Blog Entry #2: Lighting


Light Observations

Observation #1

At sometime past midnight while I'm trying to fall asleep, I can't help but notice that there's too much light in my bedroom. If I sleep on my preferred side, I face the window. The outdoor lights are fluorescent white, and despite the best efforts of the blinds and curtains, the light still sneaks through, making the dark too bright. 

However, if I were to pull out a camera and record at that moment (without changing any settings), the room would be too dark to make out anything, except maybe the edge of the curtain and blinds. If I were to change a few settings, like the f-stop, I could capture an image truer to what I see. 

But is that what I want? Lighting is a great tool to play with in terms of capturing actors' emotions and emphasizing the drama of a scene. 

Either way, at sometime past midnight, I need to be sleeping, and I need total darkness for that.

Observation #2


There's something about natural light that light bulbs can't replicate. Sure, the room is illuminated whether I close the blinds and turn on the lights in my living room or open the blinds, but it's so much nicer to leave the lighting to the sun, especially if it's a bright, sunny day with no cloud cover.  


Maybe it's because the lights are too yellow in my living room. Maybe the yellowness is off-putting, kind of like how no one wants to look at a smile riddled with butter-yellow teeth. 

Maybe that’s just a during-the-day thing. At night, I love the simple twinkle lights that hang around my living room windows. Their golden light is soothing, and it’s the perfect lighting for watching a comedy with my best friends. 

I’m not sure how well any of that lighting works for film. Well, I guess any lighting is good for film if a) it exists at all and b) can be altered with the proper f-stop, filter, or the magic that is post-editing.

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