Conrad L. Hall was one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of moviemaking. He was the director of photography for such movies as The Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Love Affair, Searching for Bobby Fischer, In Cold Blood, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I wrote my Master’s Thesis on Conrad Hall and one of the most interesting techniques he used was to work with the edge of the light.

What this means is that rather than focusing the light directly on the face of the actor, he pointed the light lower or to the side so the more subtle edge of the light illuminated the actor’s face. This gives a very naturalistic feeling to the lighting and keeps it from feeling overly “lit.” Often, he would point the light straight down on a white tablecloth, allowing the light to bounce around and light the faces with a soft, but directional light. This dinner table shot from American Beauty is a good example of this lighting style.

Working with the edge of the light is a great technique for photographers as well. I took these shots of Chloe a few days ago. They were lit with a beam of afternoon sunlight coming through an amber-colored window. Her chest is blown out, but the light on her face is soft and slightly underexposed. It is a romantic and naturalistic kind of light.

DUPLICATING THIS TECHNIQUE IN STUDIO

Don’t have a built in beam of light at your house? Here are the techniques I would use to recreate this shot using equipment and methods I used while working as a cinematographer.

For the keylight (main source of illumination), I would use a 1,000 watt fresnel light (called a baby light in the movie industry). These lights have a fresnel lens at the front, which is a piece of thick glass with concentric circles on it that focuses the light.

I’d then take a piece of amber-colored gel such as CTO (basically a gel form of an 85 filter) or bastard amber (yes, that’s the real name) and clip it to the barn doors at the front of the light using clothes pins. (In the movie industry, clothes pins are called C47’s, after the requisition number used in World War II to order clothes pins). You can buy gels at photo supply stores or online for about $6.00 per 20x24 sheet.

Adjust the barn doors so the light it does not over-illuminate the scene. Place the light about six feet back and point it at the chest of your actor. Underexpose the face by  -1 stop or so. It is ok if the chest is overexposed. This same equipment will work to point down at a tablecloth. Just make sure your light is well-secured so it does not come crashing down on your actor.

BUDGET ALTERNATIVE:

If you do not have access to movie lights and don’t want to make that kind of investment, here is an inexpensive way to cheat the light using equipment you can buy at your local home improvement and photo supply stores.

Start with an inexpensive work light from the home improvement store. To make things easy for yourself, choose a model that has a light stand. These lights each put out between 500-750watts. The problem with this type of light is that they are very hot to handle and the light is totally uncontrolled. To solve the heat problem, always wear work gloves and make sure the light stand is on a level surface and cannot be knocked down.

To solve the control problem, try using one of my very favorite movie lighting tools blackwrap. This is basically heavy-duty black-coated tinfoil. You can buy rolls online or at your photo supply store for about $28. Wrap the sides of the light using a long sheet of blackwrap and secure by pinching or clipping with a clothes pin at the top and bottom of the light. You are basically making a homemade snoot by cutting the light from spilling out the sides. Now your light is pointed forward and forward only.

You can then clip your amber gel to the front of the blackwrap. This may take a little finessing because the blackwrap will want to fall off. Make things easy for yourself by wrapping and gelling the light while it’s still turned off!