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Good lighting books?

F

Foggy

Hi folks,

I have recently read the fantastic '5 C's of Cinematography' and employed techniques from it in my last documentary piece.

My aim is to be a successful cinematographer and as such I would like to learn more about lighting techniques.

Does anybody know of any books similar to the above mentioned '5 C's' but explaining lighting techniques?

Cheers.
 
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It also helps to get a book that teaches you how to light to the style that you want to light since there are so many different lighting styles, but perhaps not every book covers all of them, but I wouldn't know.
 
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If your aim is to be a successful Cinematographer, my suggestion is to get in touch with, and see if you can shadow a great Gaffer and/or AC. Get on to the set!

As far as I'm concerned - books can be great, as can video tutorials. But nothing beats getting out there and seeing for yourself what lights are what, what they do, the type of light they cast, and how everything interacts with each other.

When I first started lighting, I had a decent theoretical knowledge gained from film school, but it wasn't until I got my hands dirty and started actually putting up lights and seeing what they did that it all really clicked into place for me. As well, seeing other Cinematographers (and Gaffers) work with light is a great way to see what others do, and how lights interact within a space - how they fall onto skin, and what that looks like on set and then also how the camera reads it.

That all being said, a couple books I have which I highly recommend are:

Film Lighting: Talks with Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers by Kris Malkiewicz
New Cinematographers by Alex Ballinger

I've also heard good things about Blain Brown's books - Cinematography: Theory and Practice, and Motion Picture and Video Lighting, though I've never read them myself.

I also like Bruce Block's Visual Story - it's not really about lighting, but a good read nonetheless.
 
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Thanks folks. I have just done that exact thing Jax, I will be spending the next couple of weeks shadowing the DoP on a british feature. Looking to turn my hobby into a full time career now so doing all I can to further my skills.
 
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That was great! Nowadays, Cinematography become giving attention. I think the viewers becoming much critics now. I salute to Kris Malkiewicz the best cinematography. I discovered that when my prof gave us an assignment and need to visit Homework-desk.com to classify what the cinematography is all about.
 
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