Introduction to Lighting Techniques 

 
Soft lighting 
​Advertising Film Film 

 
Softlight creates minimal shadows, and there is a much smoother transition 
between the light and the shadow, by creating a gradient. In some cases, such as 
the one in the advertising example, the shadow is so minimal, that the transition is 
almost unnoticeable. This effect can be naturally created in the outdoors when the 
day is very cloudy. Soft light is almost always used in advertising, especially for skin 
care (such as the example above) and make-up products. This is because soft 
lighting is very flattering on the subject, and therefore it is better publicity for 
beauty brands. 
 
 
 
 
 
Hard lighting 
​Music video Theatre recording Film 

 
Hard lighting creates harsh shapes and shadows and therefore adds a great amount 
of depth and contrast to the subject. Transition from light to shadow when the 
subject moves should be really quick and the shadows should have hard edges. This 
effect can be naturally created in the outdoors when the day is sunny, as the sun 
would act as the key light creating harsh shadows.  
 
 
Use of shadow 
​Advertising Film Film 

 
There are more artistic ways to manipulate the use of shadows in film productions. 
A common example is the creation of silhouettes which requires harsh lighting and 
a key light. Shadow is really easy to manipulate with artificial lighting, for example, 
the closer the opaque object is to a light source, the sharper the shadow it will be, 
and farther, the more blurry the shadow will appear. Depending on the angle of the 
light, the shadow may appear shorter, or larger such as the middle example. 
 
Silhouettes can form any type of shape and can therefore be used to have many 
different effects. In the John Lewis advert show on the left, different objects are 
used in order to recreate the shape of a person in it’s shadow, this is a perfect 
example of shadow manipulation. The effect this advert is aiming to aiming to 
achieve with the use of shadow is to portray a magical, fantasy-like atmosphere to 
the audience as the advert is christmas related. In film, the use of shadows and 
silhouettes is typically used in horror, as it can figuratively represent the dark side 
to something or someone and therefore creating suspense.  
 
  
 
 
High Key lighting 
​Music video Television Film 

 
High Key lighting has a great deal of fill light and therefore it creates a flat effect as 
there is very minimal contrast .High Key lighting is characterized by it’s great 
amount of fill light compared to most lighting techniques, usually the lighting ratio 
is 1:1. It is usually used for comedy sit-coms (such as the TV show shown in the 
middle) as well as romance movies. It can have many different effects depending 
on the type of media it is used in. For example, in the music video above, high key 
lighting is used to romanticize the singer and make her appear nice, beautiful and 
approachable. On the other hand, in the film example, the lighting technique is 
used to match the theme of fantasy. 
 
Low Key lighting 
​Advertising Film Film 

 
Low key lighting, has a darker look as it mainly consists of building a high contrast. 
It is the opposite effect to high key lighting as the light is dimmer and therefore, 
where the light does hit a subject, it appears to be harsher and far more dramatic. 
Low-key lighting mainly consists of just a key light, although the amount of shadow 
can be controlled by using some fill light or a reflector as it has a high lighting ratio. 
In advertising, low key lighting is usually most effectively used with a black 
background, as the audience will only focus on the subject. In film, low-key lighting 
is used to create certain moods; it is commonly used to create a sense of mystery 
suspense, horror or even melancholy. 
 
  
Chiaroscuro Lighting 
​Advertising Film Film 

 
Chiaroscuro lighting can be considered an extreme type of low-key lighting. The 
light and dark tones are more distinctive as the contrast level is very high, 
therefore creating a lot of depth. This type of lighting consists of only a key light 
which lights a subject in a way in which the desired features remain in the light, 
and the rest are almost covered by the darkness. Chiaroscuro lighting creates a 
mysterious atmosphere although it can even be used to give a sense of elegance 
(mostly when used in marketing); as it does for the advertising example. On the film 
example on the right, in this scene of Citizen Kane, the only lighting used to create 
this effect is natural lighting from a window, and the sun is therefore acting as the 
key light. 
 
