2013 Media Language - Lighting 3.1 (Source & Colour)

In this photograph of the film Forrest Gump there is a clear lighting that has been used to create the time of day, for example light can be used to make the scene look as if it has been filmed at a different type of day to create shadows that block out light. Shadows are areas that are created because direct light cannot reach that area. The most common natural light is the sun and when the sun is shining it cannot shine through objects so this object will create shadows. The size of the shadow depends on a variety of factors including the time of the day, the size of the object blocking the light and the position of the sun at the time the shadow is created.

I have used this picture to demonstrate how lighting can be used to highlight shadows and how lighting can be used create a time of day. This is the same shot used in the example photograph above and in this shot it shows the light a lot dimmer but in the back ground you can see a highlighted area where the sun is visible. This tells us the time of day would be when the sun is most high up in the sky as there are beams of lights being produced in the background of the image, also when this light is up high then this means shadows from objects must point down and light coming from straight on flattens the image.

This image shows a Kelvin lighting scale and on this scale it shows lighting temperatures for different types of day. The higher the reading on the scale then the less warm the day is, for example if the scale has a reading of 8,000K then this means that the lighting will be sky blue and the lower the reading then the more warm the temperature of the light will be, 1,000K replicating a candle.

Lighting created can also come from inside a set design that has been made to look  as if it is a natural set up. Designs like this can be made to look as if they are outside by being designed like this so they are not filming reality. This makes it easier for the Cinema photographers to create the style of lighting that they want as there is no sun creating soft or hard shadows.


"such as visual sources of light, however, will serve to motivate the lighting desisions made in production. The film maker will usually strive to create a lighting design that is consistent with the source in the setting"