13
Lighting and composition
The key pictorial force
The many influences on composition already discussed, such as invisible technique, choice of lens/position, perspective, visual design elements and style, are all created or influenced by light. The most important element in the design of visual images is light. Apart from its fundamental role of illuminating the subject, light determines tonal differences, outline, shape, colour, texture and depth. It can create compositional relationships, provide balance, harmony and contrast. It provides mood, atmosphere and visual continuity. Light is the key pictorial force in film and television production.
The basic requirement to provide adequate light for an exposed picture with the required depth-of-field can fairly easily be achieved with contemporary film stock. Video cameras are sufficiently sensitive to provide an acceptable exposure under almost any found lighting condition. But whereas the technical requirements of exposure, appropriate colour temperature and contrast range may be readily satisfied, the resultant image may be a muddle of competing areas of light and shade that do not communicate the intended ‘visual message’ of the shot. The control of light to guide the audience's attention and to communicate production requirements plays a crucial part in the creation of any film or TV image. In almost every situation, visual communication can be more effective by choosing the camera position or staging participants with reference to found light and usually by adding some form of additional direct or reflected light.
Production lighting does a great deal more than simply enabling the viewer to recognize the content of the shot, but usually the first basic technical requirements are to supply sufficient light for the required exposure, at the appropriate colour temperature, and to help modify or create a suitable contrast range for the subject in order to meet the requirements of the recording medium.
Using light as a set of techniques to create tonal differences, outline, shape, colour, texture, patterns of colour, and to define and develop the space of the shot requires an understanding of how we perceive light, the nature of light and the contrast range of the recording medium.
Gradations of brightness
A basic understanding of how we see the world will help when devising the lighting and composition of a shot. There are significant differences between how the eye responds to a scene and how a camera converts light into an electrical signal or records it on film Lighting must take account of these differences and make the appropriate adjustments.
The relative brightness of a reflective surface is a subjective perceptual construct depending on the brightness levels of surrounding surfaces. The eye perceives gradations of brightness by comparison. It is the ratio of one apparent brightness to another (and in what context) that determines how different or distinct the two appear to be. The just noticeable difference between the intensity of two light sources is discernible if one is approximately 8 per cent greater/lesser than the other, regardless of them both being of high or low luminous intensity. The amount of light entering the eye is controlled by an iris and it is also equipped with two types of cells; rods that respond to dim light, and cone receptor cells that respond to normal lighting levels. For a given iris opening, the average eye can accommodate a contrast range of 100:1, but visual perception is always a combination of eye and brain. The eye adapts fast to changing light levels and the brain interprets the eye's response in such way that it appears as if we can scan a scene with a very wide contrast range (e.g., 500:1), and see it in a single glance.
Every element in an image has a specific brightness. One area will be seen as bright, another will be perceived as dark. The visual ‘weight’ of different brightness levels will depend on proximity, area and contrast. The eye is naturally attracted to the highlight areas in a frame but the contrast and impact of an object's brightness in the frame will depend on the adjacent brightness levels. A shot of a polar bear against snow will require different compositional treatment than a polar bear in a zoo enclosure. A small bright object against a dark background will have as much visual weight in attracting the eye as a large bright object against a bright background.
How ‘bright’ one subject appears compared with another and the perceived changes in brightness is a function of perception. In an interior, a face against a window during the day will appear to be dark. With the same illumination on the face against a window at night, the face will appear to be bright. Colours appear to be lighter against a dark background and darker against a light backing.
The relationship between different brightness levels in the frame plays an important part in balancing the composition. The study of light and dark in composition is termed chiaroscuro – Italian for ‘light–dark’.
For John Alton, the definitive Hollywood cameraman of the Film Noir genre, black was the most important element in the shot. The most important lamps for him were the ones he did not turn on. The relationship between the light and dark areas of the frame play a critical role in many interior and exterior shots. A large amount of black can be balanced with a small highlight deftly positioned. The high-key/low-key mood of the frame will dictate styles of composition as well as atmosphere. A few strong light/black contrasts can provide very effective visual designs.
Contrast range
The eye has a much greater ability than a video camera to see detail in shadows through to highlights. One aim of lighting is to create a range of tones either to conform to the contrast ratio of film/video or to express a production requirement. Although there is a reduction in the overall contrast range that can be reproduced in a visual medium, the depiction of strong contrasts can still be achieved by the use of light/dark comparisons.
High contrast creates a solid separation and good figure/ground definition. When size is equal, the light/dark relationship plays an essential part in deciphering which is figure and which is ground. Equal areas of light and dark can be perceived as either figure or ground.
The boundary area of a shape often relies on a light/dark relationship. A figure can be separated from its background by backlighting its edge. A highlight in the frame will attract the eye and, if it is not compositionally connected to the main subject of interest, it will compete and divert attention.
