The sun is one big ol' light that can't be beat - unless of course you have rows and rows and banks and banks of lights. So it's easier to work with it as it moves across the sky during your shoot. Diffusion, bouncing, blocking it with negative fill - these are all ways we modify the sun's light to make our scenes look good. But we also need to plan ahead to know where the sun will be during the day. This video includes an example video of positioning the camera and talent through an afternoon to keep a consistent look to the short film.

In this cinematography tutorial, I show some of my tips for creating scenes that look dark even though we're using film lights so the audience can see what's happening. Film makers often need to create scenes that are dark and moody. A mistake they make is lighting a scene with minimal light and then boosting the ISO of their camera. I talk about what it means to "light for your sensor," how to use shadow to make dark scenes, and some mistakes to avoid.

How do you film a scene in a small space and with only three lights? And how do you make it look cinematic? When you know where to place your lights, and what colors to use it gets a little easier. I show an interrogation scene with dramatic lighting that I filmed with some friends to show an example of a small lighting setup for cinematography.