Enrolment Task Part 1

From my research I have discovered how a variety of lighting techniques alter the way film is constructed. An example of this is how Aperture changes the lighting in a scene. Aperture is the lense in a camera which opens and closes to allow a certain degree of light through, for example a low aperture of f5.6 would let significantly more light into the image plane than a high aperture of f20, so the lower the aperture, the higher the contrast between light and dark (2). Another light technique which contributes to the contrast in the scene is Hard/Soft lighting. Hard lighting is light that comes from one, usually bright, source, and created high contrast between the dark areas and the light, and also created more shadows in the scene, whereas soft lighting comes from an array of sources, with a back light (used to create separation from the background), a fill light(to soften the edges of the focal point) and a key light(the main light on a subject), which will create a low contrast as there will be few shadows in the scene. The best example of hard and soft lighting in nature respectively is a harsh noon sun, where many shadows are created from one point of lighting, and an overcast day, where light is coming from all around the sky, so very few shadows are cast(1). The positions of the lights also create different effects, as different positions create different shadows, so if a film maker wanted to get part of the scene immersed in darkness he/she could manipulate the positions of the light sources in order to get the shadows they want and also create the preferred reading in the text.
In my short clips, I tried to manipulate light in a variety of different ways, and also wanted to see how depth of field affected light, so I used an array of different lighting styles and altered the aperture on the camera in order to affect the overall contrast, also manipulating the focus on the camera to change depth of field.



1- Malkiewicz, Kris, Film Lighting, 2012
2- Peterson, Bryan, Understanding Exposure (Revised Edition), 2010