Exposure
When viewing a film or television image, it is often easy to accept that two-dimensional images are a faithful reproduction of the original scene. There are many productions (e.g., news, current affairs, sports coverage, etc.) where the audience's belief that they are watching a truthful representation unmediated by technical manipulation or distortion is essential to the credibility of the programme. But many decisions concerning exposure involve some degree of compromise as to what can be depicted even in ‘factual’ programmes. In productions that seek to interpret rather than to record an event, manipulating the exposure to control the look/composition of a shot is an important technique.
As we have discussed, human perception is more complex and adaptable than a video camera. The eye/brain can detect subtle tonal differences ranging, for example, from the slight variations in a white sheet hanging on a washing line on a sunny day to the detail in the deepest shadow cast by a building. The highlights in the sheet may be a thousand times brighter than the shadow detail. The TV signal is designed to handle (with minimum correction) no more than approximately 40:1.
But there is another fundamental difference in viewing a recorded image and our personal experience in observing a subject. Frequently, a film/TV image is part of a series of images that are telling a story, creating an atmosphere or emotion. The image is designed to manipulate the viewer's response. Our normal perceptual experience is conditioned by psychological factors and we often see what we expect to see; our response is personal and individual. A storytelling image is designed to evoke a similar reaction in all its viewers. Exposure plays a key part in this process and is a crucial part of camerawork. Decisions on what ranges of tones are to be recorded and decisions on lighting, staging, stop number – depth-of-field, etc., all intimately affect how the observer relates to the image and to a sequence of images. The ‘look’ of an image is a key production tool and a large element of that look is the lighting treatment.
Each shot is one amongst many and continuity of the exposure will determine how it relates to the preceding and the succeeding images. Factors that affect decisions on exposure include:
the contrast range of the recording medium and viewing conditions;
face tones and maintaining continuity of face tones and their relationship to other picture tones;
the choice of peak white and how much detail in the shadows are to be preserved;
subject priority – what is the principle subject in the frame (e.g., a figure standing on a skyline or the sky behind them?);
what electronic/processing methods of controlling contrast range are used;
the lighting technique applied in controlling contrast;
staging decisions – where someone is placed affects the contrast range.
Characteristics of light
Like clay in a potter's hand, the four characteristics of light: quality (hard or soft), direction (frontal, side, back, underlit, top lit, etc.), source (available artificial or natural light, additional lights) and colour, can be manipulated by the lighting cameraman to achieve the precise requirements for a specific shot. The auto features on a video camera are often unable to discriminate the priorities of a shot and must be over-ridden, so likewise, to simply accept the effects of a found lighting situation is to disregard the most powerful part of image making. Available or ‘found’ light is any combination of daylight and/or artificial light that illuminates any potential location.
Quality
The quality of light produced by a natural or an artificial light source is often categorized as ‘hard’ or ‘soft’. A ‘point’ source (i.e., a small area of light at a distance from the subject) produces a single hard-edged shadow of an object. An unobscured sun or moon is a hard light source. Hard lighting reveals shape and texture and, when produced by a lamp, can be shaped and controlled to fall precisely on the required part of the frame. Shadow areas of an image (the absence of light or very low light levels) often play an essential part in the composition and atmosphere of a shot. Lighter and darker areas within the frame help to create the overall composition of the shot and to guide the attention of the viewer to certain objects and actions. Shadows on a face reveal structure and character.
A soft source of light produced by a large area of light (relative to the subject) results in many overlapping soft-edged shadows of an object and tends to destroy texture. It is not so controllable as hard light but is often used to modify the effect of hard light. For example, by bouncing sunlight off a large area reflector to fill-in the shadow created by sunlight falling on the subject.
How much light is used and where it is focused also sets the ‘key’ of the image. A shot with a preponderance of high tones and thin shadows is termed a high-key picture and is usually considered cheerful and upbeat. An image with large areas of dark tones, strong contrast and deep shadows is termed a low-key image and appears sombre, sinister or mysterious.
Direction
The direction from which any part of an image is lit affects the overall composition and atmosphere of a shot. Frequently when setting lamps for a shot, the position and therefore the direction of illumination is controlled by the perceived ‘natural’ source of light (e.g., window or table lamp in an interior).
