How to Develop Your Visual Style | Realistic vs. Stylistic Lighting Explained

The bar scene is one of the most classic settings in film history, yet there are hundreds of ways to light it. Is it a dark and moody setup? Or more high-key and colorful? That’s where the visual style of the filmmakers behind the movie come into play. Depending on the style you are going for, it will influence your creative lighting decisions on moonlight, soft vs. hard light, motivated vs. stylistic lighting.

Today, cinematographer Valentina Vee breaks down two different lighting setups - one based in reality and the other pushing the boundaries of narrative convention. In the world of realistic lighting, oftentimes the light is motivated by the practicals in the scene, logic dictates the placement of most of the lights (i.e streetlamps, light fixtures), and the light generally tends to be softer in quality. In stylistic lighting, you can play around with the colors much more, common conceptions of lighting can be altered (i.e moonlight), and there doesn’t need to be a reason for the placement of each light. In this episode, you will see how the visual style can affect a cinematographer’s thought process when it comes to lighting a scene.

In the first setup, Valentina starts by setting her frame, which will be a wide moving master, dollying side-to-side to have a parallax motion. She starts with the background lights, such as practicals and lights that will play as street lamps, making sure that they are gelled to unify the color temperature. She then sets her key light for her main actress by bouncing a light into a bead board. In the second setup, Valentina switches it up by shooting into a mirror as part of her frame. She sets a soft top light as her main light. She also uses Aputure MCs, small RGBWW LED lights, to colorize her frame and create pockets of light and shadow. Finally, she sets some accent lights throughout the scene to further the overall visual interest.

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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:54 - Composition/Camera
4:05 - Production Design
4:56 - Motivated Lighting
6:44 - Key Light
7:27 - Accent Lighting
9:07 - Haze
10:04 - Setup #1 Breakdown
10:49 - Stylistic Lighting Intro
11:43 - Gels
13:10 - Colored Lighting
16:08 - Setup #2 Breakdown
16:46 - Outro

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Видео How to Develop Your Visual Style | Realistic vs. Stylistic Lighting Explained канала Aputure