So this week we had our tutorial on lighting. Well i guess for all documentaries its about your working with the environment and not the other way around. In many documentaries, well at least for observational ones, i personally favour natural lighting if possible, but keep in mind its quality over magnitude in terms of lighting. Following your subjects around can be a wild goose chase literally and so what would be some of the key solutions to ensure that lighting is correctly set up on set with the camera in the right spot. OR! I think if there’s a scenario, where you could place your camera and subject in an exact spot based on the lighting conditions instead. VICE VERSA.
So we did an exercise and i think I learnt alot about the kino light and reflector boards.
The white reflector provides the softest, most natural-appearing light. The reflected light is very diffuse, and matches the colour temperature of the ambient (or main) light. Except when it is used as a main front light on a backlit subject it doesn’t add any noticeable highlights or shadows of its own, apart from a soft catchlight in the eyes. It is used mostly as a main light source, especially as a front light,but beware of “flat” textures. Its main failing, though, is that in order to provide enough reflected light for many shots, it needs to be very close to the subject in relation to its size.
The silver reflector gets more OOMPH on an overcast day and it tends to be more directional. It is also more reflective and usually much more directional if you control it well. The light from a silver reflector is “hotter” and will cause noticeable highlights and shadows but it has a greater allowance of distance between your subject and the lighting position. You can get much lower lighting using single-light setups using a silver reflector than using a white reflector. Because of the directionality of the reflected light, it can reveal texture better than a white reflector.
The gold reflector is just about similar to your silver reflector but as Robin quotes “it’s mostly for stills and fashion crap.”
Gold shifts the colour temperature on set and I guess it does giver a healthy bronze-y appearance if needed. Just like in the example from Snow White and the Huntsman, note that a gold reflector was used to illuminate Charlie’s Theron face and her skin and it kind of did emphasize a more powerful and dominate character within her. I’ve worked with a gold reflector before and I just think that in observational documentaries, especially those of public issues, gold just wouldnt work especially when emotions need to be evoked. Personally i think gold creates more mystical illusions and it does seem a little seductive don’t you think?
This is one of my favourite scenes from the movie mainly because everything was designed so perfectly. The Gold colours and i guess in this case wardrobe did play a huge part. Imagine if Charlie Theron was in black or some dull colour in thi scene, the lighting would have been such a hassle. As compared to the shot below, I think the key directional light from the window behind complemented Charlie Theron’s dress and it definitely achieved the ideal emotion and setting.
If i’m not wrong, perhaps a dedo with white filters was shone from the from on the left side to enable a small shadow on the top right side of her face, and maybe a silver reflector was used as well. And the blacks, probably would have been done in post production. Alternatively, production design could have been done by filming in a pitch dark room and using props or binds to cover specific areas of the awesome looking window behind. Nonetheless, one of my favourite shots!:)
drunkonhelium 