You need to consider:
- Brightness
- Contrast
- Quality of Light
- Focus
- Perspective
- Colour
- Grain
- Look
Brightness
Brightness within photographic images supports the underlying emotion of the scene. Terms such as High-key lighting, Low-key lighting and Mid-key lighting represent different overall outcomes.
The content within each scene dictates the need for how bright or dark it needs to be. Upbeat films general have high-key lighting and low-key films general are for slow or taut dramatic action. Although these parts usually refer to the overall brightness within the frame it can be use for specific aspects of the film, to define and illuminate certain areas for the attention to composition.
Contrast
Contrast has a range of tones between white and black and its how you use this within the image to how you can create emotion. Low contrast images have a wider range of tones which appear to be softer, whereas a high contrast has a fewer range of tones and appear sharper.
Quality of Light
The quality of Light is down to how hard or light it is. A hard quality of light has darker shadows and sharper edges where a soft quality has light shadows.
Focus
The focus of the image is down to how sharp it is. Depth of field is the amount of acceptable focus behind and in front of the subject.
Perspective
The perspective changes and can be manipulated by the choice of lens. This can change the distance between the foreground and the background and how it appears on screen to be closer together or further apart. A depth perspective can effect the perceived speed of movement.
Colour
When editing colour within an image or movie you use several different aspects that are used to change the colours. For example changing the hue can manipulate the lighting, art direction and laboratory procedure. A scene be edited a certain colour which can convey different emotions, locations and time.
Different colours relate to different tones and mood someone can feel. Such as cool colours are associated with sad or dark or calming emotions, whereas warm colours are associated with happiness and romance. These colours can also determine different times of the day or distant time periods.
Changing the hue from different scenes helps the audience understand the development within the sequence and it also creates a variety of moods.
The change of colour saturation determines on how rich the colours may appear on screen. When made high, the saturated colours become vibrant, while when made the opposite the colours aren't as bright and come across quite muted. Through the use of doing this it can create different techniques within a movie by indicating different time periods within.
Through the use of colour and if it is used correctly it has the tendency to draw the eye, this all can depend on how they are arranged in the composition. Contrast of colours within a frame can be used to convey characters or tension within a scene.
Grain
Grain depends on the quality of the image of movie, it is the tiny particles of dye crystals. This is usually invisible but under certain exposure or when the image has been edited through saturation and levels so much that the conditions can start to be very noticeable. This can result in a gritty look but it can be used as a technique within the film.
Look
The look is obviously the visual feel of the movie but it can also be a lot more than that. The look within the image or video can be manipulated by all the different aspects I have previously mentioned. By having all of them work together it sets the tone and mood for the image. It can be done in a very subtle way which can compliment the image or video well.
