I love natural lighting. When shooting outdoors, if done correctly, you get some of the most radiant, beautiful skin that has a glow about it that doesn’t always come through with indoor lights. But don’t get me wrong, if done poorly you can get some pretty hideous results. You can always spot inexperienced filmmakers who shoot outdoors when the people have those harsh shadows from standing directly under the sun with no screen to soften the sunlight.
There are a couple other factors to consider when shooting outdoors. One is that the sun is always moving and you must adapt and “cheat” the actors to move with the sun as to not have changes in your lighting during the scene. Another factor to consider is SOUND. It’s a little harder to control the noise in an outdoor environment, especially one that you may have to share with hikers, cars, planes and even horses. Yes in this scene we shot for Julia, we were at Griffith Park and there happened to be a horse riding event going on. We had to stop regularly during the shoot to let the horses go by. Another reason why actors must be flexible! But it made for a fun shoot. Here is the finished scene…
