LIGHTING: EMPHASIZING MOTION

I learned the following concept from a veteran artist, and it just blew me away. It’s about how light enhances motion. We’re all familiar with car shots. Shots that feel integrated/real have breaks in light and shadow to show that the car is moving forward in space. Like in “Once Upon A Time”:

When lighting is constant, like in the opening, outdoor shots of this ad, we don’t sense characters moving in space:

The same goes for having characters walk through constant lighting. Their motion through the space can be hard to read and integration can be broken:

This bring us to the main concept of how moving in and out of light/shadow can enhance our reading of a subject in motion and how far it has moved in space

In the shot below, without the hand moving out of shadow, we would not have a way to tell that the hand has moved closer to camera, especially with such a long lens. Therefore lighting emphasizes the movement.

In the shot below from Always, lighting both adds variation and emphasizes movement: