![]() Cut an irregular branching organic design in a piece of black foamcore and place it between the light and the wall. Set up another light so that it is focused on the blank back wall behind your talent. Set up your typical three-point lighting with a nice soft light for the key, a back light opposite the key giving your talent’s hair and shoulders a nice rim light, and finally a bounce card to provide a little extra fill light to fill in any dark shadows on the face. How about a nice dappled shadow background to add that three-dimensional look? You are doing an interview, and you want to create an interesting background, but you don’t have any nice drops or props to use. Now that you know the facts about shadows and the tools used to manipulate and cast them, how do you use that knowledge to make your images look even better? Let’s take a look at some simple but standard lighting situations you may encounter. Like flags, only smaller, dots are small circular pieces of metal or foamcore used to precisely place shadows at particular points in your image. This is a piece of black foamcore or metal-framed opaque black cloth used to place shadows on the background and control your light sources.ĭots are another useful tool. The leko, which is an ellipsoidal light fixture, is capable of focusing the design shadow very sharply on any surface.Īnother shadow-casting tool is the flag. This metal slide has intricate designs cut into the metal, so that it can project tree leaves, fireworks, company logos or thousands of other designs. Windowpanes, doorways, leaf patterns and fence-rows are just a few of the many types of gobos you might want to use as background shadows.Īnother type of gobo is a small metal slide used in a pattern projector or theatre leko. A cookie or gobo (short for go between) is a piece of black foamcore, plywood or other sturdy material, shaped or cut to create a patterned shadow when placed between a light and the background to be shaded. There are a number of tools you may want in your shadow-casting tool kit. For a blue shadow, use orange light: you can create a yellow shadow by using a purple light. The complement of red is green and vice versa. As you see, light will either color the shadows or brighten them, and the resulting color is the complementary color to the light that is blocked to cast the shadow. As you add the white light, the shadow will turn green. However, you can create green shadows by casting a shadow with a red light and illuminating the shadow with white light. However, any other light in the area will reduce the density of the shadow and turn it from black to gray. If you are able to control all of the light falling on a surface, the shadows that you cast will be very dark and dense. The density or darkness of your shadow depends entirely on the amount of ambient light falling on the shadowed area. Large soft lights create a very diffused light that does not provide a good shadow. Set your lights on spot, and the shadows you are trying to create will have sharper edges. ![]() Small intense lights create a hard-edged light that casts very sharp shadows. The type of light you are using is very important when casting shadows. When shooting a scene, the shadow-casting object can be just out of the shot, getting it close enough to the scene that the shadow it is casting is sharp and clear. Even with a large soft light source, you can cast shadows if the object you are using is close enough to the surface that you want to shadow. The first and most important factor you have to remember about a shadow is this: the closer the object casting the shadow, the sharper the shadow’s edge. The position of the object in relation to the cast shadow, the type of light being blocked and the amount of other light in the area all affect the quality of the shadow. Shadow FactsĪ shadow is an area of darkness created by an object that passes in front of a light source. ![]() In this column, we will focus our attention on the shadow – how you can manipulate its look and density – and we’ll look at some ways in which you can cast it to create a more three-dimensional feel to your images. But what about the shadows?ĭid you ever think about where you wanted to place the shadows or how you could add shadows to your images to make them look less flat and more realistic? TV is a two-dimensional medium. ![]() When you think about lighting, you probably think about your lights and where to place them.
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