Cinematography With Natural Light

Natural light can provide everything you need for exterior scenes, especially if you live in the Northern Hemisphere.  In places like Canada, and Montana, USA., the twilight hour is much longer than if you live further south.  This also means that the "golden hour" that provides cinematographers with beautiful, dramatic light is also longer.

The 1978 Terrance Malik film Days of Heaven was shot almost entirely with natural light.  The crew lit interior scenes and buildings with set lights, but the majority of their exterior scenes were filmed with natural light.  The Spanish cinematographer Nestor Almendros was often at odds with the Hollywood lighting crew because when the equipment truck was be opened, the lights were left behind.  Almendros went on to win Best Cinematography for 1979.

White bounce cards were used for fill light during some exterior scenes, but this is still a form of natural light.  Back lighting was also one of the key techniques used on Days of Heaven. 

Here are some examples of natural light taken during the golden hour. The first three images show light that is very similar to the look of many scenes in Days of Heaven.

Natural light at sunset in Paradise Valley, Montana.

Days of Heaven - lighting style

Sunset light in Livingston, Montana.

Dramatic natural light during a cloudy day, Bozeman, Montana

Sunset along a rural road, Bozeman, Montana

The Gritty, Cinema Verite Look of Black Swan

Momentum: Black Swan shot on Super 16mm, ARRI, Canon 7D & 1D mark IV

Planning shots with DSLR cameras:
I shot all of that rehearsal footage with the Canon 5D Mark II, which gave me references for the shots we wanted to make. I also figured out a lot of the mirror shots during prep, because we were rehearsing in a room with a three-sided mirror. 
~ Matthew Libatique, Cinematographer

Black Swan was a 40 day shoot.  The film is 108 minutes long.  The budget was $12 million and the film grossed $106 million in the U.S.  Total worldwide box office was $222 million.

On working with Director Darren Aronofsky:
A beautiful thing about working with Darren is that he has a visual style in mind, and he’s very clear about what he’s trying to do — there’s no coverage ambiguity. In fact, I wouldn’t even call what he does coverage. His style is more like the European style: you only have a few bites of the apple, so you make them all count.

How 16mm fit into the visual style of Black Swan
Darren likes 16mm because it’s small, he can do handheld, and he doesn’t have to wait around for camera setups. We were using real locations, so it helped in that regard, too. The apartment Nina shares with her mother was right next to Prospect Park, and we moved the camera in as though we were documenting real people’s lives. We made it a point to travel from kitchen to hallway to foyer to bedroom to bathroom, but the space really dictated the kinds of moves we could make. I think 16mm creates interesting texture, especially if you expose it correctly.


Matthew Libatique was nominated for best cinematography for Black Swan, but has also filmed:

Noah

Requiem for a Dream

Everything is Illuminated

The Fountain

Iron Man

Iron Man 2

Phone Booth

Inside Man