Lighting 101: Direction of Light

This is our second installment of our Lighting 101 series, where Lauren demonstrates seven standard lighting angles you should know when lighting a character for a scene.

It's not just about where you point your light-- the angle of your lighting determines where the light falls, and therefore the kind of shadows it creates. These two effects together can have a huge impact on your audience.

Have more questions? Ask Lauren directly in our forums!

For those interested, the light we used was a Litepanel 1x1 Astra Soft Bicolor.

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[johnabbottphotography]

As someone who's been a photographer going on 30 years, this is a fantastic basic summary of lighting. You do a ton here in less then 7 minutes, and students could learn a bucket load from this.
Also, if you want a longer version on lighting film, watch Stranger Things. Its pretty much everything you could possibly do with light on the best scale possible, in one show.

[CZsWorld]

RJFS had been trying to find it's voice and style for a while. I think this is what it should be.

[cretivjacks]

I've seen a lot of videos on 'lighting', this is by far the best at connecting not only the practical, but emotional connections that lighting bring. Great job, Lauren!

[fritzschneebauer]

I like the part moving the light-source around and seeing directly the impact of the changing light-angle on the face of the model ... Well done! :-)

[switchingtime]

Thank you so much for these videos. I have a huge passion for film and filmmaking but there are a lot of pieces of information that seem impossibly dense to learn about outside of a formal education. This knowledge is invaluable and I plan on making great use of it all. Thanks again!

[aminetanouyat]

This is probably the best video I've seen on Youtube.
thak you so much !!

[tobiaspolze]

best videography teaching channel on youtube. we even used your video about cuts&transitions in school :)

[jeremymolinari]

Brilliant video, one of the best I've seen on lighting. It's basic stuff, but explained extremely, extremely well. Excellent work!

[lightpointfilms]

When you said "that is all for now" I got sad. I thought this is the stuff I need in my life. These tutorials are amazing

[SpirusFilms]

Thank you guys so much for this series - can't tell you how awesome and helpful they are

[reelsportrd]

Nice, can't wait for the video with combined lights. I hope this is the topic for today's livestream, i already have some questions

There's a video from behind the scenes from "Fan Friction", if I recall correctly, in which Lauren (the DP) did the lighting to work throughout the whole blocking, it would be great to see a video in which you can elaborate in lighting a whole sequence/scene hardly changing anything, not necessarily for action, but for a long shot, following a character indoors.

[mikekillagreen]

I watched about 20 videos. This is the one I need. Thank you Aceitaa!

[goldoozaru]

Good Stuff thanks for putting 101 series! Because sometimes we need get reminded about the basics!

[thathorrorshow]

Finally! A more detailed video about lighting positions. Thanks for the info. I have to practice.

[christiantriplett]

This really helps me understand lighting for drawing in different perspectives.

[madnirab]

From depth of my heart, Thank you.
This tutorial is an excellent piece of film making.
to you madam ( and your hardworking team) I say BRAVO

[logicsfinest]

I learned a lot of the technical side of filmmaking from Ron Moore. His podcasts went very in-depth to the point that I have force myself to not see acts, breaks, story pivots, lighting, music, editing etc.

[Yinolu]

My favorite example of lighting used to tell story was with the murder scene in The Force Awakens.. Kylo Ren's face is split between the red of the room and the light from the sun when he talks to his father... illuminating the inner struggle he's characterized as feeling.. and then when the sun is all drained, the room falls into darkness leaving only the red half light on his face, signalling his acceptance of the dark side as he kills his father... a bit on the nose but still beautiful

[anamariaorozco]

Loved your video!!! 💕💕💕 keep them coming. Very informative. Thanks!