BOOK LIGHTING
This technique has been done before and explained a bunch of times by greater cinematographers than myself. But I've always loved the look of the super soft light that is a result of the Book Lighting Technique.
The term book light is a result of the light setup: the light is bounced on a bright surface and then diffused through some soft material (such as muslin, a shower curtain or a diffusion panel of some sort). The shape created between the bounce and the diffusion panel is usually close to that of an open book. Hence the term 'Book Light'.
I've tried this technique before when I was an instructor of lighting back in my country last summer. But I decided to try it once again this time around. I had two muslin sheets (1 bleached, 1 unbleached) and decided to use them for the experiment/test. I could have used a reflector/bounce board but I didn't have any at the time. In the studio we had a 1K Tungsten and we bounced that onto the unbleached muslin (which is heavier and better as the bounce) and diffused the bounced light through the unbleached muslin (more soft and transparent).
I also removed the bleached muslin to also see the results of the direct bounce for the light. Both resulted into a soft light source which was flattering for the face of the talent. We used my old companion, my Nikon D5100 with the Nikkor 50mm and Samyang 85mm Cine for the test. I didn't check in depth to see how the lenses stack up to each other but by a quick glance the Samyang seemed a bit sharper. I edited and graded the test in Adobe Premiere Pro. And I used Magic Bullet Looks for the grade. I'll show the before and after down below.
LIGHT SETUP (BOUNCE + DIFFUSION)
Overview Diagram
And the results
LIGHT SETUP (BOUNCE ONLY)
Results:
RESULTS
As we can see the one diffused is obviously softer and has lesser distinct shadows than the one without the diffusion. With the bounce alone we get this Harsh Soft Light reminiscent of the Rembrandt Paintings. It's still flattering on the skin as it is soft but has those darker shadows because it lacks any diffusion.
MUSLIN
Below are the Muslin sheets I used for the shoot. The white one is the bleached, while the cream-ish one is unbleached.
THE GRADE
THE OTHER TEST
As mentioned above, I did a test before this one last summer and I'll share a frame and some behind the scenes of it.
For this I used a Gold reflector and the bleached muslin as diffusion. We used 2 x 800W Redheads. One as the key and the other as a backlight with CTB for the color contrast.
I've also attached the video of the test shown above.
Until next time. Adios