8 steps to cinematic lighting

 In order to make your video more cinematic and professional you don't need to do much, just follow a few simple steps which I will be breaking down in this post. 

•  shoot from shadow side: Always shoot from the shadow side because this gives a certain scene more dramatic effect on the characters face.

• Lighting direction : Lighting matters, even a small change in lighting can change the whole vibe and feel of the video without even moving the subject. preferably should film at a 45 degree angle (rambrandt lighting)

for example if we place a light at the top of a persons head it will give a depressed and less trustworthy impression. On the other hand if we place the light from down it would make the character a villain. For a natural lighting place the light at a 45 degree angle of the subject which creates the "Rembrandt lighting" named after a famous painter who used this triangle in almost every of his portraits.

•  Motivated lighting: a look that makes the audience feels that the key light is coming from the subject placed in the scene for motivated lighting. 

• Background lighting: is the lighting added to a scene to make the scene look natural. it shouldn't be too dark or too bright so it doesn't look stage ish

•  Time of day: try to shoot during the golden hours instead of the time when the sun is on its peak (1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before sunset) it could also give a natural lens flare.

•  Catch light/Eye light: is a light reflection in the subjects eye to communicate life and death in Media.

•  Depth : Is used to separate the subject from the background hence allowing more
  focus on the subject rather then the background. we could add separation by adding contrasting colors eg blue and orange

• Texture: Adding haze or smoke on a scene would totally change the look of that particular image/scene making it look like it has been captured or recorded on an expensive camera and lighting. (volumetric effect)