Cinematography lessons from a working commercial DP
Learn to light like a working DP.
Real jobs, real budgets, every decision explained. Watch on YouTube and listen to the original podcast. The visual companions are now available on Patreon.
Walk into a location and know where the light goesbefore the truck’s even open.
Take light away before you add itNegative fill first, another lamp second.
Know what the sun and the schedule will cost youand shoot the hard setup while you still can.
HOW YOU’LL SEE ITHOW YOU SEE IT NOW⇆
Ep 424 · Same Location, New Look · drag to compare
Three ways in
Start free. Go deeper when it clicks.
Everything comes from real jobs I shot. Start with the free Framework and the podcast. Use the library to follow 143 podcast breakdowns with frames, lighting notes and visual companions.
Free · start here
Get The Framework.
The six principles I light by, with real frames and the decisions behind them. 25 pages, free by email.
18% grey
A stop over
Clipping
Near black
From a short film I shot The windows behind her read pink, a stop over 18% grey. She sits in the greys below them, and the nearest furniture drops into blue, near black. That’s where the Framework starts: choose what you can’t change, set its exposure, then balance the rest of the frame around it.
Look inside the PDF +
Page 13 · Keep ambient and face shape separatePage 07 · Build the shape around the subjectPage 11 · Give the shadows somewhere to go
Three pages from the 25-page guide. Select any page to view it full size.
Enter your first name and email for the free Framework PDF.
The video walks through the decisions. The matching post puts the original audio beside the finished frames, lighting notes and a PDF you can keep open while you listen.
Three real frames. Make your call, and my original notes draw over the picture. This is what every breakdown in the library does, for the whole job.
What students say
From people who shoot for a living.
Reviews from cinematographers who took Commercial Cinematography: The Foundation, as published on the course page.
This isn’t just a brilliant and truthfully legitimate course by Patrick, it is the absolute fundamental information one would ever want to know in pursuing a career in cinematography.
Ash Tailor-Jones · Cinematographer
It has actionable lessons that will never become dated and provides such valuable insights into industry workflow.
Anton Trivic · Cinematographer
Commercial Cinematography: The Foundation really hits the nail on the head with an easy-to-follow, no-nonsense approach to get work in the Commercial Cinematography world.
Commercial DP. Every breakdown here comes from a job I shot: the schedule we had, the space we got and the kit we could afford.
I teach the order the calls get made in. What gets decided first, what that choice makes harder later, and what you give up to get the frame. You won’t find recipes. You’ll find the decision and the reason for it.
The Framework connects exposure, camera position and the light you add or take away. Start with the biggest constraint. The shot decides how much each principle matters.
The Framework
Six principles for shape and depth.
CAM 01 · Episode #448 · Racing the Sun · Shot 1 / The wide
Choose what you can’t change, like the sky or a bright window. Set its exposure, then balance the rest of the frame around it.
“The more shade in the frame the easier it is to sell lower levels of ambient in the foreground.”
Episode #448 write-up
The job
The wide relied on the sun, location and schedule. The tree cover made it possible to keep a morning feel over a long day; the shot was too large to shape with lights on the ground.
Reading
The background is the practical exposure constraint. Changing its angle changes the balance you build in the foreground.
CAM 02 · Episode #452 · The Look Comes Before the Shoot · Mother / Coverage
Plan · illustrative, after the breakdown notes
CoverageCamera looks toward the shaded side of the faces.
02 · Direction
Upstage lighting
Put the camera and key on opposite sides of the action line. Light the far side of the face and let the near side fall away.
The job
The original boards kept the coverage on the open side of the shelter, where the light was coming from. I planned the coverage from the other side of the line with the director.
What it bought
The open side provided the key while the camera looked toward the shaded side of the faces. The close shots gained shape without forcing light through the back wall.
A free visual field guide. Six principles, real frames and the decisions behind them.
Look inside the PDF +
Page 13 · Keep ambient and face shape separatePage 07 · Build the shape around the subjectPage 11 · Give the shadows somewhere to go
Three pages from the 25-page guide. Select any page to view it full size.
The Framework25 pages · Patrick O’Sullivan
The Method
How I think about light.
Six principles, a lab to try them in, and a way to find the job that matches your next shoot. Go as deep as you like. When you want the whole job, it’s in the library.
The Light Lab
Move the key. Watch the face change.
A plaster head, one key, a black flag, an edge light and the room. Drag the key around the plan. Put it on the far side of the eyeline and the face gets shape. Swing it to the camera side and it flattens. Make the source bigger and the shadow edge softens.
● LIVE · PLASTER STUDYKEY 1.6 M
Overhead · drag the key
Source size
Neg fill
Edge
View
Quick move
A simplified renderer built to show direction, size and falloff.Switch 3200K / 5600K in the menu to change the key
Where’s the sun?
Put the sun where it’ll be. There’s a job for that.
Drag the sun around the talent. I’ll show you a real job I lit in that light, with my notes and what’s in the breakdown.
How I plan it
The picture gets made before the shoot.
Real planning from recent breakdowns: drone scouts marked up with the rig, viewfinder stills with the lens and angle, and the boards the day was built on.
Ep 372 · drone scout, crane and streetlights markedEp 389 · Artemis scout with lens and angleEp 401 · storyboard for the one-take spotEp 452 · the boards before the shoot
The Method shows how I think. The library shows every job it came from.
143 podcast breakdowns with downloadable visual companions: finished frames, lighting notes, plans and scout photos. Read along with 142 original recordings. Episode #239 is PDF-only.
Fixed collections of film and TV lighting breakdowns on Patreon, plus the downloads I use on jobs. Choose your downloads below.
Film and TV collections · Patreon
Eight sets, one problem each.
Each set is built around a recurring problem. Paid members already have them.
Downloads
Tools I use on jobs.
Add your downloads to the bag, then continue to our shop to pay.
From the Foundation
From people who shoot for a living.
Reviews from cinematographers who took Commercial Cinematography: The Foundation, as published on the course page.
This isn’t just a brilliant and truthfully legitimate course by Patrick, it is the absolute fundamental information one would ever want to know in pursuing a career in cinematography.
Ash Tailor-Jones · Cinematographer
It has actionable lessons that will never become dated and provides such valuable insights into industry workflow.
Anton Trivic · Cinematographer
Commercial Cinematography: The Foundation really hits the nail on the head with an easy-to-follow, no-nonsense approach to get work in the Commercial Cinematography world.
