Film portraiture using only natural light

My late mother back in 2011
Fed-3 / Soligor 35 f/2.8
Kodak Tmax400 in Rodinal


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I need someone to define Natural Light for me. Beyond daylight, is it window light? How about the interior lighting found in structures? It's mains powered but, created to light a space not a photo. How about work lights - those found in studios and sets, but not there for the purpose of photography?
 
Erik van Straten said:
Hmmm, what is unnatural light?
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PKR said:
I need someone to define Natural Light for me. Beyond daylight, is it window light? How about the interior lighting found in structures? It's mains powered but, created to light a space not a photo. How about work lights - those found in studios and sets, but not there for the purpose of photography?
Click to expand...

Valid question, it's been asked before upthread. Here's my two cents for whatever it's worth:

dourbalistar said:
My interpretation is that natural light is sunlight, whereas "unnatural" light is artificial light from light bulbs, flashes, strobes, etc...
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dourbalistar said:
Valid question, it's been asked before upthread. Here's my two cents for whatever it's worth:
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In the Pro Photo and Film world, natural light, or sunlight, is scrimed, reflected, softened by painting windows etc. Penn's daylight studio had a huge bank of North Light windows that were covered with dust. No one touched those windows. An assistant was almost fired when trying to clean them.

So, that's Natural Light but, indoors. Outdoors, big shots are often covered in parachute cloth to soften huge areas. many old parachutes are employed, some hung from cranes. I would guess these all would qualify as, the sun is the light source?

The Kiddman image was made by Penn in his "Daylight Studio".
 

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PKR said:
In the Pro Photo and Film world, natural light, or sunlight, is scrimed, reflected, softened by painting windows etc. Penn's daylight studio had a huge bank of North Light windows that were covered with dust. No one touched those windows. An assistant was almost fired when trying to clean them.

So, that's Natural Light but, indoors. Outdoors, big shots are often covered in parachute cloth to soften huge areas. many old parachutes are employed, some hung from cranes. I would guess these all would qualify as, the sun is the light source?

The Kiddman image was made by Penn in his "Daylight Studio".
Click to expand...

Sure, those would count as natural (non-artificial) light in my book. But what do I know, I'm just some schmuck on the internet. ;)

Perhaps we could classify scrims, reflectors, parachute cloths and the like to be light modifiers? And modifiers could also be used with artificial light sources, like they often are with umbrella strobes and flash softboxes...?
 
dourbalistar said:
Sure, those would count as natural (non-artificial) light in my book. But what do I know, I'm just some schmuck on the internet. ;)

Perhaps we could classify scrims, reflectors, parachute cloths and the like to be light modifiers? And modifiers could also be used with artificial light sources, like they often are with umbrella strobes and flash softboxes...?
Click to expand...

Yep, you're correct, they're used with both sunlight and artificial light. Many times, the same modifier.

The Brit filmmakers call the lights found in homes and larger buildings "Practicals". The lamps in the lighting units are often swapped out for more powerful ones to increase the output, while retaining the "Natural Lighting" in the room. Often, these values are increased to match the outdoor lighting seen through windows so, there's no loss in lighting continuity.

I'm sure, this wouldn't sit well with the photo purists on here. But, it's commonly done. Having a bag of color temp correct, high output practicals, to swap with room lights is common among many pros.


I guess i should add, the Soft Box or scrimmed grid light, was invented by Irving Penn. He wanted a powerful light that would emulate North Window Light. His grid was huge and heavy. It had 16 Ascor Sunlight Series heads in a grid, suspended by ropes from the studio ceiling. It took two assistants to move the grid.
 
PKR said:
In the Pro Photo and Film world, natural light, or sunlight, is scrimed, reflected, softened by painting windows etc. Penn's daylight studio had a huge bank of North Light windows that were covered with dust. No one touched those windows. An assistant was almost fired when trying to clean them.

So, that's Natural Light but, indoors. Outdoors, big shots are often covered in parachute cloth to soften huge areas. many old parachutes are employed, some hung from cranes. I would guess these all would qualify as, the sun is the light source?

The Kiddman image was made by Penn in his "Daylight Studio".
Click to expand...

dourbalistar said:
Sure, those would count as natural (non-artificial) light in my book. But what do I know, I'm just some schmuck on the internet. ;)

Perhaps we could classify scrims, reflectors, parachute cloths and the like to be light modifiers? And modifiers could also be used with artificial light sources, like they often are with umbrella strobes and flash softboxes...?
Click to expand...

We could call it "modified natural light" :) of course opposite to "pure natural light" ! Just kidding a little bit of course, I'm not pragmatic at all!

Thanks PKR for bringing us your knowledge of the way many Pros work with light, always interesting.

At the end isn't the light the main component of photography ?
 
How Stanley Kubrick Shot Barry Lyndon Using Natural Light

John Alcott BSC.

"
How did you translate “that soft feeling” into cinematic terms, and what technical means did you use to achieve it?

In most instances we were trying to create the feeling of natural light within the houses, mostly stately homes, that we used as shooting locations. That was virtually their only source of light during the period of the film, and those houses still exist, with their paintings and tapestries hanging. I would tend to re-create that type of light, all natural light actually coming through the windows. I’ve always been a natural light source type of cameraman — if one can put it that way. I think it’s exciting, actually, to see what illumination is provided by daylight and then try to create the effect. Sometimes it’s impossible when the light outside falls below a certain level. We shot some of those sequences in the wintertime, when there was natural light from perhaps 9 o’clock in the morning until 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The requirement was to bring the light up to a level so that we could shoot from 8 o’clock in the morning until something like 7 o’clock in the evening — while maintaining the consistent effect. At the same time, we tried to duplicate the situations established by research and reference to the drawings and paintings of that day — how rooms were illuminated and so on. The actual compositions of our setups were very authentic to the drawings of the period"

Did you have to gel the windows, or were you using a daylight balance?

In the actual interiors, most of the time, we did gel the windows, although there were a very few instances when we didn’t do it.

https://ascmag.com/articles/flashback-barry-lyndon
 
I saw the light
I saw the natural light
It shined on me
It was awfully bright
I think I went blind
I could not see
Someone took my portrait
Someone was me

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All the best,
Mike
 
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