How to Light a Silhouette Tutorial - Cinematography Basics

In this video, we take a look at how to light a silhouette using just window light. We also turn this into a character introduction using affordable lighting, inspired by Roger Deakins work on the James Bond film Skyfall.

I'm going to be using the Sony a7iii and some very affordable lights for this particular setup, however, hopefully, you should be able to achieve something similar, no matter what equipment you have.

I filmed this in our living room, which has a large window, letting in a lot of light. To achieve the silhouette I wanted, I had to set my exposure for that window light as that would be the main key. I was using Slog-2 which has a base iso of 800 on the a7iii. I wanted a shallow depth of field as well and so in order for me to keep my aperture wide open at 1.8 and my shutter speed at 50, I had to use a variable ND filter.

This allowed me to knock out several stops of light coming in from the window without the need to adjust my settings. I simply adjusted it until I was happy with how it appeared on my monitor.

To set the tone, I pulled across our blackout curtains to create a much smaller window of light from the outside.

I knew I wanted the character to walk quite close to the camera and so I positioned the softbox just to the left of it. Even though this isn't a very powerful light at all, and it has minimal diffusion, having it so close to the subject allows it to appear as a much softer light source.

I wanted the charter to come from an out of focus silhouette to be revealed close to camera. To make sure the character remained in focus, I made sure to put a mark on the floor.

I did a couple of tests to see if I was happy. I also experimented with the Aputure MC, a small LED panel to see if that would help but I decided I actually preferred more shadows in the shot.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to replicate the narrow beam of light from the original Skyfall shot, however, to cut down on some of the spread of light from the softbox, I used some black foam board to cut out the bottom half and the black side of a 5 in 1 reflector to cover the top.

This cut out enough of the light, adding a bit more mood to the shot which I was happy with.

I added some flowers to the table in the background, just to add a bit more depth to the scene and well because, why not?

I was quite pleased with how this turned out and I thought the edge light on the subject was just enough coming from the window and the catch light from the softbox wasn't too over the top as there wasn't an obvious practical source for it in the scene.

I wanted to try a slightly different version of this shot where the character looks directly down the lens. I adjust the position of my light to be more side on and added the Aputure MC back in to add a bit of extra catch light in the eye.

As I was filming wide open, getting the foucs just right was a bit harder this time around as I wanted the subject to be even closer to the lens. This is were floor marks come in handy.

This was a fun little setup. Trying to replicate lighting you've seen in films or shows is a great way to learn and practice.