3 Lighting Setups for Narrative Filmmaking

Stay tuned to the end for a chance to win a prize!

Being able to completely change the lighting in a location is one of the fundamental skills needed in cinematography. Sometimes you need to use lighting to hide part of a location or make it look like a different space altogether. Having a few basic lighting setups to start from will help you better shape the lighting of a location to suit your story. Today, director of photography Dave Cortez teaches us how to create three different looks with one setup, using different light modifiers and color temperature.

In this video, Dave shows us how to create three different narrative looks in one setup. For the first look, he motivates light from the window in frame, creating a cool evening look. For the second look, he adds a soft key light to create a higher key scene. For the third look, he uses warmer light to create a golden hour setting.

The main techniques we will be discussing today are for lighting for your background, motivating light from practicals, and using white balance to adjust your lighting. Lighting for your background is when you expose for the background first, and then light your subject. This way you can have the most control over the light separation between foreground and background. Motivating light from practicals is when you use things like lamps and windows in your scene to determine where light is coming from. Using white balance to adjust your lighting is when you use the settings in the camera to help make a scene feel warmer or colder overall, without having to gel your lights.

Ultimately, as filmmakers we are constantly creating illusions. Lighting is a big way you can make these illusions more believable. Different stories call for different lighting effects, and being able to create a number of different effects in the same location will make you a better storyteller. The best way to do this is to find a location and try lighting it as many different ways as you can. That way you can learn through practice, and it might just inspire your next film.

🎥How to Light the Cinematic Film Look!

🎥Free Cinematography Lessons From Experts!

🎥Subscribe to Aputure:

🎥Connect with the A-Team!

🎥GET APUTURE GEAR:

🎥MUSIC:

🎥GRAPHICS:

Summary:
Aputure's YouTube channel provides free high-quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[aputurelighting]

What lights are in your kit and how do you use them on your projects? Comment below for a chance to win an SKB travel case.
Note: Winners will be notified via the email address listed on their channel

[liamd.obrien]

My favorite thing about this channel has become watching Valentina become more and more confident/comfortable as the host. Ted was the reason I got into this channel, but I really do love Valentina's energy & personality in the newer videos. Content is always great, but just so nice to see how she is able to play off of the guests with her charismatic delivery.

[bransoncusack]

wow this was one of my favorite episodes. Please please please more of Dave Cortez. He's super knowledgable and keeps the flow and pace of the video nice and quick.

[SHORTFILMMANTRA]

Hi, you all are doing great job 👍I regularly watch your fantastic tutorial and learn lots from your talent.

[clintdsouza]

One suggestion for future when showing the recaps would be to include the WB, ISO and aperture settings used to get that look.

[JonathanWayneAndress]

This series is absolute the number one that I watch on YouTube right now. And because of this I'm getting the 300D Mark II first. This has allowed me to make an educated decision on what to buy first. Thank you and keep em comming.

[jamesandcamera]

Comment question: Last few times I have been lighting people for interviews I have used the 120Dii through a shower curtain as the key. The shadows were already filled enough by how wrappy the light was. I then used a few tiny led panels in the background for pops of light on background objects.

Really enjoying this style of video, I can never get enough of lighting tutorials as its such a complex thing to learn on your own, but the Aputure breakdowns really show it in an easy way to understand and learn and be inspired from.

[saiyedkashefshahbazi]

Both of u do the work in so detailed style. It really helps . Even if I cannot get same fixtures during work. It helped a lot
thanks

[samfatima]

Last time I shot a conversation between three community activists at a local art studio. I used two Aputure 120d Mark II lights and placed a large diffuser in front of the lights. The art studio had sky light windows where natural light changed dramatically and affected the space. I used the two 120d at full power and I was able to keep the exposure the same despite the fact that the recording was just before sunset. My current kit includes three 120d Mark II and two brand new 300d Mark II. I just love them so much just ordered my third 300d Mark II! If Ann Liebowitz can have so many Aputure lights, I can as well!

I love those videos you put together for us. They are great to show how those awesome lights can be used. Thank you for all your hard work.

[schiffwasright]

Dave Cortez is an incredible DP. Had a chance to meet him once, great guy.

[AllThingsFilm]

I love the tip of changing white balance in camera to create mood. On a few occasions, I actually inadvertently set the "wrong" white balance for where I was shooting. Yet, I noticed how WB could be used in post for setting the mood. Love those happy accidents.

[andrew]

really enjoying theses videos, learning about lighting a scene is fascinating and enjoying the techniques used. Thank you!

[RynosDOP]

I liked Dave's work, bring him back on again for another video like this!

[Downs]

Thanks for the content, I’m a current film student and I’m actually taking a lighting class at the moment. This clarifies a lot, Once again thanks and keep that content rolling.

[filipeko]

last one is the best light setup on whole channel:)

[directoradamg]

By accident, I got my Aputure Spot Mount a full month ahead of schedule. I used it with a 120D. I recently used this combo along with The Light Bridge CRLS to light a person!

[randallrodriguez]

I love this kind of content -- it's always a great resource to see how other DP's light their scenes. A valuable learning tool to learn from others specially when you're a solo operator.


I shot a 1 minute fashion last week and used three Aputure 120D mk II's. One as a key, one with a space light modifier and one as a with 0 modifier bouncing off the ceiling. Since for many of the shots, the model was modeling near or atop a bed. We hazed the room a bit, and added 6 Aputure AL-MW's under the bed (held up under the bed frame with velcro straps) to give the scene some depth and separation. It was a lovely shoot and the Aputure lights withstood the rediculous heat that was in the room. Love your products!

[kadragepictures]

I really like this new format. Great content. It enlights me...

[DetroitVideoDiaries]

You guys are doing a great job and I am loving this series.

[renatozanardo]

Thanks Valentina for this video. I would have a request, if possible of course. Lighting up a static scene, thanks to your advice, is relatively simple. But what happens where there are camera movements? Suppose the camera moves around the subject; it is inevitable that the cameraman passes in front of the lights, in the same way it can happen that some unwanted accessories enter the scene. Or, another example: there are scenes in wide angle, where the environment is very wide and I don't think that the lights on the subject are really positioned so far from the actor. I know this is beyond the concept of lighting, but it would be interesting to know what to do in these cases.