"Videography - the practice or art of recording images with a video camera" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary.)

The word "videography" is derived from the word "photography" which is defined as: the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (as in film or a CCD chip). The two key components for producing images is a sensor which is your camera and radiant energy which, for our purposes, is "light".

Each of the above definitions include "art" and "images". These two aspects are not the ingredients of videography, per se, they are your interpretation.

Lighting cinematography is part and parcel of successful videography – cinematography is the art of using light and camera angles to tell a story. Let's look at some movie lighting techniques that can help you get enough camera lighting to really "paint your canvas."

So when you look at a scene that you want to videotape you must decide exactly how you want to interpret that scene. Do you want to interpret the scene with dramatic artful images or do you just want to document it? What movie lighting techniques will help you realize your goal? Well, if you're just there to document the scene then read no further because all you need to do is set up the camera and start shooting. But if you want to bring a bit more to the table then you might find the following lighting cinematography pointers useful.

Determine the Level of Camera Lighting to Use

One of the main "ingredients" of videography is "light" which is your paint brush. It's used to paint dramatic images on your canvas. Your canvas is the scene. In choosing your "brushes" you should consider the effects desired just as a painter chooses a brush based on what he/she is painting.

Imagine creating a scene filled with long, slightly blue shadows punctuated with one streaming shaft of warm light - possibly from the early morning sun - which reveals a mysterious figure standing against the wall. As your subject enters this environment, the figure slowly raises his head and turns. As their eyes connect he asks for a smoke and your subject obliges. As they quietly talk the smoke slowly drifts around them.

There are several ways to interpret this scene on location but if you are restricted to a studio you must create your own camera lighting. In the above scene there are two light sources involved. The direct warm light is obviously from the sun but what is not so obvious is the bluish shadows which might be created by walls and filled with the soft light of the early morning blue sky.

Hard Light Like the Sun

Creating the light that appears to come from the sun is pretty easy in lighting cinematography - just point a hard direct light such as a raw quartz like a 500-watt Tota at your subject. Nice, easy solution but without controlling the camera lighting you end up lighting everything, creating too much spill-over. This light must be set pretty far from the subject to create hard shadows but it lights everything up. (see Figure 1.). Put it too close and it becomes too diffused and doesn't give you hard edged shadows (see Figure 2.). Here's a movie lighting technique to use: The scene calls for a hard light source creating a direct shaft of light - your Tota, even with barn-doors - isn't going to cut it. You need to put the light pretty far away from the subject. Just like the sun is far away from our planet, the farther your light source is from the subject the more direct and less diffused that source is. That's why your barn-doors will only control spill-over and not create hard edge shadows which you need to create the "wall" in the scene above. The barn-door is too close to the light source.