Source
Early film was lit by natural light. Artificial light sources were introduced for greater production flexibility and economic reliability (e.g., to keep filming whatever the weather). A system of lighting faces, often the most common subject in feature films, was known as three-point lighting. This used a key light to model the face, soft light to modify the key-light effect and a backlight to separate the face from its backing. Three-point lighting is still extensively practised, although the use of a backlight has fallen out of fashion in feature film making. The quest for a ‘natural’ look to an image produced a fashion for using large areas of bounced light. Modelling on a face was reduced or eliminated and the overall image produced was softer and less modelled. To heighten realism, and because of the availability of very sensitive cameras, many shots were devised using available light. This is often necessary when shooting documentaries because not only does rigging lights take time and unsettle participants but being filmed under bright lights is inhibiting and counter-productive to the aim of recording unmediated ‘actuality’.
Colour
The fourth aspect of lighting is colour, which is discussed in the next chapter.
Lighting technique
The lighting director must fulfil a number of requirements when deciding the lighting treatment for a particular shot. These include:
practical (explicit) script requirements such as time of day, interior/exterior, etc.;
providing the right mood or atmosphere (implicit requirements) –interpreting the script and narrative requirements, e.g., high key/low key, etc.;
lighting the action and providing the compositional emphasis where it is required in the shot;
fulfilling the technical requirements of the medium through the control of lighting levels for the required exposure, colour temperature and contrast range. This can be achieved by a number of techniques including base lighting – enough light on everything in the shot that is required to be seen, zone lighting of foreground, mid-ground and background, chiaroscuro (see below), etc.
Lighting and emphasis
Directing the viewer's attention, emphasizing what is important in the frame, is an essential part of the lighting treatment. The position of a small, isolated visual element within the frame will achieve dominance depending on its relationship to the frame edge, the nature of its background and its contrast to its background. Its location within the frame will depend on its movement or implied movement (e.g., direction of eye line). If the subject is offset on one of the intersections of thirds (see ‘The Rule of Thirds’ in Chapter 10) it can achieve compositional balance by its perceived direction moving into the frame. A more dynamic and dissonant arrangement is created by an off-centre location with movement towards the nearest edge of frame.
Usually a dead-centre framing drains the shot of any visual interest as there is no dynamic tension between the subject and the frame. Likewise, a very eccentric positioning close to the edge of the frame requires some compositional reason provided by the method of lighting the subject, or its background. Contrast with the background is also a compositional consideration either in colour, brightness level or texture to achieve pictorial unity. The tonal values of costume and location assist in this emphasis, plus selective focusing. The lighting treatment, as well as revealing information can also conceal information in order to realize a script requirement for mystery, uncertainty, confusion, etc.
Good lighting, like other craft techniques in film and television production, is not usually noticed by the audience but it enhances the mood and emphasizes the main subject/s whilst avoiding directing attention away from the subject. Location lighting treatment seeks to avoid being in conflict with the existing mood of the natural lighting of the shot.
Invisible lighting
In a more subtle but no less influential way, the use of light by its direction, coverage and intensity can be used for pictorial unity and subject emphasis as an invisible technique. Invisible in the sense that although the lighting direction, intensity and coverage may change between long shot and close-up, the lighting design has skilfully disguised the changes to maximize the strength of each image.
In long shot, the lighting emphasis may be on the atmosphere of the room and the subject's relationship with the interior. The lighting will help to integrate the composition of figure and background. In close shot, the lighting may emphasize features of the face and separate subject foreground from background. Broken shadow design on the background may be quite different in pattern between long shot and close shot in order to accommodate the competing emphasis in the individual shots but visual unity is sustained by other lighting controls.
The lighting effect suggested in each shot may match normal experience but, if carefully analysed, could not be achieved in that specific situation. The skill of this lighting treatment is to convince and persuade the viewer of the naturalness of the artifice.
Single shot, single camera technique allows the luxury of tailoring composition, lighting and staging to maximize the objective of each shot, provided lighting and other visual continuity detail appears consistent. An audience can be convinced of time continuity without an exact match of every visual element carrying over between each shot. A disguised lighting technique allows each shot to be lit to maximize effect and audience attention.
Multi-camera television
Continuous multi-camera shooting records an exact visual match between shots. Body position, lighting and setting carry over automatically between shots and therefore considerable compromise is often necessary between the ideal composition and what is available by shooting in real time. The perceived effect of light relates to the angle between the light source and the camera. Ideally a shot is lit for one viewpoint whereas multi-camera shooting produces a number of viewpoints. It does have the advantage of continuity of performance by the actors/presenters and allows the tempo and interpretation to unravel/unfold over time without the interruption for new set-ups.
The three functions of lighting – illumination (illuminance), interpretation and medium requirements, all have a bearing on composition. High contrast may provide punchy dynamic images but all productions do not require to communicate with the dramatic intensity of ‘Hamlet’. Form follows function in lighting as it does in other creative activities.
