Lighting Resources

Learning to Light Better | Lowel
Lowel makes a wide range of lighting products, and their website has a great Lighting Resource Center with "Lessons" and lighting examples.



Acting School Showreel - Lighting notes | Ed Moore | “... Camera set.”
Cinematographer Ed Moore helped shoot a series of scenes for students at the Birmingham School of Acting and in this post explains the techniques used to achieve some of the results:

For this particular scene I gelled the HMI with peacock blue and added a warm fill (justified by a desk light I got props to place on the desk) which was a dimmed 650W bouncing off the white lastolite which was placed at a fairly low angle. The cyan/orange contrast was what I was after as it’s such a popular look in Hollywood stuff at the moment and whilst it’s usually applied in the grade I thought it would be fun to get in camera.

Using Popular Television to Boost Your Knowledge of Classic Lighting | Luke Townsend | Digital Photography School
Shows examples of different lighting, though not necessarily how to achieve the result.

Classic lighting patterns that photographers of all experience should know have trickled down through world of ancient art, since the days of Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Leonardo Da Vinci. As we move through the popular TV shows House M.D., Mad Men, and an a blast from the past, Cheers, keep on the look out for the four classic lighting styles: Short Light, Broad Light, Split Light, and Rembrandt Light.

Creative Live with Vincent Laforet Making a Documentary | John Cornicello | It Figures
John was gaffer on Vincent Laforet's video workshop and explains how he did the lighting for it.

We augmented the daylight with two additional lights. In the upper left corner you can see an Bron DW 800 watt HMI focusing spot light going through a 4'x4' opal diffusion screen as our key light. And over on the right side you can see a Stellar fluorescent light bank giving an edge light. These are both daylight color balanced lights, and we added 1/4 CTO warming gels to each to warm up the light a little bit. The Stellar had a diffusion sock on it, along with the warming gels.

B & H: Bron DW 800 watt HMI



Book Review: Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, 4th Edition | Review by Lee Clements | MicroFilmmaker
Paperback: 615 pages Publisher: Focal Press; 4 edition (August 16, 2010)
After reading the 3rd edition, Lee decided to get the 4th edition and says "this book is a reference book for professionals, and should be in your grip bag no matter where you go."

The 4th edition of Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook is a great improvement on the 3rd, including a lot of higher end stuff with DMX and networking controls, and it’s nice to know that you have it on reference.

Amazon: Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, Fourth Edition: Film Lighting Equipment, Practice, and Electrical Distribution



Designing the Visual Landscape of “KIN” | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlbut Blog
A post from Shane's blog talks about the lighting used for a shoot. This includes an extensive light package list (in a Microsoft Excel file.) This is big movie production stuff!

Many of you asked to see my lighting list for this film so I would like to share some of this information with you. As a cinematographer, your biggest asset is your pre-rigs. Thinking through the lighting of each location and passing that information on to your Gaffer and Rigging Gaffer so that they can prepare this before you show up is paramount. Inspiration on the day is always still possible but at least you have the building blocks in place to get you up quickly.

Video Lighting Terms and Definitions | Julie Babcock | Videomaker
A list of some of the most common video lighting terms: Fresnel, Floodlight, Spotlight, Softbox and more..



Ten Lighting Setups | John Note | Vimeo
Here John has posted a video from his lighting class. He also includes a description of each scene:

1. A three-quarter or waist-high silhouette of 1 or 2 people perfectly exposed for the background with the foreground figure(s) completely dark. There should be enough distance between foreground and background that the spill of one area does not interfere with the other.

Still Lighting Techniques | Rick Sammon | Rick Sammon's Digital Imaging Diaries
Rick Sammon is a still photographer, and looking through his images will provide you with a lot of inspiration. He also has a few posts about lighting which may be helpful (though you won't want to use Speedlites for videography!):
Try This Simple and Cool, Two-Speedlite Portrait
A "Baker's Dozen" of New Lighting Tips in 24/7 Photo Buffet Help You Master Your Flash and Other Studio Lighting Techniques



DV101: The Covered Wagon | Jay Holben | dv.com
In an excerpt from his book, A Shot in the Dark: A Creative DIY Guide to Digital Video Lighting on (Almost) No Budget, Jay explains how to build a low-cost lighting fixture.

Just wrapping diffusion around the fixture would be a bad idea. Even the professional diffusion material, if it comes in direct contact with a hot bulb, will melt and possibly burn. Inexpensive alternatives will definitely melt and probably burn. So you need to create a structure that will support diffusion around this fixture while keeping the material away from the bulbs themselves.

Amazon: A Shot in the Dark: A Creative DIY Guide to Digital Video Lighting on (Almost) No Budget



Online Lighting Diagram Creator for photographers |
Create your own lighting setup diagrams (it can be used by videographers as well as photographers!)

Lighting Tips for Shooting HD Video with SLR Cameras | CreativePro.com
Different lighting techniques explained:

Softening a hard light through the use of an umbrella has long been a tradition for photographers and has recently become a staple approach for videographers and those shooting with SLRs with HD video capability. The umbrella helps to create a much broader and softer light that is much more natural looking than the light created by a bare light head.

20 Lighting Tutorials for Film and Video | FilmmakerIQ.com
101 DIY Lighting Tutorials | FilmmakerIQ.com
FilmmakerIQ has also collected together a lot of lighting resources.

Quality lighting is one of the most important elements of any professional looking project. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. Today we rounded up 20 Lighting Tutorials to help you go beyond basic exposure into the essence of visual storytelling.

Manipulating Hard Light | Harry Box | MasteringFilm.com
Some tips on getting cleaner shadows:

Light can be manipulated as it travels from the light source to the subject. Let’s discuss the manipulation of hard light into shapes and patterns.

Tutorial 8 - Ring Lights / Filmmaking / Cinematography / DIY | TLA Productions | Vimeo
A tutorial showing how to build a ring-light (a large one using 12 40-watt regular light bulbs!)