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Lighting technique and aesthetics • Cameo lighting

Cameo lighting in film is a spotlight that accentuates a single person in a scene. It creates an 'angelic' shot, such as one where God is shining down and a light shines down onto this person.

Cameo lighting derives its name from the art form in which a light relief figure is set against a darker background. It is often achieved by using barn-doored spotlights. It helps focus on the subject and not its environment. A problem with cameo lighting is that it can lead to color distortion and noise in the darkest areas.

• High-key lighting

High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well with high contrast ratios, but now is used to suggest an upbeat mood. It is often used in sitcoms and comedies. High-key lighting is usually quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows. The terminology comes from the key light (main light).

In the 1950s and 1960s, high-key lighting was achieved through multiple light sources lighting a scene usually using three fixtures per person (left, right, and central) —which resulted in a uniform lighting pattern with very little modeling. Nowadays, multiple hot light sources are substituted by much more efficient fluorescent soft lights which provide a similar effect.

The advantage to high-key lighting is that it doesn't require adjustment for each scene which allows the production to complete the shooting in hours instead of days. The primary drawback is that high-key lighting fails to add meaning or drama by lighting certain parts more prominently than others.

Most recently, shows with bigger budgets moved away from high-key lighting by using lighting set-ups different from the standard three-point lighting. Part of the reason for this is the advent of new lighting fixtures which are easier to use and quicker to set up. Another reason is the growing sophistication of the audience for TV programs and the need to differentiate.

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The term "high-key" has found its way from cinema into more widespread usage, for example referring to an event that requires much organization or is subject to a great deal of publicity.

Movies

High-key lighting found its use in classical Hollywood cinema because it was well suited for three-point lighting and other filmmaking traditions. It is an overall lighting design which uses the fill light and backlight to create low contrast between brighter and darker areas. It can be used for both daylight and night scenes.

• Lens flare

Lens flare is the light scattered in lens systems through generally unwanted image formation mechanisms, such as internal reflection and scattering from material inhomogeneities in the lens. These mechanisms differ from the intended image formation mechanism that depends on refraction of the image rays. Flare manifests itself in two ways: firstly as a haze across the image, making the image look "washed out" by reducing contrast and color saturation (adding light to dark image regions, and adding white to saturated regions, reducing their saturation), and secondly as visible artifacts.

Flare is particularly caused by a very bright light sources either in the image – which produces visible artifacts – or shining into the lens but not in the image – which produces a haze. Most commonly, this occurs when shooting into the sun (when the sun is in frame or the lens is pointed in the direction of the sun), and is reduced by using a lens hood or other shade.

For good optical systems and most images (which do not have a bright light shining into the lens), flare is a secondary effect that is widely distributed across the image and thus not visible, though it reduces contrast. Lenses with large numbers of elements such as zooms tend to exhibit greater lens flare, as they contain multiple surfaces at which unwanted internal scattering occurs.

Manifestation

The spatial distribution of the lens flare typically manifests as several starbursts, rings, or circles in a row across the image or view. Lens flare patterns typically spread widely across the scene

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and change location with the camera's movement relative to light sources, tracking with the light position and fading as the camera points away from the bright light until it causes no flare at all. The specific spatial distribution of the flare depends on the shape of the aperture of the image formation elements. For example, if the lens has a 6-bladed aperture, the flare may have a hexagonal pattern.

Such internal scattering is also present in the human eye, and manifests in an unwanted veiling glare most obvious when viewing very bright lights or highly reflective surfaces. In some situations, eyelashes can also create flare-like irregularities, although these are technically diffraction artifacts.

When a bright light source is shining on the lens but not in its field of view, lens flare appears as a haze that washes out the image and reduces contrast. This can be avoided by shading the lens (the purpose for which lens hoods are designed). In a studio, a gobo or set of barn doors can be attached to the lighting to keep it from shining on the camera. Modern lenses use lens coatings to reduce the amount of reflection and minimize flare.

When using an anamorphic lens, as is common in analog cinematography, lens flare can manifest itself as a horizontal lines. This is most commonly seen in car headlights in a dark scene, and may be desired as part of the "film look".