In 1855, as the arguments raged about the quest for perfect mechanical reproduction, a photographer, Eugene Durieu, rejected the use of light simply as a means of obtaining an exposure. He proposed that light could be a means of expression to bring life, mood and modelling to an image. He rejected the mechanistic view of image reproduction and suggested that ‘Imitation is neither the means nor the aim of art. The photographer should choose a viewpoint, concentrate interest on the principal subject, control the distribution of light and be as selective as an artist.’
The argument has continued ever since with the ‘realists’ attempting to close the gap between audience and action by allowing them to identify and become part of the action (e.g., TV soaps, etc.) and those who use subjective and fantastic imagery to move, alter or change the audience's disposition.
Harmony and contrast
As we discussed in Chapter 3, the Gestalt theories explain the act of perception as a continuous quest to resolve visual confusions, to reduce visual ambiguities and to rationalize and explain. The theories suggest there is a continuing human drive towards equilibrium – that is towards no visual uncertainties. We are unable to switch-off looking (except by closing our eyes) and therefore there is the constant need to understand what we see. The way we achieve understanding is to group and organize diversity, to simplify complex images into regular patterns and to eliminate, where possible, conflicting readings of an image (Figure 13.1). The lighting treatment of a shot has this objective.
But there is an equal and opposite force at work in this disposition towards visual simplicity. As we have seen, continuous perceptual attention requires continuous challenges. Perception requires visual puzzles to unravel and decode. If the challenge is too great, if the viewer is supplied with images that make no sense, like a too-difficult crossword puzzle, perceptual attention will be discarded once one or two clues have proved unsolvable. But if there is no ambiguity in a visual image, no uncertainty in the act of perception, if there is a surfeit of simplicity and symmetry, attention will drift and a visual condition close to sleep will be induced. Attention often requires unbalance, visual shock, stimulation and arresting images.
Although perception seeks visual unity, a detailed visual communication requires contrast to articulate its meaning. Morse code can be understood if the distinction between dot and dash is accentuated. A visual message requires the same accentuation of contrast in order to achieve coherent meaning. Light, by supplying contrast of tones, can remove visual ambiguity in a muddle of competing subjects but the wrong tonal contrast can produce a confused and misleading ‘message’ – the dots and the dashes come close to the same duration and are misread.
Communication
Communication is achieved by contrast. The communication carrier –sound or light – provides a message by modulation. There is a need for polarities whether loud or soft, dark or light, dot or dash. Meaning is made clear by comparison.
Light is the perfect medium for modulating contrast. It illuminates the subject and is therefore the carrier of the message. Lighting technique, as applied in film and television production, balances out and reduces the contrast ratio to fit the inherent limitations of the medium. It therefore contributes in the drive towards perceptual equilibrium by creating simplified images. But light is also needed to provide modelling, contrast and tonal differences. In this sense it introduces diversity and contrast whilst identifying meaning.
A dynamic image is one where a visual conflict or tension has been set up and then resolved. The ying/yang of visual design is harmony and contrast. Compositional harmony created by lighting, appeases the perceptual system and therefore facilitates the delivery of the message. Contrast, in a shot created by light, grabs the attention and ensures the perceptual system stays switched on to receive the message.
Figure 13.1 The Martyrdom of San Sebastian (c. 1475). Pollaiuolo uses a triangle and circle grouping to simplify a complex image into a regular pattern. There is a continual perceptual quest to organize diversity and to reduce visual ambiguities by searching for simple patterns (reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees, The National Gallery, London)
Hard and soft
Within a broad generalization, the two qualities of light that are used in film and television production are hard and soft. Usually, hard light produces the greatest contrast, modelling and texture. It creates depth, shape and relationships. All light, hard or soft, can reveal modelling, texture, contrast – it is a matter of shadow structure that determines the ‘sharpness’ of the effects. Diffused light is often applied to reduce the contrast introduced by a hard light source and to create an integrated harmony of tones.
Figure 13.2 Office Party (1977), Patrick Caulfield. Although perception seeks visual unity, a detailed visual communication requires contrast to articulate its meaning. A dynamic image sets out a visual conflict or tension and a resolution. There is a strong, underlying triangular shape in this painting which anchors the diversity of competing visual elements
Past influences
Artists have frequently been the most acute observers of the effects of light and its ability to create mood, atmosphere and depth. Film and television lighting cameramen have often been influenced by paintings, consciously or otherwise, when seeking guides to two-dimensional compositions.
Artists of all periods had sought solutions to the essential paradox of pre-contemporary painting, which was how to represent depth on a flat surface. They wished to create an illusion of three dimensions without revealing the techniques that achieved this deception. The successful illusionist persuades the viewer to concentrate their attention on what the magician wishes them to see whilst masking or ignoring the mechanics of how it has been achieved. Invisible technique in film and television production works on the same principle. Moving images are viewed on a flat surface that can be conceived, depending on the lighting and camera treatment, as a ‘window’ for the audience to look through or alternatively, as a flat surface design.
