TV LIGHTING

What is Light

Light is a form of energy ,that associated with molecular motion

Duel Nature of Light

1. Light Travel in straight rays

2. Light Travel in Packets (photon)

What is Light?Light is made up of different wavelengths of energy. Colour we see falls into the bracket of the visible spectrum.

Red has the longest wavelength and blue has the shortest.

Physical Science 7.3a - The Nature of Light.flv

Light Theory White light is actually made from a mixture of full

red, full green and full blue wavelengths as shown below.

RGB can make all colours in the visible spectrum. Mixing pairs of the primary colours makes the secondary colours (cyan, magenta and yellow).

How We See Light – The Eye Light is gathered through

the pupil and focused by the lens onto the retina.

The retina is covered in light sensitive cells called rods and cones.

Tiny electrical pulses are sent down the optical nerve to the brain where they are assembled into an image.

A Journey Through the Human Eye_ How We See.mp4

How The Eye Deals Detects Light 95% of the retina is made of rods and are

sensitive to luminance (brightness/intensity/black or white info) and work at low light levels only.

5% of the retina is made of cones that are sensitive to chrominance (colour) and work in only good light levels.

This is why in darkness we see black and white and edges.

Process of Vision Animation[1].flv

The Eye There three cones are all sensitive to a different

wavelengths of light. We have cones sensitive to red, green and blue light. We are most sensitive to green, less to red and even

less to blue. We actually see 60% green, 29% red and 11% blue All video devices work on the same principles as the eye

and because we are least sensitive to colour. This is where the most compression is used.

Without light it is virtually impossible to make television images.

Lighting has both a technical and aesthetic function

The right light will create excellent pictures

Objectives of TV Lighting

To fulfill the technical requirement of the system

Lighting must provide sufficient level of illumination for the camera’s

To provide a three dimensional prospective

The TV screen is two dimensional. Depth must be provided through the - use of camera angels

- set design

- Performer blocking

- Proper use of light to emphasize texture, shape and form

To direct attention to important element in a scene

The use of light and shadow can reveal and conceal important elements in the scene ,

The director uses light to guide the

viewer’s attention within a scene.

To establish the mood of a scene

Lighting can provide the viewer with a sense of a scene emotional mood.

To fix the time of the action

It conveys the feeling about time i.e morning, evening, night and season.

Amount of light The amount of lighting a shot will

determine how clearly we see the images

The type of light affects the color

MOOD Lighting affects mood…two messages

can be conveyed in the same room with different lighting.

Video Cameras Video cameras require more light than

other cameras. There must be enough light reflected

off a scene to produce an image.

BRIGHTNESS The intensity or brightness of the light on a

subject affects how well a camera can see it Too little= too dark and underexposed The image will be soft and underexposed Will create a grainy look (this is called

picture noise) Bright light creates sharp and clear images

BASE LIGHT The light that already exists in an environment is

its base light. If you turn the lights off in a room you lower the

base light If you turn more light on then you raise the base

light Base light is often all you will have to work with

but that doesn’t mean you can’t think about lighting

DIRECTION The direction of a light source affects the

way light and shadow fall on a subject. Direction is determines by how you position

both the subject and the lighting fixture. Light from the side produces dimension and

texture where as light coming directly in front (from the angle of the camera) will reduce texture and shape.

QUALITY The quality of light refers to whether it is

hard or soft . Hard light creates sharp and well defined

dark shadows. It brings out the shapes and textures of the

subject Hard light is created by sunlight and

directional focused lighting fixtures

SOFT LIGHT Soft light is diffused and creates very few or

no shadows (like a cloudy day)

COLOR Light also determines the color an object will be White light is an equal mixture of colors across

the full spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

Our eyes compensate for these differences in color temperature

Cameras don’t The type of light affects the color of the object

Color Temperature Different types of lighting casts a different

temperature of light. Different temperatures cast different color

tints of light. Indoor Lighting generally is 3200 K (Kelvin)

**red** Outdoor Lighting 5600 K **blue**

COLOR TEMPERATURE The exact color and tone of light is called

color temperature Color characteristics are classified on a

KELVIN (K) color temperature scale. This scale measures the degree of red or

blue in the light (not the heat or brightness) The higher the color temperature the more

prominent the blue tones

COLOR TEMP…. As the light gets brighter or as the light

source changes the color temperature changes

Daylight has more blue tones Video lights usually have red tones Lights in homes are even redder Fluorescent lights are green

Color Temperature For example, in the photo on the right,

both sources of light (sunlight on the right; a standard light bulb on the left) normally appear as white light to the eye. It's only when we see them together that we notice that the colors of the two sources of light are quite different.

Color Temperature.flv

Example of Color TemperatureExample of Color Temperature

Warm(2000-3000K

Mid-range(3000-4000K)

Cool(4000K +)

Video Production Lighting _ Color Temperatures in Video Lighting.mp4

Studio and Field Light Levels Although most TV cameras need at least 1000 lux (about 90 FC) of light to produce good quality video in the middle of the lens f-stop range, many can produce acceptable pictures under a few foot-candles of light.

Today, many on-location shoots are done with as little as 30 foot-candles (about 300 lux) of light. 

The latest generation of professional video cameras can produce good quality video under less than one foot-candle (less than 10 lux) of light

Intensity Control Through Varying Distance

Light CoherenceCoherence, often called quality, is the hardness or softness of light. Light quality is probably the least understood and the most neglected of the three variables. 