Deliberate use

Lens flare on Borobudur stairs to enhance the sense of ascending

A lens flare is often deliberately used to invoke a sense of drama. A lens flare is also useful when added to an artificial or modified image composition because it adds a sense of realism, implying that the image is an un-edited original photograph of a "real life" scene.

For both of these reasons (implying realism and/or drama) artificial lens flare is a common effect in various graphics editing programs, although its use can be a point of contention among

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professional graphic designers. Lens flare was one of the first special effects developed for computer graphics because it is the result of relatively simple optical principles. During the mid- to late-1990s, it was a popular graphical effect for computer and video games, and is now accompanied by other more complex atmospheric effects that add a greater sense of realism.

Lens flare was typically avoided by Hollywood cinematographers, but when filming Easy Rider, Laszlo Kovacs was forced to jury-rig a camera car for his Arriflex, which resulted in numerous lens flares as he shot motorcycle footage against Southwestern U.S. landscapes.

JJ Abrams, the director of the 2009 version of Star Trek, used this technique. "I wanted a visual system that felt unique. I know there are certain shots where even I watch and think, "Oh that's ridiculous, that was too many." But I love the idea that the future was so bright it couldn't be contained in the frame."

Other forms of photographic flare

Filter flare

The use of photographic filters can cause flare, particularly ghosts of bright lights (under central inversion). This can be eliminated by not using a filter, and reduced by using higher-quality filters or narrower aperture.

Diffraction artifact in digital cameras

One form of flare is specific to digital cameras. With the sun shining on an unprotected lens, a group of small rainbows appears. This artifact is formed by internal diffraction on the image sensor, which acts like a diffraction grating. Unlike true lens flare, this artifact is not visible in the eyepiece of a digital SLR camera, making it more difficult to avoi

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• Low-key lighting

Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.

Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high key lighting, which can approach 1:1.

The term "low key" is used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high lighting ratio, especially if there is a predominance of shadowy areas. It tends to heighten the sense of alienation felt by the viewer, hence is commonly used in film noir and horror genres.

• Stage lighting

Modern stage lighting is a flexible tool in the production of theatre, dance, opera and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in the pursuit of the various principles or goals of lighting. Stage lighting has grown considerably in recent years partially due to improved technical equipment and a higher interest from young people.

Classical Spectacular used ordinary stage lighting plus special laser 

effects 

"Runaways" used conventional stage 

lighting and theatrical fog 

An example of a rig including moving head, generic and LED fixtures at 'The Tuesday Club' 

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Functions of lighting

Stage lighting has several functions, although to allow for artistic effect, no hard and fast rules can ever be applied. The functions of lighting include:

• Illumination: The simple ability to see what is occurring on stage. Any lighting design will be ineffective if the viewers cannot see the characters, unless this is the explicit intent.

• Revelation of form: Altering the perception of shapes onstage, particularly three-dimensional stage elements.

• Focus: Directing the audience's attention to an area of the stage or distracting them from another.

• Mood: Setting the tone of a scene. Harsh red light has a totally different effect than soft lavender light.

• Location and time of day: Establishing or altering position in time and space. Blues can suggest night time while orange and red can suggest a sunrise or sunset. Use of gobos to project sky scene, moon etc.

• Projection/stage elements: Lighting may be used to project scenery or to act as scenery onstage.

• Plot (script): A lighting event may trigger or advance the action onstage.

• Composition: Lighting may be used to show only the areas of the stage which the designer wants the audience to see, and to "paint a picture".

While Lighting Design is an art form, and thus no one way is the only way, there is a modern movement that simply states that the Lighting Design helps to create the environment in which the action take place while supporting the style of the piece. "Mood" is arguable while the environment is essential.

Qualities in lighting

The four main qualities or properties of lighting are intensity, color, pattern and focus.

Intensity

Measured in lux, lumens and foot-candles. For any given luminaire (lighting instrument or fixture), this depends upon the power of the lamp, the design of the instrument (and its corresponding efficiency), the presence or absence of colour gels or gobos, distance from the area to be lit and the beam or field angle of the fixture, the colour and substance to be lit, and the neuro-optics of the total scene (that is, the relative contrasts to other regions of illumination).

