Lighting

High contrast

A style of lighting emphasizing harsh shafts and dramatic streaks of lights and darks. The darks are black and the brights are white. Often used in thrillers and melodramas. AKA low key lighting

Three point lighting

A common arrangement using three directions of light on a scene: from behind the subjects (backlighting), from one bright source (key light), and from a less bright source balancing the key light (fill light).

Hard lighting

A high-contrast lighting style that creates hard edges, distinctive shadows, and a harsh effect, especially when filming people.

high key lighting

Light, bright, open looking. Creates warmth and happiness. Illumination that creates comparatively little contrast between the light and dark areas of the shot. Shadows are fairly transparent and brightened by fill light. (low contrast)

Backlighting

Lighting from behind to create a silhouette. Illumination cast onto the figures in the scene from the side opposite the camera, usually creating a thin outline of highlighting on those figures.

Ratio of lighting

The level of illumination on a subject, as compared with the depth of the corresponding shadow, is called its lighting ratio. Filmmakers use a number of techniques to regulate this relationship between light and shadow. The higher the lighting ratio, the higher the contrast of the image; the lower the ratio, the lower the contrast. (Image in which the exposure difference between the darkest and the brightest areas are in the extremes is called a High Contrast image.)

quality of lighting

The quality of light used in any situation falls somewhere on a spectrum between hard light and soft light. Hard light is direct, soft light is diffused (broken up)

low key lighting

creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows. illumination that creates strong contrast between light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows and little fill light. (high contrast)

Soft lighting

diffused, low-contrast lighting that reduces or eliminates hard edges and shadows and can be more flattering when filming people. Illumination that avoids harsh bright and dark areas, creating a gradual transition from highlights to shadows.

Low contrast lighting

emphasizes a broad mid-range of tones between the darkest and brightest areas of the image. Shows very little difference between brightest area and darkest area in a scene. GREY

direction of lighting

the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit. Backlighting, frontal lighting, under lighting