In the photos above the objects are exactly the same.  Two of the variables of light are also exactly the same: intensity and color temperature. The only difference is the third variable: the coherence of the light. The first photo was shot with soft light, the second with a hard light source.

Hard LightHard light casts a sharp, clearly defined shadow.

When hard light is used to illuminate a face, imperfections in the skin stand out.

The result is less than flattering. But in other applications, such as bringing out the texture in leather, or the engraving on a piece of jewelry, this can be an advantage. 

Primary Factor of Lighting

Understand 3 point lighting to illuminate subject, give shape, add texture, fill in harsh shadows and separate from background

Not too large contrast light and dark Create an even base light Working knowledge of two type of instruments Reasonable understanding of color temperature

Measuring Light

Reflected Light- gives shape and texture, paints visual image

We perceive shape and color by what is not reflected

Incident Light- direct path from instrument to subject

Without enough there are black holes

Foot Candles- Light’s Measurement Amount of light collected

in a one foot radius of a standard candle.

Using a light meter, you measure the objects.

Example-Suit 15 ftc/Wall 700 ftc… 46:1 ratio

WHITE BALANCE Most cameras will white balance

automatically but some will have the option to do this manually

To do so you would select the color temperature for the dominant light source,; place a white object or card in that areas; point the camera at the white object completely filling the screen and perform the white balance function

Lighting for Television & Video

Design & Practice

Hue, Saturation, Brilliance

Hue and saturation are the two qualitative differences of physical colors.

The quantitative difference is brilliance, the intensity or energy of the light.

"Color," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000. Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Essential character, inherent feature, property

Hue & Saturation

HUE - Actual color: Human color perception is based on only 4 HUES:Yellow, green, blue, & red.

SATURATION: (“chroma”)Amount, strength, purity of color

Computers& TVs

Zettl, H. (2005). Sight, sound, motion: Applied media aesthetics, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson-Wadsworth

The Look & Feel of Lighting

Look sensory, surface properties, visual style; “slick”,

hard, soft, bright, dark, etc.

Feel emotional, subjective, connotative; rhythms,

textures, colors, tonal values

Viera, D. & Viera, M. (2005). Lighting for film and digital cinematography, 2nd ed. Belmont CA: Thompson-Wadsworth.

Aesthetics

Shadows Falloff Color High Key / Low Key lighting Patterns

Patterns

Kukuloris (“Cookies”) or Gobos

24” or 42” sq. panel frame

Shadow projected on background

…and actors in this case

Viera & Viera, p. 35.

Shadows

Shape Location Mood Time, season Texture

Suggest:

Shadows

“Flat” withdiffused source

Directional source, off to side.

What shape are these objects?

Shadows Define Shape & Location

Attached Shadow vs. Cast Shadow:

Gives info on shape of object & where it is relative to its surroundings.

• Where is the light source? • How far from the ground is the cone?

Shadow

Indicates distance, time, mood.

Zettl, H. (2005). Sight, sound, motion: Applied media aesthetics, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson-Wadsworth, p23

Falloff Facial texture

Fast falloff Slow Falloff

Zettl, H. (2005). Sight, sound, motion: Applied media aesthetics, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson-Wadsworth, p28

Ext shadow Time of day

Angle

Predictive Lighting Portends a coming event…

Often used along with predictive sound, music…

Soft & Hard Light

Dramatically different shadows and moods

Background Lighting and Composition

Bkgd. divided into B & W, separates characters

Bkgd. Light used to create composition; where does the light bkgd. lead you?

Photographs, Viera & Viera, p. 34

(The Third Man, Studio Canal Image, 1949) (8 ½, Corinth Films Inc., 1963.)

Background Light The same ¾ key, fill, background set up Different intensity for different moods

Bkgd.

KeyFill

Photographs, Viera & Viera, p. 33

Cameo Black background, subjects sharply set off

from bkgd. No fill, no bkgd light. Sometimes a kicker.

Zettl, p. 43

Chiaroscuro

Zettl, p. 41

Here, light seems to radiate from a single candle hidden behind the

left woman’s hand.

Three functions: Organic, Directional, and Spatial / Compositional.

Back Key- back light is dominant When light comes from behind. Frontal fill

Viera & Viera, p. 25

Eyelight, cont. Without

eyelight, eyes would be lost in shadow.

Give a sense of “aliveness,” twinkle

Viera & Viera, p. 37, 81/2, Corinth Films, Inc. 1963

Eyelight: Do you see a difference?

No eyelight

Eyelight

High Key / Low Key

What kind of lighting is this?

a. Low Key

b. High Key

c. Flat lighting

d. Cameo

Hollywood style lighting

Hollywood style lighting

Silhouette - opposite of cameo

a) Key

b) Back

c) Fill

d) Kicker

e) Background

Shows contour but no volume, no texture.

What’s being used?

Review: Lighting lingo L.D., Gaffer, Best Boy Gaffer:

lighting personnel

“INSTRUMENT”= light

“LAMP”= bulb

Reflectors Flags

Barn doors

Scrims

Gels

Cookies Baselight

fc, lux

Light meters

(gaffer’s tape)

Shadow

Contrast

(Color Temperature)

Thank you!