Uplighting 
​Advertising Film Film 

 
Uplighting is an alternate technique of manipulating light in order to create an 
atmosphere. Usually there is only a key light in uplighting, meaning that it is a type 
of hard lighting. The angle from which the key light comes from is from the bottom. 
In outdoor spaces, the use of uplighting during the night is quite beautiful as it 
shows off the trees in the dark, this is why in an advertisement of a place, 
uplighting can romanticize the outdoor scenery with the use of practical lights such 
as the picture shown above. On the other hand, in cinema, uplighting has a far 
more sinister effect, especially when it’s used to light a subject’s face. The angle of 
light is quite unflattering as it only highlights the bottom surface of the nose, chin, 
brow-bone and cheeks. A very famous example of uplighting in film comes from 
the shot shown on the right of the movie​ Frankenstein​ from 1931 as it gives the 
 subject a monstrous and unflattering look. Uplighting is mostly found in thrillers 
and horrors. 
Backlighting 
​Music video Television Film 

 
Backlighting always seems to create a very dramatic effect on the shot, especially if 
the backlighting is the only source of light as it is in the music video example and 
the film as only the image of a dark silhouette is shown on screen. Backlighting also 
creates a sense of depth between the background and the subject although the 
subject itself appears more flat. A rim of light is usually formed around the subject 
when back lighting is used. 
 
 
Lighting to show a specific setting 
Television Film 

 
Often films, TV shows and even adverts, want to recreate every component of a 
specific setting in which they want to record a scene. An important component, 
which makes a setting appear to look like a real one to the audience, lighting is very 
important. For example, in the first picture, there is a scene recorded in a set 
recreated to look like a hospital. The lighting must therefore also imitate the 
lighting of the hospital and therefore it is bright and has a cold blue tone. When the 
audience sees this type of lighting, they would associate it with a hospital. In the 
other example shown, the scene of ​ScarFace​ is set in a night club and therefore the 
lighting imitates that of a typical nightclub; hard lowkey lighting with a tint of 
colour (most commonly red tones are used to recreate nightclub lighting).  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Spot Lighting (specific setting) 
​ Film Music video Film 

Spot lighting, comes from a specific light which illuminates only a specific 
character or thing from a distance, and everything else should remain in the dark 
(unless there are other lights present as shown on the third example). This type of 
lighting is used to bring the audience’s complete attention to the subject being lit by 
the spot light. Spot lighting usually lights in the shape of a circle and depending on 
the intensity, it usually creates a silhouette of the subject in the background. Spot 
lights used to be more commonly found in old fashion shows (such as talk shows, 
dance shows or theatre shows), therefore, in film it is often used to recreate the 
lighting for that specific setting. 
 
 
Motivated Lighting 
​Music video Film Film 

 
Motivated lighting is created through enhancing and replicating practical lighting 
within a scene, as in many cases, the actual practical lighting (such as the candle 
lights or lamps) aren’t strong enough for the camera to capture the subjects well 
enough. Therefore, motivated lighting is just imitating the kind of light the practical 
light would give, but with artificial lighting. The colour of the light or movement of 
the light (for example fire) must be recreated well enough for the audience to not to 
notice the use of practical light. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Three point lighting 

 
 
Three point lighting is a lighting setup used for many different types of media as it 
can be arranged to fit many different styles of lighting, and does a great job at 
creating a cinematographic quality of lighting when used on a subject. Three point 
lighting consists of three different lights; the key light, fill light, and the back light. 
 
The key light has the highest intensity out of the three sources of light, as it is the 
primary light of the scene. The key light is commonly placed at an angle from the 
subject, this will avoid the image from looking too flat and give it a more natural 
volume. 
 
