Key Terms and Concepts: (List Aphabetically with bulleted sub-points)

1. available lighting: the use of lighting which actually exist on location
2. Backlighting: when the lights for a come from behing, causing the figures in the foreground to create a silhouette
3. dominant: the area on the film image that atrracts the most attention (usually because of the visual contrast)
4. fill light: 2ndary lights that are used to enhance keylight; they soften the harshness of the key lightrevealing other details.
5. high contrast: a style of lighting that emphasizes the harsh shafts and dramatic streaks of light and dark
6. high key: a style of lighting emphasizes bright and even illuminatioin, with few shadows.
7. key light: the main souce of light for a shot
8. linear:a visual style emphasizing sharply defined linesrather than colors or textures
9. low key:a style of lightingthe emphasizes difused shadows and atmospheric pools of lights
10. overexposure: too much light within the aperture of the camera's lens, bleaches out the image
11. painterly: a visual style that emphasizes soft edges, luch colors, and a radiantly illuminated enivornment producing a romantic tone
12. 3-point lighting:a common technique used for lighting a set. the key light is used as the priciple light to createa dominant contrast,the fill lights are then placed opposite of the key light to reduce the intensity, the backlights are used to seperatethe foregroundelements from the setting(creating depth.)

Review Questions: (Minimum of 5 critical thinking questions)

Why is light and dark important in photography?
Why is a cimematographers’ work harder than the work of a still photographer?
What is the connotation of light and dark and do cinematographers “play” with them to create particular moods?
What kind of movie is more suitable for high key lighting versus low key lighting?
How does lighting affect the mood or tone of the scene/ movie?


Reference Films: (Include Title and year of production and reason for reference.

1. Red(1994). this movie uses three point lighting. This type of light creates dominant of an image- the part of the image that first catches your eye. They used fill lights to soften the harshness of the main light source, and backlights to sperate the foreground figures from their setting

2. The empire Strikes Back Special Edition(1997). Uses high contrast lighting which is typical in genres such as crime films, melodramas, thrillers, and mysteries.

Links: Add links with a brief description.