Advanced Lighting Workshop

 In this workshop, we  covered advanced lighting techniques in the film studio at school. We were introduced to the red head light and blonde light to demonstraight ways to make creative lighting techniques with photographic gel sheets, polystaring sheets and colour filters.

First thing to know is to turn off the mian house lights/ worker lights when oporating other lights. Turn them on when not using the other lighting to ensure nothing will break. 

The red head light was the first we were introduced to, it's feature is a netting over thr light incase ther bulb blows. Once you have chosen the lighting, set up the camera, with a 50mm mid length shot lens connected to a monitor screen and then place a model in center focus. 

The main use and advantage to the red head lighrs is that it portrays a warm light onto the set. once the camera and light is set up, adjust the exposure on the camera and move the camera as close as possible to the subject while in focus. First we were shown how to create key lighting. by putting a plasic, gell sheet of paper over th light, it softens the defined lines and sharp shadows to make a  softer light effect. 

To create 'Fill Lighting', set up another red head light in order to fill in the dark areas in the background  of the shot. To soften this light, put a piece of tracing paper over the light. However there is no defined contrast between the model and the background, so shine a blonde head light behind the model to seperte the model from blending into the darkness of the background behind. 

The next lighting technique we were shown called blade runner lighting. Firstly, turn off all front lighting and only leave the blonde lighting behind the model lit. Adust the depth of field on the camera setting to a shallow depth of field to ensure the modek's face is in focus.

 Using a polystaring board held up near her face, this bounces the light from the white polystaring back onto her face. To further soften the light, you can turn the power into the blonde light down. By using a matt box, this also will stop extra, exess light leaking into the camera and disrupting the shot. 

The next piece of lighting we were shown was fluorescent lighting. These tubes of light contain different colour gels. We then experimented by shining the fluorescent lights while using foreground and background lighting. Different colour fluorescent lights can portray different meanings, tones and moods to the shot and are highly effective. 

The final piece of lighting was Foto Flow lighting. This large rectangle light is good for shooting interviews as it reflects a sharp, warm light across the subject. 

From this workshop, it introduced me to new lights other than just soft box lighting, and also taught me new techniques and tricks to achieve a certain look and feel to the shot just by using photographic gels, lighting positioning and also by incorporating other materials to reflect the light. This workshop will be very useful when it comes to shooting my music video and to develop my ideas further.