Have you ever watched a film and felt how your perception of an image shifts with different lighting? A character who appeared to be the sweetest creature alive suddenly loses your trust and becomes suspicious after simply standing in darker, more intimate lighting. Well, in this blog, we filmed five identical scenes, using and changing nothing but the placement of one light to find out how just these simple movements in lighting techniques impact the mood of a shot.
We used a Panasonic Lumix GH7 camera in Video mode. The input video format was MOV, exposure mode was M (manual), and the camera settings were 1080p/4K, 25p (8-bit) with VFR available, ISO was set to 500, aperture to f/3.5, and shutter speed to 1/50.
For the lighting, we used one light and a tripod from the ikan Milo 3 light set with a CCT of 4100 K and power set to 100%.
In the studio, we created a box using movable white walls and placed a single chair in the center. All other lights were turned off, leaving only a single light source.
SHOT 1
We were aiming for a neutral and calm atmosphere, so we placed the light directly in front of the character, which created a clear view of the face, body, emotions, and movements.
SHOT 2
The light was positioned behind the character, which created a soft glow around the outline of the body while the front remained darker. This effect gives the character a powerful/authoritative appearance, making them more important to the story.
SHOT 3
We placed the light low and in front of the character, which caused shadows to rise upward across the face, changing the appearance of the features and making them seem less familiar. This technique creates mystery around the character.
SHOT 4
The light was positioned low on the left side of the character, which created strong shadows on one side of the face while the other side remained more visible. This uneven lighting added a playful yet slightly mischievous mood, while also suggesting that the character might be hiding something.
SHOT 5
We positioned the light above the character, which looked very similar to natural moonlight. This created soft shadows on the face and body, while the background and the top of the character’s head glowed slightly. This technique made the character appear calmer and even angelic.
Overall, the process of making this project was fun and interesting, even though we still faced some difficulties along the way. Our first attempt was not shot correctly because we misunderstood the purpose and were overexcited, using several lights with different colours. After re-filming the scenes, we noticed during the editing stage that the camera had slightly moved in one of the shots and that the white balance was incorrect, making the character look slightly greenish. Luckily, all these mistakes were fixed during post-production and did not affect the project too much.
We hope you enjoyed this lighting experiment with us. Thank you for reading and watching this blog!
~ Alex Athianitis and Vasilisa Vasileva
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