In art, there have been many solutions to this dilemma but two styles are useful in the study of light and composition – chiaroscuro and Notan.
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro is the technique of depicting depth by balancing light and shadow in a picture. Particular attention is paid to the skill in the handling of shadow. Film and television lighting, on first thought, may be conceived as the process of directing light to different parts of the shot. From this perspective, the lit areas become the dominant consideration whereas artists for hundreds of years have known the importance of the shadow structure of an image when creating form and depth. Positioning lamps to create shadows and withholding light from parts of a subject can often be the most important part of a lighting treatment.
Figure 13.3 The Betrothal of the Amolfini (detail), Jan Van Eyck, 1434, London National Gallery. Jan Van Eyke's The Betrothal of the Amolfini is a perfect example of how to handle soft bounced light. The camera right of the groom is much darker than the camera right side of the bride's face, which has more fill helped along by the light kicking up from her lace headdress and being angled towards the source of the light. There are many subtle lighting touches throughout the frame, from the highlights on the chandelier to the higher intensity tone of the joined hands – the central focus of this marriage painting
Two painters who excelled in chiaroscuro were Caravaggio in the early 1600s and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). In Rembrandt's paintings there is a dominant light source, often outside the frame, which only illuminates selected parts of the subject (see Plate 8). It is unsurprising that early on in film making, lighting cameramen borrowed Rembrandt's technique in the use of light on faces.
They adopted a few simple conventions that are still with us today and can be summarized as:
the key light or main source of natural light is positioned to light the side of the face that is furthest from the camera. The side of the face to camera is in shadow but modified with a fill or reflected light;
the subject is separated from background either by light or choice of background;
preferably the background should contrast with the main subject (e.g., light foreground against dark background or dark foreground against light background) to maximize attention on the main subject;
make the subject the brightest or most dominant area in the shot;
Rembrandt lighting relies on an appearance of natural light which, in his paintings, frequently comes from outside the camera left of the shot;
another ‘trademark’ was his penchant for placing a small triangle of light (produced by the shadow of the nose) on the cheekbone of the camera right side of face that had detail, although in shadow from the main source of light.
Other characteristics of lighting in his paintings often copied in film work include using only one apparent light source that selectively lights only part of the shot. Rembrandt favoured low overall illumination with the background darker than the main subjects of the picture. He achieved this by depicting the main source of light quickly falling away before it reached the background. This distribution of dark background and the higher intensity tones of the principal figures directs the attention to the main subject of the painting. Using highly directional light without the modifying effect of other light sources accentuates texture and form.
Rembrandt or chiaroscuro lighting enhances the three-dimensional properties of faces and setting and allows control of space depicted in the composition. Controlled light reaches those parts of the shot that are required to advance the story or to provide additional information about the main subject. It can be used to express a wide range of emotional qualities ranging from dark, sinister, threatening environments to the luxurious opulence of glittering glass and plush velvet interiors. When expertly used, it allows complete control of the image, providing only that which is required for the shot but still appearing natural and unstudied. Looking beyond the main subject in frame, good chiaroscuro lighting often subjectively sets the audience's response to the narrative. It works on the senses without being obvious and sets atmosphere and image intelligibility. Like music, it can create mood and meaning with a few carefully chosen highlights or a few well placed shadows.
Notan
Some artists abandoned shadow in the quest to define form. They rejected the illusion of depicting depth by the use of a few facile tricks in favour of the creation of a surface pattern created by two-dimensional outline, colour and tone. This emphasis on surface can only really be achieved in film and television by soft lighting with the minimum of cast shadows. This usually means high-key pictures where there is a predominance of light tones. Movement inevitability reveals some indication of depth and so true flat surface design in TV and film images is usually restricted to commercials or music videos, although many Technicolour musicals used very flat lighting relying on colour and dance to provide pattern. A variation of notan is often used when silhouettes are used to withhold information or to increase tension or mystery.
The studio look
For many years feature films, and later television dramas, were produced in studios. Large companies dominated film production up to the 1970s and they had a commercial requirement for a specific style and type of film they wished to make. A style of lighting developed over many decades which lit the subject in sympathy with the demands of the script and the demands of glamour. The resulting images may be at odds with the perceived lighting realism of the setting (e.g., a window as the only source and direction of light may be ignored in a close-up) but is sufficiently ‘natural’ to be accepted in a flow of images. One of the main influences on this style of lighting was the commercial pressure to exploit the glamour of the leading players.
