Behind the Lens

4.19The Composition of Sunlight

I was recently invited to give a guest lecture on narrative lighting for the Bay Area Professional Videographer’s Association in San Jose, California. During the discussion a member brought up the question of how to create believable looking sunlight.

We all know that the color temperature of daylight is 5,600K (on average), but that 5,600K figure is actually derived from a combination of direct sunlight and ambient skylight. It’s the two distinct sources that create the daylight we see every day—and that’s the key to creating believable artificial sunlight: two sources.

When I was working on my book A Shot in the Dark, I sat down with my good friend, Dr. Jeffrey Crane, an astronomer, and talked to him about the ...