Importance of Light and Shadow
By Kunle Adepoju
LIGHT AND SHADOW
In the other field of production aside film, even though the process is still the same in film making, when a raw material is inputted for a product making process, there is always two major outputs. The product and the bye-product. This same thing happen when light is introduced to illuminate the subject and set.
The two outputs we should expect are the QUALITY IMAGE and its SHADOW. The quality image stands as the product while shadow is the bye-product.
What I am emphasizing in this topic, is that you can never separate shadow from existing in a place where light shines on any object.
Not every object that exists on set produces shadow when light falls on them but all lights come with shadow accompany, the degree of shadow’s thickness is determined by the light intensity and other factors.
Sometimes when I shoot , I used to experience people saying “there is shadow in that place” I respond with a smile and observe what kind of shadow it is because their fear is that audience will flaw their film when they see shadow. And so they quickly want the shadow eliminated.
Let me tell you that you can’t eliminate shadow as long as you have light Ray’s touching an entity. You can only reduce, redirect and reposition the shadow.
However, shadow can be a useful element on another set. Just like bye-product of a factory can be a useful element of another industry….
…to be continued in my book coming soon.
