LIGHTING
Lighting is key, no pun intended. It sets the mood: the scene is hopeful, grim, enchanting, mysterious, all of course in concert with color and the emotions it presents, but it's lighting that makes emotion to be wholly effective and resonate with the viewer. When studying lighting, this is the section where paintings come most in play because it deeply permeates lighting in modern film and photography. Studying the masters like Rembrandt, Sargent, and Caravaggio will help with your shorthand of what type of lighting you are going for (both on set and in animation) and will speed up communication.
DIFFUSE/INDIRECT LIGHTING
Ambient lighting, or non-key lighting, lights the subject purely of bounce/indirect light from the key light that's illuminating the scene.
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SHORT AND BROAD LIGHTING
SHORT LIGHTING
BROAD LIGHTING
ATMOSPHERIC LIGHTING
Atmospheric/Volumetric lighting is created when light passes through a volume (smoke, fog, snow, rain, or dust). Beams of atmospheric light can be shaped by what they pass though like tree canopies, windows, or wood boards. This can be used as an isolation tool to direct the beams of light at the subject of importance in the shot as a leading line. This lighting effect can be most useful for wide shots with the beams pointing to the subject.
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LIGHTING DESIGN
Lighting design is the practice of creating lighting schemes for statues, monuments, and the interior and exteriors of homes, buildings, and businesses. This is somewhat of a cross into interior design/architecture territory, but it’s essential for 3D lighting artists who have total control over lighting of interior and exteriors. The same rules of lighting apply like contrast ratio, centers of interest, and color balance.
BBC, Design Rules: Lighting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHk7yRu7_K4
HGTV, 3 Basic Types of Lighting
http://www.hgtv.com/remodel/mechanical-systems/3-basic-types-of-lighting
RIM LIGHTING
Rim lighting is placing a light opposite the camera onto the subject to separate it from the background or to outline contours of the scene.
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SKIP LIGHTING
Skip lighting/ribbed lighting is an example of lighting as visual interest. It’s main use is to use rim lighting to skip across as surface with gaps (ribs of a cave structure, seats in a theater, etc.) to add to aesthetic appeal a show contours of needed.
CROSS-BACKLIGHTING
SPOTLIGHT / POSITIVE LIGHT SPACE
Spotlight/Positive Light Space is lighting meets subframing in composition. It's a stylized way to highlight the subject of interest to draw the viewer’s eye in positive light space (light) while placing the less important parts of the frame in negative light space (darkness).
SHADOW STEP-OVER
The shadow step-over is a landscape painting technique used when there are clouds acting as light flags that cast a shadow in the foreground of the image (where the non important information is) and illuminate the subject in the distance. The effect is a visual “step” or glide over the foreground that's in negative light space onto the lit subject that's in positive light space.
SHATNER LIGHT
The Shatner light is named after its frequent use on the original “Star Trek” series for selectively illuminating Shatner’s eyes for isolation and an exaggeration of drama.
NEGATIVE SHATNER LIGHT
The negative shatner light is the inverse of a Shatner light. Only the bottom half of the face is illuminated leaving the eyes in darkness.