The fill light is dimmer than the key light, and it’s intensity 
usually differentiates a high-key lighting from a low-key 
lighting. The job of the fill light is to eliminate the excess 
shadows created by the key light, avoiding making the part 
subject and background appear too dark for the audience to see. 
As the fill light is not as intense, it should not be creating any 
shadows of its own. In some cases, a reflector can be used to bounce off from the 
key light in order to create the fill light effect. 
 
Lastly, the backlight is the most subtle light out of the lighting setup, as its job is to 
simply separate the subject from the darker background. The back light is placed 
behind the subject. This light, ties up together the lighting in the scene, as it 
finalizes the creation on depth and shape. 
 
Brief history of lighting in film 
Daylight and soft light in the silent era 
 
Short silent movies used to feature the sun as the main source of lighting, therefore 
in cinema’s beginnings, lighting was almost entirely natural, filming largely 
executed in glass studios (one reason American companies moved to California was 
its brighter, year-round sunlight).​ This wasn’t very efficient due to restricted hours 
of filming, therefore the start of artificial light in film productions begun as studios 
started becoming more elaborate. 
 
For the use of artificial light during the silent era, a particular individual (Peter 
Cooper Hewitt) is relevant as he was an electrical inventor who passed an electric 
current through a glass tube containing tiny amounts of a gas making light. These 
were named glowing Geissler Tubes and would later be used in film.These created 
a soft light to illuminate rooms during production. Industrial uses for the lamp 
were many, as in an age of black and white film, the color of a photographer's light 
made little difference, instead, there needed to be a large amount of it. 
 
Expressionism 
 
Expressionism in film originates from Europe 
but it’s most commonly known as “German 
expressionism” and ​consisted of a number of 
related creative movements in Germany before 
the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin 
during the 1920s. An example of an expressionist 
movie is The​ Cabinet of Dr. Caligari​ (1920) which 
is a German silent horror film, directed by 
Robert Wiene. 
 
The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique 
and curving lines and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets. 
The lighting in this film confines its audience in a claustrophobic setting which I 
believe shows the beginning of artistic lighting used in film as harsher lighting in 
sets were used to form shapes. Two genres that were especially influenced by 
Expressionism are horror film and film noir which both feature harsh shades. 
 
Hollywood 
 
The narrative and visual style of classical Hollywood style would further develop 
after the transition to sound-film production. A lot of old film lights were made 
obsolete due to the large amount of noise they generated which would interrupt the 
sound in the productions. 
There was also more exploration of light within the hollywood studios. For example 
the use of lighting to create moods to fit the genre of the film, such as warmer soft 
tones of light for romantic movies. 
 
“The Great train robbery” marks the start of Classicism in Hollywood as most 
Hollywood style films came after it. Classicism is all about ideal storytelling. The 
goal of a classicist the audience can get caught in without getting distracted by the 
filmmaking techniques. This meant lighting because more natural and less harsh 
and notizable as it was during the era of expressionism. 
 
Digital Cameras 
 
There can be an incredible amount of equipment involved in lighting production, 
and this equipment is often heavy, fragile, and at times, difficult to transport. 
However, over time, products have become lighter, more compact and advanced, 
which has meant that, for video or film shots that are on the move, it has become 
much easier and less time consuming regarding the lighting set up. 
 
Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light. Modern film 
cameras are able to adjust the light sensitivity automatically to have a clear image 
of a shot or can be adjusted manually in order for the film maker to create the 
perfect amount of shade and light in the shot in order to match the aesthetic and 
theme of the film. 
 

Film Noir Lighting 

 
Film Noir as a genre, is known for having a very distinctive use of hard how-key 
lighting. Normally, the most prominent lights tend to be the harsh key lights, and 
backlights, as the use of fill lights is very little or faint, in order to create an 
exaggerated contrast. Most Noir films are in black and white, which emphasises the 
use of contrast between shadow and light. There is a lot of use of shadows and 
silhouettes in film Noir, as these can create a mysterious atmosphere which is the 
key ingredient to making a Noir film.  
 