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Colour

Colour temperature is measured in kelvins, and gel colours are organized by several different systems maintained by the colour manufacturing companies. The apparent colour of a light is determined largely by the gel colour given it, but also in part by the power level the lamp is being run at and the colour of material it is to light. As the percentage of full power a lamp is being run at drops, the tungsten filament in the bulb glows orange instead of more nearly white. This is known as amber drift or amber shift. Thus a 1000-watt instrument at 50% will appear far more orange than a 500-watt instrument at full.

LED fixtures create colour through additive colour mixing with red, green, and blue LEDs at different intensities. This type of colour mixing is also used frequently with borderlights and cyclorama lights to create different colours on stage and on the cyclorama. Another form of colour mixing is CMY, or subtractive colour mixing. Cyan, magenta and yellow dichroic filters are used in different percentages to create different colours. Because it is often difficult to create true reds and greens, a green dichroic filter is often added to fixtures using this method of colour mixing.

Pattern

A gobo of this shape in a fixture with a red gel would produce a pattern like the one shown to the right.

 

Pattern refers to the shape, quality and evenness of a lamp's output. The pattern of light an instrument makes is largely determined by three factors. The first are the specifics of the lamp, reflector and lens assembly. Different mounting positions for the lamp (axial, base up, base down), different sizes and shapes of reflector and the nature of the lens (or lenses) being used can all affect the pattern of light. Secondly, the specifics of how the lamp is focused affect its pattern. In ellipsoidal reflector spotlights (ERS) or profile spotlights, there are two beams of light emitted from the lamp. When the cones of both intersect at the throw distance (the distance to the stage), the lamp has a sharply defined 'hard' edge. When the two cones do not intersect at that distance, the edge is fuzzy and 'soft'. Depending on which beam (direct or reflected) is outside the other, the pattern may be 'thin and soft' or 'fat and soft.' Lastly, a gobo or break up pattern may be applied to ERSs and similar instruments. This is typically a thin sheet of metal with a shape cut into it. It is inserted into the instrument near its aperture. Gobos come in many shapes, but often include leaves, waves, stars and similar patterns.

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Focus, position, and hanging  

Many stage lights hang on a batten focused in several directions

Focus is a term usually used to describe where an instrument is pointed. The final focus should place the "hot spot" of the beam at the actor's head level when standing at the centre of the instrument's assigned "focus area" on the stage. Position refers to the location of an instrument in the theater's fly system or on permanent pipes in front-of-house locations. Hanging is the act of placing the instrument in its assigned position.

In addition to these, certain modern instruments are automated, referring to motorized movement of either the entire fixture body or the movement of a mirror placed in front of its outermost lens. These fixtures and the more traditional follow spots add Direction and Motion to the relevant characteristics of light. Automated fixtures fall into either the moving head or moving mirror/scanner category. Scanners have a body which contains the lamp, PCBs, transformer, and effects (color, gobo, iris etc.) devices. A mirror is panned and tilted in the desired position by pan and tilt motors, thereby causing the light beam to move. Moving head fixtures have the effects and lamp assembly inside the head with transformers and other electronics in the base or external ballast. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Scanners are typically faster and less costly than moving head units but have a narrower range of movement. Moving head fixtures have a much larger range of movement as well as a more natural inertial movement but are typically more expensive.

The above characteristics are not always static, and it is frequently the variation in these characteristics that is used in achieving the goals of lighting.

Lighting professionals

The lighting designer

Using lighting to affect the audience's senses and evoke their emotions. The lighting designer is familiar with the various types of lighting instruments and their uses. In consultation with the director and the scenic designer, and after watching sufficient rehearsals, the LD is responsible for providing an Instrument Schedule and a Light Plot. The Schedule is a list of all required materials, including color gel, gobos, color wheels, barndoors and other accessories. The light plot is typically a plan view of the theatre in which the performance will take place, with every

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luminaries marked. This typically includes approximate focus (the direction it should be pointing), a reference number, any accessories required, and the specifics (or channel number) of its connection to the dimmer system or lighting control console.

A LD must be accustomed to working around the demands of the director or head planner. Practical experience is required to know the effective use of different lighting instruments and colour in creating a design. Many designers start their careers as lighting technicians in theatres or amateur theatre groups. Often, this is followed by training in one of the many vocational colleges or universities around the world that offer theatre courses. Many jobs in larger venues and productions require a degree from a vocational school or college in theatrical lighting, or at least a bachelor’s degree.