The domination of the star actor/actress in Hollywood feature film production created a vocabulary of close-ups (CUs), medium close-ups (MCUs), and over-the-shoulder (O/S) shots to emphasize the star. The aim of the lighting cameraman was to make the artiste as handsome or as glamorous as possible. If you could photograph a star well, then the star would get you under contract to their particular studio.
The following quotes from cameramen indicate the influence lighting decisions could have. Cameraman Lee Garmes: ‘If the scene average light level was 100 ft candles then Dietrich would be lit with 110 ft candles so that her face was the significant part of the frame.’ Charles Lang: ‘I had to use a high-key light to narrow Dietrich's cheek bones. Claudette Colbert could only be shot one side and therefore sets had to be designed for the action to keep that side of face to camera.’
The creation of the studio look in the 1930s was achieved by a strong apprenticeship of assistant cameramen following a specific studio style. Technicians worked on whatever they were allocated to but the studio system allowed them to work on many films and they therefore developed a range of techniques across a diversity of narrative styles. Major studios tended to be known for specific genre films and the look of their films followed the subject. MGM built a reputation for ‘glamour’, Paramount for ‘gloss’, Warners for ‘hard-edge’ gritty realism.
Multi-camera television broadcast production followed the same ‘industrial’ pattern, with television technicians allocated to work on a broad range of programmes and techniques, ranging from ‘Play of the Month’ to Playschoor. Although there was some specialism, most camera crews and lighting directors were expected to have the techniques required to embrace all the different television programme formats.
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a pursuit for greater realism in the subject and appearance of many feature films. The story was filmed in its natural locations away from studio-built sets. This influenced the way the film was lit. There were competing lighting styles of expressionism and realism. Realism relied on found lighting at the location with the minimum of additional lamps. Expressionism was created by tight control of hard light sources in their intensity and position.
Expressionism
The fashion for high contrast, dynamic graphic images reached its apogee in the Film Noir style of the 1940s and 1950s, which had been heavily influenced by the earlier German expressionist cinema. This style of lighting with hard-edge shadows and high contrast has a powerful influence on the composition of the shot. Woody Bredell who photographed ‘The Killers’ (1946) suggested that the film was lit in order to reduce the detail in the images to the very basic visual information for storytelling. This was achieved by strong, single-source lighting, by slashes of light, low angles and dark shadows to produce stark imagery (see front cover).
An important function of a hard light source is to provide shadow as well as a lit surface. Dark shadows give an image visual weight. High contrast – deep blacks and highlights – strengthen the core meaning of an image. There is no uncertainty of the principal subject. Figure and ground cannot be mistaken. But strong contrast can tip over into a crude unappealing simplicity that runs out of interest once the initial impact has been absorbed. If the predominant tones of an image are dark and without highlights, the image can convey mystery and suspense and, as used in some television soaps, a form of ersatz realism by avoiding any visual indication that is out of keeping with the setting (e.g., bright highlights on hair provided by backlight). But a surfeit of low-key realism can also induce a visual sense of depression leading to indifference.
The Film Noir period ended with ‘A Touch of Evil’ (1958). It was shot by Russell Metty with extraordinary baroque touches, made at the same time as the New Wave was emerging in Paris. ‘Touch of Evil’ anticipated the fluid use of a hand-held camera when Welles had an Eclair Cameflex lightweight European camera imported, and it was hand-held to great effect in the high contrast interior lit by an external flashing neon sign when the Welles’ character murders a small town criminal.
This graphic, hard edged, high contrast lighting style controlled the composition of the shot. Shadow can be used as mass in a framing to balance out other visual elements. The edges between shadow and lit areas can be used in the same way as line convergence is used to focus attention, create depth or to unite foreground and background.
Realism
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century film speeds continued to increase first with black and white negative and later with colour. This allowed filming in most locations without the need or requirement to add many additional lamps. To many film makers it seemed contradictory to carefully select a location for its atmosphere and realism and then try to obliterate the location ambience by using the same lighting techniques that were available in the studio.
The French cinematographer Raoul Coutard, when filming Jean-Luc Godard's ‘A Bout de Souffle’ in 1959, took advantage of the increased film speed available to shoot the film using natural or ‘found’ light. He took 18-m lengths of Ilford HPS negative sold for use in 35 mm still cameras, and cemented them together to make 120-m rolls for use in a Cameflex film camera. By pushing it in development he had a film that gave him an 800 ASA rating, which allowed Goddard to shoot all the location scenes with available light. Most lighting cameramen were not such ‘available’-light purists but Coutard went on to develop the technique of bounced light.
In ‘Le Petit Soldat’ (1960) Coutard used rows of photoflood reflector bulbs attached to the tops of windows and door frames pointing at the ceiling. This even spread of soft light imitates natural light from a window in an all white room with the bonus of no lamp stands or polecats (scaffold bars) so that an interior can be shot 360°. This technique requires a fast film as the light is all reflected, plus there are difficulties in getting light into the actors eyes.
