Lighting Analysis

By: Rose Bundy 

 This is still from an episode of Black Mirror. The lightning in the scene portrays the man in the scene as a dark and sadden character. There is one light that you can see just over the characters head. That light is fluorescent yellow tinted light. There is however, another light source giving off a white light different for the yellow light. This white light is probably a back light pointed at the characters back. There could possibly be a window or light above the oven giving off some natural light. The characters face is consisted of hard light. There is a large contrast of light between the subject and the background. The majority of the intensity of the light is behind the subject, but you can see it with the outline of his right shoulder and arms. This still is like a silhouette in which the subject is dark with a lighter background or edge around the subject. The subject has some light on the right side of his face which mean there is possibly another light source that is at a 45-degree angle to the subjects back. Since the subject is in focus and the background slightly blurred the scene was probably shot with a low aperture probably around F 5.8 or 4.

            This is a still from Inglorious Basterds. The lighting in this scene portrays tension. Tension is created because some of the woman’s face has soft light on it whereas the man’s face has hard light. The background behind the man has light on the wine bottles whereas the background behind the woman is barely lit. This creates contrast which gives the feeling of tension or disconnect. This also means that the subjects pop out from their respective backgrounds. This is also done because of the color clothing the subjects are wearing. The man is wearing a dark uniform that is absorbing light whereas the woman is wearing a light-colored trench coat that is reflecting the light. There is probably a large and intense light that is not exactly above the subjects but closer the background giving light to the subjects at an angle. This light from above is definitely an unnatural light source. There is also probably some type of light source coming out of the right side of the frame lighting the woman’s front side of the coat. The color of the lighting in the scene is a bright white color. The quality of the lighting creates hard edges around the subject’s bodies. The background of this still is a little blurred out which mean the cameras aperture must be around an F8 because you can see some detail in the background.