Other positions

In theater:

• Master electrician/chief electrician • Production electrician • Lighting programmer • Lighting operator/light board operator

In film:

• Best boy (electrical) • Gaffer

In music:

• Rigger

Lighting equipment

Source Fours in use at the United States Marine Corps Museum

In the context of lighting design, a lighting instrument (also called a luminaire) is a device that produces controlled lighting as part of the effects a lighting designer brings to a show. The term lighting instrument is preferred to light to avoid confusion between light and light sources.

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There are a variety of instruments frequently used in the theater. Although they vary in many ways they all have the following four basic components in one form or other:

• Box/Housing - a metal or plastic container to house the whole instrument and prevent light from spilling in unwanted directions.

• Light source (lamp). • Lens or opening - the gap in the housing where the light is intended to come out. • Reflector - behind or around the light source in such a way as to direct more light towards

the lens or opening.

Additional features will vary depend on the exact type of fixture.

Most theatrical light bulbs (or lamps, the term usually preferred) are tungsten-halogen (or quartz-halogen), an improvement on the original incandescent design that uses a halogen gas instead of an inert gas to increase lamp life and output. Fluorescent lights are infrequently used other than as worklights because, although they are far more efficient, they are expensive to make dimmed (run at less than full power) without using specialised dimmer ballasts and only very expensive models will dim to very low levels. They also do not produce light from a single point or easily concentrated area, and usually have a warm-up period, during which they emit no light or do so intermittently. However fluorescent lights are being used more and more for special effects lighting in theaters. High-intensity discharge lamps (or HID lamps), however, are now common where a very bright light output is required—for example in large follow spots, hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide (HMI) floods, and modern automated fixtures. When dimming is required, it is done by mechanical dousers or shutters, as these types of lamps also cannot be electrically dimmed.

Most instruments are suspended or supported by a "U" shaped yoke, or 'trunnion arm' fixed to the sides of the instrument, normally near its center of gravity. On the end of such, a clamp (known as a hook-clamp, C-clamp, or pipe clamp—pipe referring to battens) is normally fixed, made in a "C" configuration with a screw to lock the instrument onto the pipe or batten from which it is typically hung. One secured, the fixture can be panned and tilted using tension adjustment knobs on the yoke and clamp. An adjustable c-wrench, ratchet (US) or spanner (UK) is often used to assist the technician in adjusting the fixture.

Most venues ensure crew and performer safety by attaching a safety cable/chain (a metal wire or chain with a locking carabiner) to the fixture. In the event that the fixture's clamp(s) were to fail, the cable would arrest the fall of the fixture before it could come in contact with a person. Some larger fixtures can weigh over 100 lb (45 kg) and are suspended very high above performers heads. Many venues place strict guidelines regarding the use of safety cables.

All lights are loosely classified as either floodlights (wash lights) or spotlights. The distinction has to do with the degree to which one is able to control the shape and quality of the light produced by the instrument, with spotlights being controllable, sometimes to an extremely precise degree, and floodlights being completely uncontrollable. Instruments that fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum can be classified as either a spot or a flood, depending on the type

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of instrument and how it is used. In general, spotlights have lenses while floodlights are lensless, although this is not always the case.

Types of lighting fixture

Within the groups of "wash" and "spot" light, there are other, more specific types of fixtures.

Profile

These fixtures feature a compound lens which allows the designer to place obstructions within the image path which are then projected. These obstructions could be "gobos" or shutters. A profile is a spot light, but allows for precise focusing.

Fresnel

A Fresnel is a type of wash light and is named as such due to the Fresnel lens it features as the final optical device within the chain.

Traditionally theatre and stage lighting has been of the "generic" type. These are lights which are focused, geled, and then simply dimmed to give the effect the designer wants. In recent years the emergence of moving lights (or automated lights) has had a substantial impact of theatre and stage lighting.

A typical moving light allows the designer to control the position, colour, shape, and strobing of the light beam created. This can be used for exciting effects for the entertainment or dancefloor use. Moving lights are also often used instead of having a large number of "generic" lights. This is because one moving light can do the work of several generics.