Bounced light was seen as more natural and realistic than the stylized three-point lighting of key, fill and backlight that was standard in many features. It was later adapted for studio work by using large polystyrene sheets to bounce light or diffusion was achieved by semi-translucent material across the top of the set.
The increasing use of soft lights as the main source of television lighting was facilitated by:
increased CCD sensitivity. When a light is bounced off a poly-board, the effective candlepower is reduced by about one-fifth. It was therefore difficult to get the required lighting level with older, less sensitive cameras;
a growing awareness and fashion for more natural, soft lit images, and the developing technique to handle ‘soft’ lighting;
the increasing availability of equipment such as special soft lights, fluorescent lights, etc.
Controlled lighting and composition
One of the main values of light in relation to composition is the ability to accentuate tonal differences and provide balance or visual unity. Compositional design using light sources relies on control of light direction. Keeping light off surfaces in the field of view can be as important for the composition of the shot as controlling where the light will fall. With bounced light this becomes more difficult. Soft light by definition will spread a wash of light across all of the action and other visual design methods to control composition have to be used.
Modulating the light pattern of a shot introduces selective contrast and this is best achieved by a hard light source. But the degree and extent of the artificial contrast or range of tonal values in an image that is introduced by the selective positioning of lamps gives rise to arguments about styles of lighting.
‘Realistic’ lighting aims to replicate naturally occurring light sources, whether sunlight or light naturally found in interiors or exteriors. As an objective, it is nearly always compromised because of the technical considerations of the recording medium. Intercutting between a subject in full frontal sunlight facing a subject who has only naturally occurring reflected light will produce an obvious mismatch. Nearly all subjects illuminated by naturally occurring light sources will need some lighting modification, even if it is simply restaging their positions to reduce the worst excesses of uncontrolled light.
Naturalism and found light
Naturally occurring light sources do not discriminate between important and unimportant visual elements ascribed to them by individuals. It is the human mind in the act of perception that attaches relevance to one image as opposed to another. The quest by some lighting designers to replicate naturally occurring lighting effects is at odds with most visual communication such as scripted drama, information, etc., which aims, by selective production techniques, to focus on one aspect in order to communicate a specific message. ‘Realistic’ lighting (i.e., everyday random and haphazard illumination) will require modification not only to conform to the technical requirements of the medium (e.g., contrast range, minimum exposure, etc.) but also as part of the overall production strategy to be selective in the message produced.
Film and television production is selective in order to communicate. Naturally occurring light illuminates impartially every surface within its orbit, making no judgements and exercising no discretion. This is the visual equivalent of the image produced from an unmanned, static security camera. One victory for the advocates of natural light was the gradual disappearance of the strong, glossy hair backlight that had been a staple of Hollywood glamour lighting for so many years.
Diffused light technique was used in a move away from what many saw as the ‘unrealistic’ contrast introduced by hard light sources. These selectively lit aspects of a subject and setting, especially in what was considered the artificial and mannered three-point portrait lighting system where every face had a key, fill and backlight. Diffused light often eliminates strong modelling and the separation of planes that indicate depth. It may be difficult to separate foreground/background without some form of backlight or hard light emphasis on selective areas of the frame and therefore the illusion of depth is diminished. The direction and selective coverage of soft light is more difficult to control and therefore inevitably there is less control of tone and mass in a composition. As we have discussed earlier, strong contrast can emphasize meaning and provide attention-grabbing dynamic images but at the cost of appearing mannered, artificial or, in a word, unrealistic. In normal everyday perception we seldom encounter strong, unequivocal visual statements but neither do we view the world within a frame, without normal binocular depth perception and being subjected to rapid changes of image size. Any two-dimensional depiction of reality begins with selection and the drive towards lighting ‘realism’ is only partly modifying the inherently artificial representation of a television or film image.
Television lighting
Television technology has been a constant quest to design equipment that would accurately reproduce the colour and contrast range of the subject in shot. For many years, video picture making avoided any technique that ‘degraded’ the image i.e., altered the fidelity of the electronic reproduction. The aim was to light and expose for the full range of the video signal and transmit pictures that had good blacks, detail in the highlights and with the highest resolution the TV system was capable of providing, particularly to viewers receiving pictures in poor reception areas. The technical constraints on both contrast range and resolution were the regulations governing the rationing of bandwidth. Attempts to improve resolution were by adding electronic enhancement, which gave video pictures their characteristic ‘edge’ appearance on dark-to-light and light-to-dark tonal transitions.
