Student Perspectives – Light

Matthew Cheung on lighting for the outdoors:

“Regardless of whether you’re filming exterior or interior scenes, I believe it’s essential to keep lighting motivated by the story and setting. Lighting in outdoor environments requires careful planning to feel both natural and intentional. Light should come from the direction of the sun. During preproduction on one of my projects, I tracked the sun’s position throughout the day so we could schedule shots with the sun consistently behind our subjects. This not only separated them from the background and avoided unwanted crew shadows, but also reduced our reliance on diffusion, which can sometimes make sunlight look artificial when overused.

When planning for my music video Butterflies x Who Am I?, I used an app called Sun Tracker to know exactly where the sun would be at every hour of the day. This allowed me to maintain a consistent backlit look throughout the shoot, avoiding harsh front lighting, which can be unflattering on people’s faces. During production, it’s also important to choose bounces and lights that feel natural within the environment. While filming To Sea, I opted for unbleached muslin bounces to better match the sandy beach location. Unlike ultrabounces, which reflect a harsher, colder white light, unbleached muslin creates a softer, warmer glow that feels more organic and location appropriate. (It’s essentially a soft, off-white fabric that acts like a natural reflector.)“

• Website: https://www.matthewtcheung.com/