Hello and welcome to this new Lighting Breakdown episode on Cilovers.com. Before we start, I want to thank you for all your support and for everyone who has been there since the beginning. This community continues to grow. Thanks for you all. Thank you!

In this episode, we will analyze some scenes taken from the movie Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert Richardson as cinematographer.

Since Robert Richardson is the cinematographer, we are going to talk a lot about his methods, techniques, and his approach to lighting. So take your notebooks or save this article as a reference for your next project.

Without further ado, here is the first scene.

Scene n°01

The first thing that jumps out at us when looking at this shot is the intense light that illuminates the back of the subject. This method is called backlighting. This will not only allow you to separate the subject from the background, but it can also act as your Key Light by placing a reflective surface in front of your subject, as Richardson probably did on this shot. 

To get that kind of effect, you’re going to need a pretty potent source. Still, more importantly, you need to be consistent and coherent because Mr. Richardson didn’t choose this method simply because it’s nice to see, but because it matches the other lights that already illuminate the room, such as chandeliers. Before you cut to this close-up, you must first show the environment where the actor is standing so that the viewers know that the actor is standing in a room where there are several practical lights so that when you then switch to that close-up, they will no need to wonder where that bright light is coming from. Otherwise, they notice that it is not normal and that it is not a good sign.

Now that the backlight is well placed, you must put a reflective surface below your subject, a bounce board, or a reflector. Position it so that the light emitted by the backlight is reflected on your subject’s face. This is how with a single source, you will have two results, the backlight, and the key light.

When we then look closely at the photo, we can notice that there are other sources illuminating the background. It could well be ambient light, that is to say, a light that already exists in the place that is emitted, for example, by a lamp placed on the ceiling. I’ve seen some behind-the-scenes photos with Richardson, and everything leads me to believe that he probably put a source that was just made for the background, like a balloon light, for example. But it can also be lamps on the ceiling.

Then, we have this blue light on the background coming from outside to add what is called color contrast.

I don’t remember too much; correct me if I’m wrong; these are cars but here for the shot, you can use a source like an HMI, for example, with a blue gel to have this blue tint. Here the blue works very well with the subject’s orange complexion.

Finally, we have this somewhat dark side to our subject’s face. This indicates that there is probably a negative fill on the right side of the screen. This is meant to stop any kind of light reflection and naturally give this contrast to the subject.

To top it off, here is the final diagram:

For your information, I use the Ci-Lovers Lighting Diagram Toolkit to make these illustrations.

Now let’s take another shot

Scene n°02

Same as everything we saw earlier, same approach, Backlighting. We have this bright light that illuminates the subject from behind, at about a 70° degree angle from the top.

The same method also applies here to light the face of the subject. A reflective surface is placed in front and a little more to the right of the screen. And as you can see, the other side of the actor’s face is dark; to get it, there is a negative fill on the left side of the screen. Not only does it give a natural look to the shot, but it says a lot about how the character is feeling—his dark side.

Looking at this image, we understand that the character is in terror, overwhelmed by fear. All of this tells us that it is what you want the viewer to feel that should define the type of style you are going to choose to light the scene. You always have to put the emotion and the story first.

If you look closer, the background also lights up,

It could well be from the source lighting the actor, but in my opinion, I think there is another source placed on the top right to only light the background. To illustrate this, here is the final diagram:

And there you go! That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If so, I recommend you subscribe to our newsletter to be notified of the next episode. I promise we won’t bombard you with useless promotional messages; Your comfort is our Priority. You will be notified three times weekly, knowing that I post three weekly episodes.

Tell me in the comments on Instagram what movie you want for the next episodes. Thanks for reading! It was Marco Robinson for Ci-Lovers, Tchaouuu!!!