Poppy's A2 Media Blog: Lighting workshop

Today, Matt took us through a lighting workshop and guided us through lighting techniques that we could use in our music videos. He discusses with us multiple different types of lighting so that we could chose the relevant lighting that would relate to the style of our music videos.

This light is called a 'red head' (normally the body of the light is red, hence the name). Red head lights are key lights which are very bright and powerful which is why they have a protective mesh over the bulb so that when the bulb breaks (which is inevitable), the glass won't create a hazard. To diffuse the strong red head lighter, you use 'trace' which is a waxy paper that goes on top of the bulb which makes the lighting softer and less harsh on the models face.

Another key lighting term we learnt were the use of 'fill lights', these lights help to fill in light which is not covered by the key light, eliminating shadows.

A 'blonde' light is used placed behind the artist to fill out background lighting. The style of lighting was originally created in the 1970s.

Matt then talked us through 'beauty lighting' as well as 'blade runner lighting'. Blade runner lighting is creating a harsh line of light around the artist (this may be good for rock bands potentially). Beauty lighting is essentially created a huge bathroom light for the artist, Matt used a huge diffuser (a big white board) and a polystyrene board which helped to bounce light back on the other side of the model's face.

This is a 'matte box' which helps to block out any unwanted lighting and to keep the focus on the model.

We then looked at fluorescent lighting where beams of led lights are used to illuminate the artist. These lights also look good aesthetically so there is also the option of them being able to be in shot in a music video.