Double Indemnity  
Billy Wilder (1944) 
 
For example, in this shot from the film ​Double 
Indemnity, t​ here is a very iconic lighting 
technique very often found in film Noir, which is 
venetian blind lighting. This type of lighting is 
created with a light source outside the window, 
in order to imitate sunlight and therefore 
becoming motivated lighting. This is due to the 
fact this film, (like most Noir films from the 
time) was filmed inside a sound studio, 
therefore meaning that all light sources were artificial in the indoor scenes. The 
horizontal lines that the venetian blinds create, sit on top of the character and the 
rest of the room. This is a very effective technique in order to create a mysterious 
atmosphere in the room. 
 
In this shot, just like in every other indoor scene in 
the film, there is a clear use of lowkey lighting. The 
key light here, comes from the top, slightly behind 
her, creating a rim around her head, which makes 
her character be presented as angelic. There are a 
lot of harsh shadows created on her face and on the 
walls behind her. This shot is a great example of 
how a character can be romanticized whilst 
maintaining the dark mysterious essence of Noir 
films with the lighting.  
 
This exterior shot is the very dark, as it is filmed 
during the night. There is a use of practical 
lighting to provide some light to the shot, yet what 
these do is create a silhouette and a lot of harsh 
shadows. The use of hard lighting is one of the 
main components of film Noir lighting techniques.  

 
 
Touch of Evil 
Orson Welles (1958) 
 
Touch of Evil​, is an example of 
another Noir film which features 
most, if not all of the most common 
lighting techniques which are 
common in this Genre of film. For 
example, in this sequence of shots 
from the ​Captain Hank Quinlan v. 
Grandi s​ cene in the movie, the 
lighting fades in and out​ throughout 
the whole scene. This manipulation of 
light is done in order to obscure details. This scene plays around with the ​notion of 
dark and light​ to hide things and reveal things to the audience. Whist the scene is 
dark (​low-key lighting​), the audience is unable to see the movements, actions and 
placement of the characters until the light flashes back on. This is very effective as 
it creates suspense throughout this scene of conflict as the audience has to wait for 
the light to come back in order to see if anything of importance has happened 
whilst they were unable to see due to the light. Other Noir films, wouldn’t usually 
use flashing lighting throughout such a lengthy scene, but Wells incorporated it in 
order to dramatize this intense scene of fight and conflict. 
 
 
The next shot is making use of ​motivated light ​as 
the alleged source of light for this particular scene, 
is the “natural sunlight” originating from the 
window. The position of this character in this shot, 
allows the ​motivated light​ to hit the subject from 
the side, known as ​side lighting ​This an effective 
use of ​hard lighting​ in film Noir, as the ​highly 
intensive key light​, helps highlight a character’s 
expressions on one side of his face (to portray feelings of tension and conflict) , 
whilst keeping the other side of his face covered by the shadow (to suggest a sense 
of mystery and suspense throughout the scene). As it seems that only a key light 
was used, the light only hits the subject, leaving the rest of the room in the dark, 
because the focus of the audience should only go the character in this shot, using 
the dark as a covertive method to restrict the audience from any distraction. 
 
It is clear that this scene plays with the notion of light and 
dark, not only through the ​flashing source of light,​ but also 
the same effect is replicated through the​ ​use of shadow 
created by the character’s positioning in correspondence to 
the light source as well​. ​As Captain Hank stands between the 
light source and Grandi, a shadow is created over Grandi, 
creating an ‘eclipse’ effect. In this shot, Grandi goes from 
being in hidden from the audience with the shadow of 
captain Hank, to slowly moving away from the shadow and 
back onto the light. This carefully-staged use of lighting is 
done in order to maintain continuity of dark and light 
change throughout the scene, but also to emphasize this 
characters vulnerability over the character of Grandi. The 
shadow the character in the hat creates over him, could be a 
metaphor of holding power over someone. 
 
