Naples Video Production

November 13th, 2009

Common Lighting Terminology

By: Naples Video Production Services

Lighting is essential to setting the scene and producing a good feature.  Lighting is the third most important aspect of producing film or video after video quality and sound.  It’s importance should never be underestimated.

Lighting, like any aspect of video production has its own language.  So here we are going to explain some of the most common terminology you will hear in or around a studio.  If you’re new to the scene, it should make you feel a little less out of place, if you’re an old hand, there may be something here for you too.

Ambient light. The light around us, natural light or light already in the scene from other sources.  The existing light before we add our own.

Back Light. The light behind the action.  Placed behind the subject to light them from behind.

Color Temperature. A rather confusing method of measuring light.  Measured in Kelvin, using temperature, but not hot or cold in the traditional sense.  Hot light is red orange and yellow, moving to cold light with is white to blue.

Contrast Ratio. The difference is brightness between the lightest and darkest things in shot.  This needs to be monitored as images that are too bright can appear over-exposed and barker areas could appear crushed.

Fill Light. A light placed to the side of the subject in order to remove shadows and round out the key light.

Flood. A broad light, not directional and less intense than a spotlight.  Similar to what you would see in a stadium, but on a smaller scale.

Fresnel. This is a light that has a lens with ridges on the outside.  Mainly used to focus a beam.

Halogen. These can be very bright if they aren’t filtered.  Filaments again, this time encased in halogen gas.  Gives a very white light to us, blue to the camera.

Hard Light. This is like sunshine hitting a subject out of doors.  Natural light that isn’t filtered or intercepted in any way.

Incandescent. These lights use a filament to make them glow, like street lamps.  They offer a mixture of soft or intense light depending on the type you use.

Incident Light. This is light from a source that is visible, like a lamp, sun or headlights.

Key Light. The main light on the subject.  This is the light that produces most of the luminance to a scene or subject.

Reflected Light. This is light that is bounced off a surface, like water for example.

Soft Light. Light that envelopes the scene of the subject.  It has the added benefit of producing subtle, or no shadows.

Spot Light. A narrow bean of light from a spotlight.  Often used to illuminate areas around subjects rather than the subjects themselves.

Tungsten. This is most often a standard light bulb, not the energy saving kind, the traditional one.  These are pretty much the same as an incandescent light.

That’s about it for lighting.  The subject is massive, and we may go into it another time, but for now you should have enough information to be able to work with lighting and know a bit about the language.