Shots for your Reel
Hard light. Soft Light. When do you use what? It can all get pretty confusing. Let’s take a look at one awesome technique which will get you that beauty shot which makes it on to our reels. The type of shots that raise eyebrows and gets people to hire you!
The key here is how to use the soft light, how to use the hard light , and just how strong should each one of those be.
There is soft light and then there is SOFT light.
Just how big of a light source should you use?
The larger the light source the softer the light. The softer the light the less apparent shadows will be on your subject. Now this may not be good for a dramatic and suspenseful image but it’s can work wonders when you want that commercial, slick, polished look. As Matt said in his CineSummit presentation, he tries to get as large of a source as he possibly can, given the set which he has to work with! If you can get a hold of an 8×8 diffusion as opposed to a 4×4 do it! The softer the better for this look. That softness along with how he implements his hard light is one of the main secret ingredients for achieving that commercial beauty look.
There are a few other key ingredients to achieving the beauty commercial look which Matt explains in his full presentation, and in this CineSummit highlight I’ll share with you the soft/hard light combination that Matt explains to us.
Watch the video and you’ll be all set to put it into action immediately.
HOW SOFT OF A SOURCE ARE YOU USING?
ARE YOU BACKLIGHTING SEVERAL STOPS OVER?
LET MATT AND I KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!