The scene cuts to a shot of Captain Hank which very clearly makes use of low-key 
lighting, as most of the shot is almost too dark. There is still only one ​source of 
light​ to light the shot, coming from the window, which is now to the left of the 
character, meaning ​side lighting​ is created. As the light hasn’t got a high intensity, 
 the light only hits the cheek of Captain Hank, and 
leaving most of the character’s face is the dark. 
Similarly, the next shot, this time of Grandi, also 
makes use of ​side lighting​. The light hits the side 
profile of the character, therefore almost not 
revealing any of the character’s features. For these 
two shots, the use of side lighting was used in order 
to allow the audience to vaguely see where the 
character is and whatever action they are doing, 
whilst hiding their features. This is somewhat 
effective as although the lack of lighting and use of 
extreme low-key lighting​ can help the scene 
maintain a mysterious atmosphere, the fact that the 
angle from which the light hits the characters, covers their facial features means 
that the audience can’t witness the expressions of the characters, which would 
further help generate and emphasize feelings of fear. 
 
The scene then cuts to this perfectly placed shot, in 
which the motivated lighting coming from the 
window, hits in a vertical line the face of one of the 
characters, revealing only the eye and leaving the 
remaining sections of the shot in the dark. This is 
effective, as the staged use of light and shadow for 
this shot (which are creates a very artistic and 
cinematographic shot. 
 
 

Horror Lighting 
 
Horror movies are known to feature little amount of light intensity as most horror 
movie scenes are rarely brightly lit. It is very common for them to be set at night, as 
this can help the audience feel uncomfortable, closed in, and tense because of the 
limited amount of light to light the scene. Therefore, low-key lighting is a key 
feature in this genre of film as it can help convey and provoke certain emotions 
associated with horror, such as fear and suspense, which help bring together the 
purpose and effect of movies of this particular genre. 
 
 
 
 
Alien  
Ridley Scott 
 
In the ‘​Dallas death’​ scene in the movie “Alien”, there is some very interesting use of 
lighting. For example, throughout the scene, there is a continuous use of low-key 
lighting. This is done in order to create suspense and tension, as the audience is 
mostly kept in the dark, along with the character of Dallas, and therefore the 
audience finds out what is in the dark as he 
moves along the tunnel, at the same times 
dallas does. The use of darkness and low-key 
lighting in the horror genre, is very effective as 
it creates suspense and will usually be used to 
build up to a specific scary moment. This way, 
the audience has no way of knowing what, 
when, or where this will take place as they 
can’t see, yet they know something bad is going to happen.  
 
For the character of the woman speaking to Dallas, there is also specific lighting 
techniques that are very common in Horror. For example, the use of side lighting. 
This creates an effect in which only half of her 
face is visible, whereas the other half remains 
in the dark and blends in with the dark 
background. This can be used to represent a 
dark side to someone or a small hope 
represented by the light. The other technique 
used in this scene, is the use of backlighting 
only (No key or fill lighting). This technique 
creates the Halo effect on this character, 
meaning that everything in the shot, but the 
outline of the character is visible. The fact that 
lighting techniques such as side lighting and 
backlighting are used, is because they are the 
types of lowkey lighting, which only allow 
certain parts of the shot to be seen, whist the rest of the shot remains in the dark, 
where the audience doesn’t know what is there, generating tension through the 
scenes. 
 
Lastly, the last lighting technique used in this 
scene from “Alien”, which is also often found in 
Horror movies, is practical lighting. As Dallas 
moves down through the tunnel, the only light 
source in that shot, is the light given off by the 
fire and the torch, both of which are carried by 
Dallas. Since there is no backlight or fill light, 
the shadows created on Dallas’ face are very 
harsh. These two practical lightings move 
around throughout the scene, therefore the 
audience can only see what is close to the light, 
and everything else is darkness and shadows. 
This scene leads to the death of Dallas and a lot 
of tension builds up to that moment, but the component in the production which 
helps creating the tension the most, is the lighting. When the Alien is shortly shown 
at the end of the scene, he is only seen as Dallas turns the torch to it, in order to 
show it was there. For this last shot, motivated lighting was probably used in order 
to recreate the lighting created by the torch and the fire. 
 