The production methods of the television industry had to be structured to provide endless hours of live and recorded programming. The majority of such programming was topical, instantly consumed and therefore had budgets to match the endless appetite of 24-hour television. Very fast shooting schedules, low budget production methods were added to the edgy, low contrast stereotypical TV image displayed on small receivers watched in conditions of high ambient light. Video images struggled to match film quality and the difference was reinforced by the engineering ‘sanctity’ of reproduction fidelity. This was in sharp contrast with the photographic and film mediums, which often attempted to customize the image to suit a particular emotional or aesthetic effect. In this approach, the camera was not a ‘scientific’ instrument faithfully observing reality, but the means of creating a subjective impression. Up to the introduction of digital television, this technique practised for many decades in film had made little impact on television programme making. Either production content was unsuitable for subjective images or the degree that an analogue signal could be customized to express mood or atmosphere was limited by the needs of terrestrial broadcasting.
Any two from cheap, good or fast - but not all three
Television lighting for many years concentrated on the need to satisfy the technical requirements of the medium because of the historical limitations of electronic pictures. Film lighting on small budgets was more adventurous. ‘We used a lot of long focal length lenses, smoke and nets. That's the best, maybe the only way to make no money look interesting. You discount the background, focus on a long (focal length) lens, and isolate the subject.’ This appears to sum up many of the difficulties and solutions that lighting has to deal with. No money, small budgets, limited time, means that lighting requires the imaginative use of available resources.
For most of the time, additional lamps are not required to achieve adequate exposure on exteriors. With claims of low-light cameras down to 1 lux, the proverbial black cat in a coal cellar can still be noisily seen by screwing up the gain and keeping the coal cellar door open. To over-generalize, in the past, film lighting concentrated on the need to interpret and give atmosphere to an image, whereas television lighting was often constrained by the demands of working in a low-cost, mass-produced market.
Expressing an idea through an image
The challenge to TV video production lighting is to match the film and photographic ability to customize the image to suit the message. The look of the shot is not just a good transmitter picture with every shot containing a reference black and a full contrast range up to a peak white. Video has progressed beyond the point where simply achieving a good engineering picture was the principle aim of lighting. Lighting to achieve the production aims has been the crucial objective for years but has often been difficult to achieve with a transmitted analogue signal.
The quest for video technological perfection is not quite accomplished, but single camera digital production allows the potential for customizing the image to match the production aims. We have reached a point where achieving a technically acceptable picture without imperfections is less a craft than a routine.
TV lighting is not an engineering activity and in that sense there is no objective ‘right’ way. There are formulas but, without doubt, lighting is much more of a craft than a science. With the potential to control and customize the video image through set-up cards, and with digital resolution good enough to almost dispense with image enhancement, there is every possibility that the elusive ‘film look’ will more and more depend on budget and production schedules than the inherent characteristics of the electronic image.
Decorative lighting
The move from tube to CCD cameras coincided with the development of a greater range of computer-controlled moving light sources. Many quizzes, pop music and variety programmes and some film musicals require very bold and decorative lighting treatments for the wide shots. Lighting directors were called upon, in effect, to design sets that were almost completely dependent on in-vision lamps and self-illuminating features built into the set. The digital CCD cameras could handle more saturated colours and more extreme contrasts. Moving lighting fixtures and moving mirror fixtures were initially used for live concert performances and discos and then waggling light beams gave way to using the gobos and projection features of the fixtures. A new high-tech lighting look emerged that was glitzy, smart and appeared expensive. The budget, of course, dictates how many fixtures can be hired, the time and manpower available for the rig and the time available to set, programme and exploit all of the lighting rig's potential. Another useful innovation was the auto pilot system allowing moving lights to follow a performer via a small transmitter around the stage. Decorative lighting is often the visual image of the shot rather than lighting the subject of the shot.
Summary
The most important element in the visual design of film and television images is light. Apart from its fundamental role of illuminating the subject, light determines tonal differences, outline, shape, colour, texture and depth. It can create compositional relationships, provide balance, harmony and contrast. It provides mood, atmosphere and visual continuity. Light is the key visual force and is therefore central to any consideration of visual composition.
Although perception seeks visual unity, a detailed visual communication requires contrast to articulate its meaning. Light, by supplying contrast of tones, can remove visual ambiguity in a muddle of competing subjects.
A dynamic image is one where a visual conflict or tension has been set up and then resolved. The ying/yang of visual design is harmony and contrast. Harmony, appeases the perceptual system and therefore facilitates the delivery of the message. Contrast grabs the attention and ensures the perceptual system stays switched on to receive the message.
Within a broad generalization, two qualities of light are used in film and television production – hard and soft. Hard light produces contrast, modelling and texture. It creates depth, shape and relationships. Diffused light is often applied to reduce the contrast introduced by a hard light source and to create an integrated harmony of tones.