ABSTRACT
In the early days of motion pictures, lighting was provided cheaply, but maybe not so conveniently, by the sun. Hollywood sunlight has the advantages of being bright and readily available, which suited motion picture pioneers, but also has the distinct disadvantage that it is not very controllable. The sun also has an annoying tendency to move! Early film producers sometimes went to the trouble of constructing rotating sets so that they could get as much consistency as possible during the working day. In parts of the world with less consistent weather conditions, the quality of natural light varies enormously. When the sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky, the light source is effectively a point source which will cast harsh shadows, as shown in Figure 19.1(a). When the sky is overcast, then the source of light effectively becomes larger and the edges of shadows are softened, as in Figure 19.1(b). A light source that emits light over a wide area is often described as a soft light. When there is direct sunlight, but there are also some fluffy white clouds in the sky, then some of the light will bounce off the clouds making the shadows a little less dark than they would otherwise be. In fact, although there is no problem at all about sunlight being bright enough for filming, it can create shadows which are so dark in comparison to the illuminated areas that no film or video camera can capture the range of contrast produced.