In the UK the nomenclature is slightly different from North America. This article primarily uses the North American terminology. Although there is some adoption of the former naming conventions it has been normal to categorise lanterns by their lens type, so that what in the US is known as a spotlight is known as a Profile or a Fresnel/PC (Pebble/Plano/Prism Convex) in the UK. A Spotlight in the UK often refers to a Followspot. The following definitions are from a North American point of view. UK naming conventions are used in most of the world,in fact most North American theatres will also use the UK terms except when talking in a more general sense (i.e. get a spotlight to focus on that set piece, or 'flood this area').

In Australia and many other places, the lamps inside a theatrical fixture are referred to as bubbles. In North American English, a bubble refers to the protrusion that occurs when one's body (or other oily substance) contacts the lamp. Heat will cause the portion of the lamp which has oil on it to expand when it is on creating the bubble, and causing the lamp to explode. That is why one should never directly touch the glass portion of a lamp. Cleaning with rubbing alcohol will remove the oil.

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Lighting controls  

Entertainment Technology's Marquee lighting console.

Lighting control tools might best be described as anything that changes the quality of the light. Historically this has been done by the use of intensity control. Technological advancements have made intensity control relatively simple - solid state dimmers are controlled by one or more lighting controllers. Controllers are commonly lighting consoles designed for sophisticated control over very large numbers of dimmers or luminaires, but may be simpler devices which play back stored sequences of lighting states with minimal user interfaces. Consoles are also referred to as lighting desks or light-boards.

For larger shows or installations, multiple consoles are often used together and in some cases lighting controllers are combined or coordinated with controllers for sound, automated scenery, pyrotechnics and other effects to provide total automation of the entire show. See show control.

The lighting controller is connected to the dimmers (or directly to automated luminaires) using a control cable or wireless link (e.g. DMX512) or network, allowing the dimmers which are bulky, hot and sometimes noisy, to be positioned away from the stage and audience and allowing automated luminaires to be positioned wherever necessary. In addition to DMX512, newer control connections include RDM (remote device management) which adds management and status feedback capabilities to devices which use it while maintaining compatibility with DMX512; and Architecture for Control Networks (ACN) which is a fully featured multiple controller networking protocol. These allow the possibility of feedback of position, state or fault conditions from units, whilst allowing much more detailed control of them.

Dimming  

A pair of modern 2.4 kW dimmers by Electronic Theatre Controls

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A dimmer is a device used to vary the electrical power delivered to the instrument’s lamp. As power to the lamp decreases, the light fades or dims. It is important to note that some color change also occurs as a lamp is dimmed, allowing for a limited amount of color control through the dimmer. Fades can be either UP or DOWN, that is increasing or decreasing the intensity. Today, most dimmers are solid state, although many mechanical dimmers still exist.

Dimmers are often found in large racks that draw large amounts of three-phase electrical power. The dimmers themselves are often removable modules that range from a 20-ampere, 2.4-kilowatt unit to a 50-ampere or even a 100-ampere unit. They can often be replaced by a constant power module (CPM) which is basically a 20- or 50-ampere breaker in a dimming module casing. Constant power modules are used to supply non-dimming current to other electrical devices (like smoke machines, chain winches, or scenic motors). When a constant power module is installed, the corresponding circuit is energized as long as the dimming pack is on, independent of the lighting console. Failure to use a constant power module on a non-dimming device can result in the damage of the device, specifically when the device relies on an internal transformer that depends on a specific power standard (in the US, 110 V, 60 Hz power). Even if a dimmer channel is trusted to always be operated at full power, during start up and shut down cycles of a lighting control surface, small amounts of noise interference and DMX signal-recycling can cause momentary interruptions in the data stream and cause a dimmer to dim a circuit, so a CPM is necessary to ensure that equipment is not damaged.

Increasingly, with the growth of digital technology, modern lighting instruments are available which allow remote control, not just of intensity, but of direction, color, beam shape, projected image, beam angle and a wealth of other effects. The ability to move an instrument ever more quickly and quietly has become the industry goal. Such automated lights frequently have built-in dimming and so are connected directly to the control cable or network and are independent of external dimmers.

