International Commission on Illumination

Making any movie is hard. It’s literally a whole production, filled with countless moving parts and people trying to make a film with little money and even less time. But the most difficult question any filmmaker faces—and 90% of directing is answering questions—will be deciding what movie to make.

Flat shots rarely grab the attention of an audience. As a cinematographer, you traditionally want to create visuals with depth and strike a mood. But how can you do that? While every location will have its own set of challenges, there are general tips you can follow to put yourself in a more advantageous situation.

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When you're capturing a crowd of people he says it's best to shoot into the darkness and have the lighting come over the top. For other objects, like a product, you can try to shoot into the light and have the light fall onto the object and then soften the surrounding to taste. Both are effective ideas when it comes to giving texture to an image.

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One consideration is blocking. If you block a scene that works against the natural light sources of the room, you may pin yourself in a corner. Well, unless you're not worried about continuity between shots.

Faced with the blank page, your imagination can seem like the only limit. Sadly, a budget is vastly more limiting, and if you’re planning to make an independent film, it’s best to try and keep yourself focused on what you can actually pull off. That’s why I’ve always been partial to building ideas out of available resources. From short films to my first featureGlue Trap, I love to start from a place of what do I have access to that will make a movie look more expensive. It’s a lesson stolen straight from Robert Rodriguez, whose book Rebel Without a Crew should be required reading for any budding filmmaker.

When you're at a location where you can't place exterior lights because you're on the second, third, or 32nd floor, you need to find a way to create texture without the help of those punchy lights. If you're shooting toward a window, what you'll need to do is position the fixtures to counterbalance the exterior levels.

Patrick O'Sullivan of the Wandering DP brilliantly breaks down a commercial, showing you different ways in how you can control the texture of an image.

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While the sun is our favorite natural source of light, it can create some overblown highlights. Diffusing the sun can provide better contrast in an image. Depending on the shot, you can use something like a 12x12 diffusion between the sun and the talent as a way to adjust anything overexposed.

There are more ways than you can count to create contrast in an image. Two of our favorite ways O'Sullivan points out—you can shoot people on the street and shoot objects.

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Another is contrast. As we know, contrast plays an important role in how someone perceives an image. A high-contrast image shows more texture, where a low-contrast image blends the light and dark areas, creating a more flat or soft look.

But keep in mind, while doing so it will also change the exposure of your background. You can then adjust the background through ND to compensate.

Meaning, you may have to raise the light level of the room in order to see what's beyond the window. Finding a natural-looking balance that's believable can be tricky. O'Sullivan says, "The less you do to a great location and a great schedule, the better it's going to look."

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