How to make photos "deep"?

The basis of playing film and television special effects lies in shooting. There is no denying that many friends in the later period now think that shooting is none of their business, but old people often say that art is not enough. Straight to the point. Lighting is the most important aspect of shooting. Without it, the image has no shape, no emotion, no atmosphere and no dimension.

The use of halo makes your photos look more beautiful.

Photography directors often devote themselves to creating images with "cinematic feeling", which is a magical and elusive adjective, and its exact meaning is a hot topic in the industry. In fact, a large part of what makes an image feel like a movie comes from depth.

Christopher Nolan once said: "95% of the depth clues come from occlusion, resolution, color and so on, so it is a bit misleading to call a 2D movie a 2D movie." Besides looking more like a movie, deep shots usually make objects stand out from the background. Generally speaking, the audience's brain is easier to decode.

Obviously, DP is responsible for ensuring that their images are uneven, so how to do this? We can do many things with a camera-make a picture with multiple elements on a plane, move a car to create parallax, reduce depth of field, and emphasize scale by using a wide-angle lens or a low angle-but a bigger part is achieved by lighting.

Create a sense of hierarchy

Layered infiltration

Photo: Turner's Goddess of Disputes by the Water.

The key is to create a sense of hierarchy. Take Turner's classic landscape painting as an example, from which we can see many faces with alternating light and shadow. By comparing the levels of separation, the painter makes it easier for the eyes to interpret different planes and understand the perspective. This also makes the image more dramatic and even more "cinematic".

A simple example of photography director simulating this effect is the office scene of overhead fluorescent lamp. Early in my career, I used to shoot videos in such a company. In order to increase the depth and interest, DP requires turning off the lights every other row to create a layered light and shadow effect.

Another common depth pattern is dark foreground, alternating light and dark in the middle scene and bright background. John Alton explained why this mode is effective in his groundbreaking photography guide Painting with Light (1949): "When we sit in a dark cinema and look at the bright screen, it gives us a certain sense of depth. In order to continue this sense of depth, the screen must also be dark to bright, and the farthest distance must be the brightest, and vice versa. "

Deepen the depth with color

In the era of color movies, we can further deepen the depth by using different tones on each layer. For example, imagine an outdoor scene in the daytime. Our lens goes through a messy table and shoots a woman sitting in an armchair reading a book. Behind her is a window with a garden outside. We can put a black flag on the table to create a clear and dark prospect, while the outside is naturally bright. We can put a prop lamp next to the armchair to ensure that the woman is under the main light source, and the fluorescent lamp will cast a warm color on the image, in contrast to the cold light outside.

The idea of using a cold background and a warm foreground is particularly good because it is similar to the "atmospheric haze effect". Standing on the top of the mountain and looking at another mountain in the distance, that mountain will look bluer than the one you are in because of the atmosphere in it. In contrast, it becomes lighter, more hazy and lower, and we can use smoke to create it at the shooting scene.

Proper use of smoke can create a great depth. When it permeates the scene evenly, there will be more "atmosphere" between the lens and the background object than between the lens and the foreground object, which will help the foreground and middle scene elements (including actors) to stand out in a slightly gray, light and low contrast background. It is especially useful in the dark or in front of bright light or smoke.

Finally, using backlight is a good way to separate people from the layers behind them. It is especially effective if the actor's hair or clothes are similar to the background color; The light around them can separate them from the background.

Even if you are lighting an interview for a non-dramatic work, many of these techniques are applicable. So, the next time you want to shoot, ask yourself whether the picture is deep enough and whether you can use the above techniques to make the picture more cinematic.