Did anyone tell Francis Ford Coppola and his
cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, that they really should have used more light
in that cave scene with Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now?” If someone did, I doubt they
would have listened. Filmmakers
and their creative teams know light is a character, too, serving a crucial
creative purpose right along with the dialog.
Yet while watching some video tutorials on the new Photoshop
CS6, I was struck by the amount of new features designed to get our photographs
to look “better.” Things like
“more accurate” skin tone, “correct” color, etc., etc. And I just had to stop watching.
We’re in an era now where we’re free (and obligated) to form
our own opinions about what the lighting in our photos is supposed to look
like. Maybe that means
underexposed skin tone, or harsh shadows, or a dark alley that’s actually dark. You make the call. Photoshop can’t do that for you—just
like it can’t write dialog for a film.
So I say, cast your lighting as a creative element of your
shoots, and make sure it performs to your creative vision, not some
“non-vision” in a book, or worse, someone else’s vision.
