Few steps to perfect cinematic lighting

In order to make your video more cinematic and professional you don't need to do much, just follow a few simple steps which I will be breaking down in this post. 

 

Always shoot from the shadow side because this gives a certain scene more dramatic effect on the characters face.

 

Lighting direction : Lighting matters, even a small change in lighting can change the whole vibe and feel of the video without even moving the subject 

for example if we place a light at the top of a persons head it will give a depressed and less trustworthy impression. On the other hand if we place the light from down it would make the character a villain. For a natural lighting place the light at a 45 degree angle of the subject which creates the "Rembrandt lighting" named after a famous painter who used this triangle in almost every of his portraits.

 

Motivated lighting: a look that makes the audience feels that the key light is coming from the subject placed in the scene for motivated lighting.

 

Background lighting: is the lighting added to a scene to make the scene look natural.

 

Time of day: try to shoot during the golden hours instead of the time when the sun is on its peak (1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before sunset)

 

 Catch light/Eye light: is a light reflection in the subjects eye to communicate life and death in Media.

 

Depth : Is used to separate the subject from the background hence allowing more focus on the subject rather then the background.

 

Texture: Adding haze or smoke on a scene would totally change the look of that particular image/scene making it look like it has been captured or recorded on an expensive camera and lighting.