• Soft light

Soft light refers to light that tends to "wrap" around objects, casting shadows with soft edges. The softness of the light depends mostly on the following two factors:

• Distance. The closer the light source, the softer it becomes. • Size of light source. The larger the source, the softer it becomes.

The softness of a light source can also be determined by the angle between the illuminated object and the 'length' of the light source (the longest dimension that is perpendicular to the object being lit). The larger this angle is, the softer the light source.

Uses of soft light

Soft light use is popular in cinematography and film.

• Cast shadow-less light. • Fill lighting. Soft light can reduce shadows without creating additional shadows.

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• Make a subject appear more beautiful or youthful through making wrinkles less visible. • Supplement the lighting from practicals. This technique is used to perform "motivated"

lighting, where all light in the scene appears to come from practical light sources in the scene. Soft light does not cast shadows that would be a giveaway of a supplementary light source.

• Hard light

Hard light sources cast shadows whose appearance of the shadow depends on the lighting instrument. For example, fresnel lights can be focused such that their shadows can be "cut" with crisp shadows. That is, the shadows produced will have 'harder' edges with less transition between illumination and shadow. The focused light will produce harder-edged shadows. Focusing a fresnel makes the rays of emitted light more parallel. The parallelism of these rays determines the quality of the shadows. For shadows with no transitional edge/gradient, a point light source is required.

When hitting a textured surface at an angle, hard light will accentuate the textures and details in an object.

Fall-off

Light intensity tends to drop off over distance. For a point light source, intensity decreases as distance increases. Intensity is proportional to distance. For a soft light source of infinite size, intensity does not decrease exponentially and is simply inversely proportional to distance. A soft light source does not drop in intensity as quickly as a point light source would (as distance increases).

Certain lensed lighting instruments (i.e. ellipsoidals) have a good deal of "throw" and do not lose much intensity as distance increases, much like soft light sources. These light sources tend to be more effective at large distances than soft light sources. At large distances, an effective soft light source would have to be very large! The (mostly) parallel rays of such instruments tends to cast hard shadows, unlike soft light sources.

Softness/hardness of various light sources

Most light sources have a non-negligible size and therefore exhibit the properties of a soft light to some degree. Even the sun does not cast perfectly hard shadows.

In "hard" light sources, the parallelism of the rays is an important factor in determining shadow behaviour.

The quality of light can be altered by using diffusion gel or aiming a lighting instrument at diffusing material such as a silk. When shooting outdoors, cloud cover provides nature's version of a softbox.

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• Fill light

In television, film, stage, or photographic lighting, a fill light (often simply fill) may be used to reduce the contrast of a scene and provide some illumination for the areas of the image that are in shadow. A common lighting setup places the fill light on the lens axis, roughly perpendicular to the key light.

The fill light is often softer and, by definition, less intense than the key light. The ratio between light and shadow depends on the desired effect. For example, a fill light that is a small fraction of the power of the key light will produce very high-contrast or low-key lighting, while filling with half or more of the key light power will produce a high key, low-contrast tone.

An alternative to using a direct light source as a fill is to re-direct or "bounce" the key light towards the subject by using a reflector.

• Flood lighting

A floodlight is an artificial light providing even illumination across a wide area.

High-intensity discharge lamp, the class of lamp itself

Stage lighting instrument, the types associated with Stage productions

Floodlights (sport), the types used at sporting venues

• Mood lighting

Lights are used to create moods according to the need. There exist special rights for this purpose and someone may use flash, … to create a given mood in a movie or theatre stage.

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Prepared by I.M. IRENEE TALENTS‐UNION Vice Coordinator in charge of information and formation 

Talents‐Union copyright 2012 

The background light is used to illuminate the background area of a set. The background light will also provide separation between the subject and the background. In the standard 4-point lighting setup, the background light is placed last and is usually placed directly behind the subject and pointed at the background.

In film, the background light is usually of lower intensity. More than one light could be used to light uniformly a background or alternatively to highlight points of interest.

In video and television, the background light is usually of similar intensity to the key light because video cameras are less capable of handling high-contrast ratios. In order to provide much needed separation between subject and background, the background light will have a color filter, blue for example, which will make the foreground pop up.