Mama 
Andrés Muschietti (2013) 
This scene from the movie ​“Mama”, 
experiments with practical light and motivated 
light whilst maintaining a use of extreme-key 
lighting. A lantern is used to guide the 
character’s way through the night, and since 
the location of the scene is in an isolated 
forest, there is no other source of light apart 
from the practical light. The lantern is used (as 
shown above) to create a spotlight effect, on 
particular details that the director wants to 
focus the audience’s attention by pointing the 
only source of light in that narrow direction. 
In the first shot, the practical light created by 
the lantern, hits the wall therefore bouncing 
some light off in the opposite direction, this 
creates back lighting on the character, which means the outline of the character 
can be seen in the dark shot, giving the audience just enough information to 
identify where the character is through the use of light, yet maintaining the main 
focus on the spotlight.  
 
The scene then cross-cuts to this shot of a girl walking around a different area 
simultaneously. In this shot, the audience isn’t able to identify a source of light, as 
there isn’t any light in such an isolated area in the middle of the night apart from 
the faint moonlight. There is a clear use of low-key lighting, and as the girl and 
some of the background can be faintly seen on the screen, there is evidence of 
motivated light in order to replicate the light 
given off by the moon, as this light would be 
hard to be perceived on a camera, especially on 
a cloudy night. Due to the light hitting the 
subject from behind, backlighting is once again 
created. The reason backlighting is so oftenly 
used in horror is because the Halo effect 
created around a subject, can be associated 
with ghosts and spirits, and is also easily achieved with low-key lighting which is 
widely featured in horror movies. 
 
The scene then cuts to this shot of a wall 
which is being lit by the practical light 
from the lantern. The difference this time 
is that the light isn’t as hard and sharply 
focused on a small area of the wall, instead 
it’s more expanded and faint around the 
edges, no longer replicating a spot light. 
This is due to the distance between the 
light being further away from the subject. 
It should be noted that the light has a very 
cold blue tone, which makes this 
abandoned house be the opposite of 
homely. This lighting is supposed to make 
the audience feel unsettled. There is a cut 
to next close-up shot, in which motivated 
lighting is created in order to replicate the light bouncing off the wall. To maintain 
continuity and make this light realistic, the lighting on the character’s face is of a 
blue tone to match the light of the lantern, as well as being very faint. As the light 
intensity is very low, only some of the character’s features are visible. 
 

 
 

 
As the lantern’s battery dies, the character gets a camera out in order to provide 
light for himself. In between shots, there is complete darkness which creates 
tension, because both the character and the audience can't see what is happening 
around him which creates tension. There is motivated lighting to recreate the flash 
of the camera. This light is very intense and hard with a cold blue tone which once 
again creates an unwelcoming and unsetting scene. The change from dark to light 
makes the jumpscare at the end become even more scary, as the audience couldn’t 
see it coming. 

 
 
 

Music Video Lighting 

 
 
My Kind of Woman 
Mac Demarco (2012) 

The lighting used in this music video is very interesting, as it is very dynamic and 
experimental. In the first shot shown, there is a use of lowkey lighting as the singer 
mainly appears to be in the dark. This is somewhat effective due to the fact that the 
singer perhaps wants to purposely remain in shadow as a form of symbolism. This 
is reinforced as in this same shot, the lights go off almost completely, leaving 
Demarco in the dark for a few seconds. There is a rim of light around him, which 
highlights his silhouette. This is achieved through using a very faint back lighting. 
This means that due to the lighting, the audience can still have a sense of where the 
singer is located due to the rim of light, but is left wondering if his appearance is 
changed (which is the theme of the video),or what it is he is doing in the dark. 
 
