I went to my lighting workshop on Saturday and discovered that I'd already picked up more knowledge than I'd realized. Came as a shocker to me! There were actually more moments when I actually felt like I knew what I was doing, than moments when I didn't... definitely a good feeling. And then, at the end of the course, the instructor told me that I picked things up very quickly. That was certainly good for the old ego.

The course was fairly basic but I'm at a fairly basic level when it comes to lighting, so it worked for me. Things I learned: the three-point setup with a key light, a fill light and a back light. Then adding a fourth point in the form of a background light (and maybe even a fifth for background fill). I learned about lighting ratios and high-key vs. low-key lighting... I definitely prefer the moody, film noire effect of low-key lighting. (A decent discussion of low-key and high-key techniques can be found at Light Source: Lighting for Mood). Plus we briefly touched on lighting for silhouettes and green screens and he gave us a couple of handy internet resources:

Kodak Film Tools (which includes interactive lighting demonstrations)

Cinematography Mailing List

All in all, a good day (especially because it was followed by the CSIF Christmas Party ).