Lighting in Layers

[adarshpp49]

How do you Light in Layers? (Background/Midground/Foreground)


What all to be careful about lighting up in layers


Is there any rule that can help

 

[Maura N.]

Hey! It truly depends what you are trying to achieve. Usually, I choose to have the lights on my subject, not behind him, therefore avoiding Contre-jour.
For color grading, I use either After Effects or Adobe Premiere. Sometimes, you need to make some masking if you wish to go for the software edit. I heard that Da Vinci Resolve also has a few useful features.

What I try to do, however, is to make the most out of the lights that I have. And if you do not have professional lightning, there is no problem, you can use the natural lightning into your favor and the camera settings. Avoid shooting at noon, when the sun is too strong.

 

[Oskar Kuusk]

How do you Light in Layers? (Background/Midground/Foreground)


What all to be careful about lighting up in layers


Is there any rule that can help

There is no standard method to do this. You always need to adapt everything you know for what you need to shoot. Do you wish to create an emotional scene? Does your story happens at a certain time of day? What kind of videos do you need to film? What kind of gear do you own? Do you shoot in a studio with green screen or in the middle of a field? So many questions and so little input

 

[EmilyWilkes]

How do you Light in Layers? (Background/Midground/Foreground)


What all to be careful about lighting up in layers


Is there any rule that can help

How do you Light in Layers? (Background/Midground/Foreground)
You need the proper lens and camera settings when you film this. Then, you go to your editing software and start playing with color correction until you have the result you want.

What all to be careful about lighting up in layers
You need multiple lights when you film it. If this is not possible, you need to use multiple layers to create lightning

Is there any rule that can help
Don't overdo it. Sometimes people go off the balance with trying to have the perfect effects.

 

[camilatorti]

How do you Light in Layers? (Background/Midground/Foreground)
I have to say it depends on the location and the look you are trying to achieve. But usually what I do is I light the subject, separate it from the background and the see how I can light the background to give dimention to the image. The important thing here is create depth by creating light and dark. Also you can create depth by color.


What all to be careful about lighting up in layers
Besides needing several lights, I think keeping a balanced image is the most challenging. Don't overexposing or over-lighting the part of the image where you don't want the attention to be drawn to. The same with no darkening too much the part that's actually important or the whole background as it's not going to create depth.

Is there any rule that can help
Maybe the 3 key lightning setup can be a start. It will separate (if you have one) the subject from the background (maybe fill is not needed, depends on what you are going for) and give the background some "base" light. Then you can start adjusting and adding more lights accordingly.