Planning - Mise En Scene - Lighting

What is lighting?

Lighting is used in the media industry to create certain effects and assumptions. For example a low light  shot gives the impression that this person is frightening and fearful, this works well on ghosts or other horror characters. Lighting has two different forms, high key lighting and low key lighting.

High Key Lighting

High key lighting is used in filming to create minimal shadow on a character or a subject for this reason it is the most common form of lighting used in the media industry since all facial details are visible which would mean that the the emotions are more effectively/accurately conveyed.

High Key Lighting Setup

To achieve high key lighting it requires multiple 'keys'(light sources). The arrangement of keys are key (pun not intended) they need to cover all angles to cancel out shadows created from opposing light sources.

Example of High Key Lighting Set Up

In this image it shows an example of a high key lighting setup in this particular example it uses three keys but depending on scenario you can use more or less

Example of High Key Lighting

This an example of the effect created by high key lighting as you can see all facial features are fully lit and there is minimal shadows. The emotion and and expression of of the subject can be analysed and interpreted more easily.

Low Key Lighting

As the name suggests it is the opposite of the high key lighting  instead of bringing things to light (pun intended) it shrouds it in mystery by using minimal number of keys to create maximum shadows

Example of Low Key Lighting

This is an example of low key lighting and as you can see there are shadows covering facial features and this creates mystery and a sense of danger. Although this technique is mainly used to build up tension but it can also be used to emphasise certain body parts such as eyes and mouth.    

Why is lighting important?

Lighting is arguably the most overlooked aspect of mise en scene since if the lighting is bad it can make subjects appear unclear or just plain un seeable.

Example of Poor Lighting

This is an example of poor lighting and as you can see (or what you cant see) the subject can not be seen at all since the camera has under exposed the subject.