From the course: Lighting Design for Video Productions

Why lighting is essential

From the course: Lighting Design for Video Productions

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Why lighting is essential

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We can make a film without sound, and we can make a film without color. We can shoot a piece without a single camera movement or any post-production, but we can never create a film without light. As visual storytellers, light's equivalent to the painters color palette. Light can create mood, modify a shape, create a third dimension or bring out texture in an object. Lighting can also improve the skin tone and physical features of the actors. It can be used to hide their flaws and flaunt their assets. Lighting creates mood and ambiance while drawing the viewers attention to key details in a scene. Understanding the importance of lighting techniques and the proper use of tools like light meters and color emitters, makes an average shot more sophisticated and delivers a higher production value. Even though natural light is usually available, we often need to shoot over extended periods of time, exactly much scenes done days or even weeks before, shoot a night scene at noon, or simply enhance the subjects and objects in front of camera. We need to understand light to achieve all this. Not much would get done if we had to wait for the perfect sunset every time we need an exterior dialogue scene for a romantic piece. If for continuity's sake, we had to shoot in chronological order, chasing the sun and on the same exact location, financing a small film production would be simply impossible.

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