) mouth highlighting different things. (00:10:11) Just think about contrast. That's one of (00:10:12) your best friends in post-prouction (00:10:14) [snorts] (00:10:15) as well as color temperature (00:10:16) differences. Just a whole video about (00:10:19) having color temperatures in your shots. (00:10:21) You can go watch that as well. [music] (00:10:25) One other bonus piece of advice is I (00:10:27) really love that Nick Plucky does this (00:10:29) on set is when we get there he'll have (00:10:31) an iPad with a bunch of references. This (00:10:33) does two things. one, we're able to both (00:10:34) be discussing about the same idea (00:10:36) because if he's describing something and (00:10:38) I am and I can't picture what he's (00:10:40) saying, we might be actually achieving (00:10:42) something completely different. And then (00:10:43) also two, it kind of sparks my (00:10:45) creativity. I might just be looking at a (00:10:46) space saying, "Yeah, this is good (00:10:47) enough." But if I've seen what another (00:10:49) cinematographer has done and how much (00:10:50) they've pushed and crafted and (00:10:52) meticulously manipulated the space that (00:10:55) they've been shooting in, that might (00:10:56) make me want to try something else. (00:11:01) Now, the last way to light a space is my (00:11:04) least favorite. It's something I used to (00:11:05) just always do because it was the only (00:11:06) thing I knew how to do. And I call this (00:11:08) just ambience. This is just where you (00:11:10) punch a light into the ceiling to add (00:11:12) some more overall light into the space. (00:11:16) Typically, lighting things just from (00:11:17) above is one of the least interesting (00:11:19) ways to approach lighting because we (00:11:21) don't get to see the shadows. Now, one (00:11:24) way to do this effectively, and I did (00:11:26) this on the shoot for a VR company, is (00:11:29) we pointed the light into the far (00:11:31) corner. Now, what this does is it (00:11:33) reflects back onto your subjects and it (00:11:36) begins to act as a big backlight, and (00:11:39) that's how we're actually able to (00:11:40) achieve this silhouetty, edge lighty (00:11:42) look on all the characters running (00:11:44) through this space. [music] (00:11:47) Thanks for watching this. Thank you, (00:11:49) Synheiser, for sponsoring this. I don't (00:11:51) know if we'll be putting out another (00:11:52) video before Christmas. I am going on a (00:11:55) 65day honeymoon. It's about time that I (00:11:58) go away for a while and I just got (00:12:01) married in September. So, me and my wife (00:12:02) are looking forward to spending some (00:12:05) time overseas. We'll be Australia, New (00:12:07) Zealand, China, Japan. It's going to be (00:12:09) a wild trip. And uh I will film a little (00:12:11) bit of it. I mean, we should. We're (00:12:13) going to be seeing some insane stuff, (00:12:14) but for the most part, we're going to be (00:12:16) trying to unplug, just be a human for a (00:12:18) little while. So, the YouTube channel (00:12:20) might get a little bit thin on videos (00:12:22) there for a bit. (00:12:23) >> I didn't make an I'm quitting YouTube (00:12:25) video. (00:12:26) >> Don't worry, I'm not doing one of those (00:12:27) YouTube things of I quit and oh, I'm (00:12:29) feeling burnt out. That's not me. But I (00:12:31) do look forward to getting some time to (00:12:33) recharge. Awesome. I'll see you guys on (00:12:35) the next