There is a very dynamic of lighting in this entire take, as the light has changed from 
low key lighting coming from the front, to almost complete darkness with some 
backlighting, to harsher backlighting through use of practical lights. The practical 
lights are in the shape of letters which switch on and off during the scene. When 
specific lights are switched on, they spell out the name of the artists (​Mac Demarco​). 
This creative use of lighting in this music video, is effective to draw the audience's 
attention to the lights as most of the video is mostly quite dark and DeMarco mostly 
remains in the dark as his explores the theme of identity. 
In the next shot shown above, there is another practical light on the left, which 
spells out the name of the song (​My Kind Of Woman)​ . This is once again using lights 
on specific props which leads the audience’s attention to key props in the music 
video. Furthermore, in this ame shot, there is a use of spot lighting on Mac 
Demarco’s face. The use of spotlighting is used to create an atmosphere or setting 
of an old style show, in which spot lighting was very frequently used. 

In this next shot, as the singer moves along set full of props, some which are faint 
sources of light and therefore become practical lights, yet the main source of light 
originates from the left of the screen. There is a key light coming from the left 
which illuminates only half of his face and body, which is effective to symbolise that 
he feels a split in between in his personality as he struggles between two gender 
identities. For this shot and the next, (and practically the rest of the music video), 
lowkey lighting is used. There are harsh shadows created on his face, but unlike 
other musicians in music videos, his intention isn’t too look flattering in this video, 
and the type of lighting reflects that. This shot uses a green-toned coloured light 
which is created with practical lighting to imitate the different coloured lamps 
around the singer. This effect is created with gel. The colour green in the lighting is 
effective in order to symbolise things such as growth or perhaps envy. 
As the singer moves along the set with the different coloured practical lights, his 
face changes colour. As he appears next to a red tinted lamp, his face is lit in a red 
coloured light, which can represent passion and determination. The hard lighting 
for both of the shots shown above, the hard lighting, mostly coming from a high 
angle, create harsh shadows on the singer's eyes and cheeks. This use of lighting 
creates a more creepy and messy outlook on the singer, which he is trying to 
achieve. This is reinforced by the choice of messy hair and makeup.  

This then cuts to a close-up shot which uses hard side-lighting, as the ratio from 
key light to fill light is greater, therefore creating hard shadows on one side of the 
subject’s face. Lastly, in the closing shot of this sequence, there is staged lighting 
coming from behind the singer, as it is reinforcing and replicating the practical 
lights hanging at the back of the frame of the shot. This creates back lighting.

Las de la Intuición 
Shakira (2009) 
 

 
In this music video, there are lighting techniques present, which are commonly 
found in music videos and beauty advertisement. Starting with this opening shot in 
the sequence, there is an intense key light directly placed in front of the subject, 
which therefore creates a clear shadow behind the singer. If the light was to be 
placed at an angle, this would cause unflattering shadows to appear on the subject’s 
face, yet in this music video, lighting has a clear purpose of making the singer 
appear attractive, this is made clear in this next shot. This close-up the video cuts 
to uses three point lighting. The key light is located to the left, and the fill light to 
the right. There is also a backlight, as the singer appears to be separated from the 
background. Because the ratio of key light to fill light appears to be low, soft 
lighting is created. Soft lighting is very effective in this music video as it helps 
create a smooth-looking skin and an overall flattering appearance. 
 

 
The video cuts to these two shots which are variations of the same two shots shown 
before, and therefore the lighting doesn’t change. Although there are light 
reflections given off by the plastic cover standing between the singer and the light 
source. 
 

 
Lastly, this music video cuts to a shot in which the colour of the light changes 
various times. The colours change from purple to green, which are the two main 
colours which appear throughout the music video. The way this sharp silhouette is 
created is through the use of a highly intensive singular light. There is a 
see-through material between the light and the subject and the camera.