A cameraman, or more specifically, a cinematographer, has the job of painting with lights, so one must know how to mimic certain situations and be able to manipulate the light to their liking, as well as the director’s. There are four things you need to consider when setting up lights: movement, placement and intensity. This is how they break down:

Movement: When light moves, it can mean a number of things. A character could be approaching a scene, a light could be „going out“ which could create a creepy basement interrogation scene, or it could be something along the lines of a dance party or perhaps a rave of some kind. Maybe flashes are needed to mimic paparazzi taking pictures, in which case a lot of movement is needed as that could consist of a bunch of consecutive flashes from all over the frame.

Placement: Depending on where you place the light on a character, it creates different shadows on their faces and can create different moods and can change the way you look at someone. For instance, when you light someone from the bottom, it creates an evil look. Remember when you’d go camping and you’d scare your little sister by placing a flashlight under your chin, turning it on and making a scary face? Just like that. The more lights you use, the less shadow you will create, so using just one light will create more shadow and make a character look darker and more mysterious.

Lighting your actors appropriately is also very important because where the light is placed will cast different shadows on their faces. The lower the light, the more ominous someone will look and also keeping them in half light and half shadow-not revealing their whole face. If you think of a light as a little sun and then shine it on your actors according to the time of day you’re trying to mimic, thinking about the angle of the sun during that time of day will also help you manipulate the light to your liking. Protagonists tend to get lit brighter and their eyes are shown more to the audience to keep a connection. The antagonists tend to be darker lit and their eyes are not seen as much so the audience doesn’t feel as connected to them and they seem less trustworthy.

Intensity: As a Yiddish proverb once stated, „The eyes are the mirror of the soul.“ Eyes also tell a lot about a character-if they’re lying, feel uncomfortable, sad or happy-you name it. You can also read subtext through eyes, meaning one can look into another’s eyes and tell what they’re really feeling as opposed to what they said they felt. This is one reason why mysterious characters or villains tend to be lit less because of their dark demeanor. Most of the time, villain’s eyes are not seen as well because they’re lying or the production does not want the subtext of the character to be read as well. Not seeing someone’s eyes also makes them less trustworthy.

The darker it is, the more mysterious and dingy the scene becomes. The brighter the scene, the happier the characters are and the audience will feel more comfortable. Dramas tend to be darker and comedies are brighter for that exact reason. Comedies want you to laugh; so making it brighter will create a happier mood for the audience, therefore making them laugh easier.

Color: Light color is fun to play with but can also be challenging because it can change the way a character’s skin tone looks and can mess with the white balance on your camera. A cameraman must know how to properly white balance a camera to every color temperature without losing an actor’s proper skin tone. Light color can also determine the time of day, as daylight is bluer and indoor lights tend to be more orange or „tungsten,“ as we call it in the film industry. Color can also be used to portray sunsets, sunrises and can be used for schemes throughout the film. Perhaps a character’s light tends to have more of a certain color in it every time they appear on the screen because color also represents how we feel about people and can evoke certain feelings.

Once you fully understand these concepts, putting them all together and creating a specific mood, time and place becomes easier and more fun as time goes on and you learn more. Each project presents more obstacles to overcome and packs more creativity into your head of never-ending learning. With each set comes new people and new ideas to share and learn. The cameraman is always learning and growing with each project.

Thrilling work of the TV show lighting camera man at Mark Cella’s site.