Why Lighting Effects Camera Techniques For Moving Image

Lighting is what can make or break a film. Without the correct use of lighting the shots could be under/cover exposed or not portray the correct meaning the shot was originally meant to give. There are handful of different lighting techniques such as "hard/soft lighting", "warm/cool lighting" and low/high-key lighting"
                                                                                     

Hard lighting is created from a single narrow light source. This creates a hard edge on the shadow giving the shadow a clear shape. Hard lighting is great for creating silhouettes for noir films which have a heavy use of shadows to create meaning in their shots. e.g. the use of hard light through venetian blinds to cast the shadows onto walls and actors.   







Soft lighting created from several lightings being directed at the subject/set. This creates softer shadows that have more of a fuzz as they blend into the light with a gradient effect. Soft lighting is often used as a fill lighting as it creates little shadows and would be commonly found it sit coms that have a brighter feel to the set.






Using lights of different colour temperatures in film means using lights of different colour in the same shot. As seen in this image below, this has been excellently used by Dr. James Cameron in "Terminator 2" where he mixed the blue and orange as in this scene the terminator is being hit by lights from moonlight (blue) and molten steal (orange). the only issue with mixing colours like this as it's not really possible to change the definition of one light without also effecting the other.