Types of Lighting

There are several types of lighting used on set of a TV drama, for example in classs we looked at the lighting in Hunted. We then analysed it through a point evidence explain paragraph whilst looking at the CLAMPS of the scence too.

The following types of lighting are:

Key: this is the main light on a subject, e.g. focusing on  a character in a difficult situation.
Low Key: this is soft light on a subject, e.g. candles in a room by a subject.
High Key: this is hard/direct on a subject, e.g. the sun, lamps or spotlight.

Full: light placed to the side of the subject to fill out shadows and balance light, e.g. half the light on a character.
Backlight: a light placed at the rear of a subject to give light from behind, e.g. to focus/highlight the character.
Ambient/Naturalistic: light available before artificial light is added, e.g. lightening from windows or lights already there.
Chiaroscuro: strong contrasts between light and dark light, e.g. to show the higher class and personality between characters.
Accent light/spotlight: a controlled, narrowly focused beam of light e.g. focused light on a character.