The Easy Trick For Cinematic Portraits

INTRODUCTION

Part of what makes cinematography and lighting a difficult thing to learn is that the real world offers a range of different environments and locations. In certain spaces, some techniques may work better than others. 

It’s the job of the DP to adapt and be able to light each location they are faced with: adding light to the background here, a brighter keylight in this space, or perhaps a backlit silhouette. Therefore, it can be tricky to give broad, general rules for creating beautiful footage in different situations.

There is however one basic trick which I like to use, which is also often used by many other working cinematographers today. I like to call it: framing on the shadow side.

You can do this in just two steps. Number one you need to decide where you place your key light, and number two position the camera in a specific relation to the subject and the key light. But what is a key light? 

POSITIONING THE KEY LIGHT

Well, if you look carefully at the lighting across professionally filmed content, you’ll probably notice that often people are lit to be brighter on one side of their face and darker on the other side of their face.

You can very clearly see this in black and white footage - where the brighter side goes to a whiter tone, while the darker side goes to a shadowy grey or black.

Creating this lighting contrast on faces is done very easily with what is called a ‘key light’. This is the brightest light source which is used by filmmakers to illuminate the subject.

What determines whether faces have this split light and shadow or not is how the key light is positioned.

Imagine that there is a semi circle around the subject. If you place the key light directly in front of the subject at 90 degrees and shine it straight at them, then their whole face will be illuminated and there will be no shadow.

However, if you move the light source around the semi circle until it’s completely profile to the subject at 0 degrees, you’ll see much stronger contrast. Now, half the face will get hit by light, while the other half is masked in shadow, as it's blocked from being hit directly.

The most common position for the key light is to split the difference between these two extremes and move the source back around the semi circle to an angled position of about 45 degrees to the subject.

This creates a middle ground where one side of the face is more strongly illuminated than the other, with a clear split in exposure down the middle of the face. However, some of the key light also spills onto the shadow side of the face, creating a triangular spot of illumination which lifts the darker side.

This 45 degree positioning of the key is referred to as Rembrandt lighting - named after the Dutch painter who often used this style of lighting in his portraits.

The position at which you place the key light in relation to the subject has a direct influence on the mood of the scene. The more frontal the direction of the light is, the more fully illuminated the subject will be, and the lighter and brighter the shot will feel - both in appearance and in tone. Which is why this style of lighting is often used for comedies, or upbeat, positive commercials.

While, the more side on the key is, the more shadow will be cast across the face, which gives images a darker, moodier tone. This style of lighting is more suited to genres like drama, horror, noir, or filmmaking that wants to impart a darker feeling to scenes. 

FRAMING ON THE SHADOW SIDE

When framing a close up of a subject filmmakers can choose to place the camera, just as they did the key light, anywhere along the semi circle, from a frontal shot to a profile. 

The easy trick that many cinematographers like to follow is to place the camera on the opposite side to where the key light is placed. So if the key light is placed on the right hand side of the subject, then the rule states that the camera should be positioned on the left hand side of the subject.

In other words, place the camera on whichever side of the face has shadow. Framing faces on the shadow side is a technique which has been used in various visual mediums from painting to photography and of course filmmaking.  

WHY DO THIS TRICK?

Now we know how to position our key light and camera to get this higher contrast look. But why should we do this in the first place?

One practical reason for following this rule is to avoid casting any camera shadows.  If the camera is on the same side as the key light, then there is a risk that the camera may move across this light and cast a shadow of filmmaking equipment against either the subject or the background.

However, it’s more often done for aesthetic reasons. 

The key light can be frontal or on the same side as the camera - however, this does tend to flatten out shots as everything in the frame will then have the same luminance. 

Basically it gets rid of shadows - which may decrease the feeling of dimensionality as there is no contrast in the lighting which would otherwise create a feeling of depth. 

This flatter, high key look may however be desirable in certain situations, such as for lighter comedies or in commercials which want to achieve a brighter, lighter happier feel. 

However, if you're after a little more mood, drama or tension then framing on the shadow side can help to visually support that feeling.

You can therefore bend this rule depending on what look you are after: using more frontal lit shots framed on the key side for a brighter, lighter feel, or more side lit shots taken from the shadow side for a more dramatic tone.   

POSITIONING ACTORS

Creating this lighting setup and framing is easy for say a sit down interview in a studio. However, more thought may be required to apply this principle in real world settings. 

Many modern filmmakers want their lighting to be motivated by the natural lighting in the location. For example if there is a window then the key light should come from the same direction as the window to mimic that real world effect.

In this way, the position of the lighting becomes fixed.

So, if the lighting is fixed, then how do you frame on the shadow side? Well, all you need to do is position the subject to best suit the location by placing them so that the key light is on one of their sides. 

For example, make them sit perpendicular to a window, rather than them directly facing the window. Then frame your shot so that the camera is on the opposite shadow side to the light coming through the window.  

FILMING EXTERIORS

This same idea can even be applied to exteriors. You can’t move the sun around as your key light, however you can control where you place the subject and camera in relation to the sun. 

To frame exterior portraits on the shadow side you can orientate the camera so that the sun is on the opposite side of the actor. The only caveat is to get the sun in this position you’ll need to shoot in either morning or late afternoon when the sun is low on the horizon.

Where you place the camera in relation to the sun will affect the mood of the shot. For example, you can position the subject so that they are side lit, and the camera is on the shadow side to create some contrast.

Or, for maximum effect, you can shoot what we call ‘backlit’ - with the subject positioned between the sun and the camera. This will create more of a silhouette and an edge light, or glowing outline, around the subject.

You can choose to either let the lens flare by letting the sun directly hit it, or mask the flare by positioning the subject directly in front of the sun on the shadow side - for maximum beauty.