Film Lighting Tutorial: The Best Way to Set-Up Lamplight

Learn the correct way to set-up lamplight to achieve atmospheric scenes, with David Curto

One of the most common problems you encounter when lighting a scene with a lamp, is that the light source is overexposed, while the character isn’t well lit. What’s the best way to solve this situation?

David Curto (@davidcurto), is a DoP who has worked for artists including Sebastian Yatra, Mike Towers and David Bisbal and for brands like Motorola, Honda, Ford, Suzuki, Carrefour, Avianca, Nestlé, Heineken and Netflix. In this tutorial, he teaches you the keys to achieving a correct lighting set-up.

Watch the video to learn more.

The keys to achieving great lighting for a lamp-lit scene

Once you’ve got the character lighting right, correct the lamp set-up using the following steps:

1. Use a dimmer switch

Connect the lamp to a dimmer to adjust its intensity. This will allow you to adjust the light projected onto the scene more accurately. Dim the light until it’s nicely exposed. Your character will be left a little in the shadows.

2. Add a LED dedolight

Now add a LED dedolight with the same temperature as the main lamp. David adjusted the temperature to 2800K in the first example in this tutorial, (which uses an IKEA lamp).

Check the temperature of your lamp lightbulb in advance to avoid any mistakes.

3. Play with light

Then position this light so it falls on the character. You can accentuate the effect by placing black card or cinefoil around the LED dedolight. This will focus more light on the character.

When everything is ready, adjust the dimmer to make sure the lamp’s not too strong, otherwise the effect won’t be very realistic.

These two sources of lighting will allow you to light the character and achieve good exposure on the lamp.

Remember that each lamp is a world in itself, and that the light temperature and strength will change in each case. You will need to adjust the intensity and play with temperatures. Just think about the three main factors: direction, intensity and temperature.

Love this tutorial? If you want to learn how to develop your lighting techniques to give any film project a professional finish, don’t miss David Curto’s online courses: Advanced Cinematography Techniques and Introduction to Film Photography Direction.

You may also like:

- Lighting Techniques with Cinema 4D, a course by Roberto González
- What Is Ghost Light in Photography?
- Cinematography with Natural Light, a course by Albin Sjödin
- Basic Lighting for Audiovisual Projects, a course by Enrique Silguero