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Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman in Notorious

Turn the sound off on a favorite 1930s or 1940s black-and-white film.

Then, watch the lighting, not the film.

Pause the film occasionally, and study the lighting.

Look at the shadows.

In the last exercise, you learned about how the direction of the light changes a scene.

Try to determine where the lights were placed in the scenes by looking for the shadows they create.

You can also look at the shadows to study contrast.

If the shadows are dark, with sharp edges, a small light source was used, such as a spotlight.

The lighting is high contrast.

If the shadows are bright, with indistinct edges, then a large light source was used, such as a light passing through a scrim.

The lighting is low contrast.

For example, female leads were often lighted with lower contrast lighting.

Lighting with more contrast was use for male leads.

Watch as the film cuts between a male and female lead. The lighting often changes depending on the sex of the actor.

Highlights, especially on faces, will also reveal the lighting design to you.

A small light source produces small highlights.

For example, on-camera flash produces small highlights on your subjects nose tip, forehead, and cheeks.

If you photograph the subject in the shade on a sunny day, or under a cloudy sky, the highlights will be much broader.

Catch lights are the reflections of lights in the eyes.

Catch lights often add vitality to a portrait.

Where they're located in the eye tells you the location of the light.

If there are more than one catch light, there was more than one light.

The shape of a catch light can hint at what sort of light was used.

For example, a circular catch light may be from a white photography umbrella.

If window light was used, the catch light may be rectangular, with windows dividers showing as well.

Here are the summary tables from the last section.

Direction	Effect on the Light	Because . . .
From the side	Shows the texture & volume of the subject	. . . the shadows created by side lighting give the viewer a sense of texture and volume.
From the camera, such as pop-up flash	Flattens the subject	. . . there are no shadows, so the viewer cannot see volume and texture very well.
From behind	Separates the subject from the background & emphasizes the subject's shape	. . . the increased separation is due to the dark subject against a bright background, as well as the bright lighting on the edges of the subject.

Size of the Light	Effect on the Scene
Small	Darker shadows with sharper edges
Large	Brighter shadows with fuzzy edges