I can’t believe it, but I Speak Film is now a year and a half old. My first ever blog posted on January 25, 2006. It was titled, “Seeing the Light.” To celebrate, I thought I’d elaborate on my favorite of all photo subjects – seeing the light. I talk a lot about this in my cinematography class because the key to being a great photographer is light, plain and simple. Read on for some tips on how you, too, can see the light with new eyes:

As I said waaaay back in 2006, I first learned to see the light in a class at the Maine Workshops called Electronic Cinematography. I had no formal training in videography though I had been working in production at a television station for 2 years. This class was an amazing crash bang introduction to all things lighting and exposure. One of the exercises we did in this class was to take scenes from movies and duplicate the lighting using movie lights, grip equipment and a video camera. I had never looked at lighting or movies that way before and it was like being struck with a new heightened sense of vision.

I started looking at everything in my world with new eyes. I learned to see shadows, key lights, fill light, different colors of light, source lighting, ambient lighting, backlights, and a million other tiny alterations to the light. Friends got used to my saying thing like, “wow, you look amazing, that backlight is really working for you.” Um, thanks? I once took a white napkin off my lap in a restaurant and placed it in the puddle of light on the table to make the fill light better for my eating companion. Kookoo? Maybe, but I’m just trying to make the world a well-lit place!

Here are some easy ways you, too, can learn to see the light:

1) When watching your next favorite DVD, pause the movie during a shot you like. Look at the light in the scene. What do you see? Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the mood of the scene? Is it dramatic? Silly? Romantic?
• Where is the light coming from? Is it motivated somehow by a lamp in the scene, a streetlight, candles, the sun or the moon, etc?
• How many light sources are used?
• Where are the light sources placed? High above the scene? Below the actor? Behind a wall?
• What color is the light?
• Are there soft lights with subtle shadows or a hard lights with sharp shadows?

2) Look at advertisements in magazines. They are often lit with the same attention to lighting detail as movies. You can ask yourself the same lighting questions as above.

3) Start to pay attention to the light as you go about your day. Look at the light on your kids as they play, or on your coworkers sitting at their desks, or on your hands as you wash the dishes, or on your dinner companion at a restaurant. What does the light look like? Ask yourself the same questions as above.

4) When you look through the viewfinder of your camera, pay attention to the light. Would it be better if you moved slightly to the left or waited until sunset to take that shot? Is that nose shadow unattractive on he person you’re shooting? Would it help if you used some fill light or turned on another lamp?

Here are some benefits to knowing how to see the light:

• You will learn how to stand in the best light so you always look amazing
• You will see the best opportunities for taking beautiful pictures
• You will want to leap up off the couch, grab the camera and take a picture before you “lose the light”
• You will have a new activity when you’re bored standing in a line – just pay attention to the light.
• You will appreciate movies and photographs in a whole new way.

To the 15,000 or so visitors who have come to this site since I started, I say thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish you all beautiful pictures and hope you keep coming back to inspire me and each other.

Cheers,

Stephanie

(The stills in this blog came from the following movies, starting from the top: Road to Perdition, Citizen Kane, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (2 pics), Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Troy, Days of Heaven)