What is Negative Fill and Why Should You Use it

On this video Ryan E. Walters from the indiecinemaacademy looks at something that a lot of photographers and filmmakers do not know or consider – using negative fill for improved contrast.

Sometimes you want to create more contrast in your shots. Of course you can use less light on your subject in some cases (or change the way you use this light) however a different way, and supposedly a more useful one which is used quite a lot by more experienced video and film makers  is negative fill. The concept is simple – instead of using a white/silver/gold reflector to add light onto your subject, you can use a black fabric that will decrease the amount of light which reaches your subject from that angle.

Let’s face it – no matter what you do, light is going to bounce from more or less anything around your subject so in many situations you will need to control it with with fill or negative fill to reach the lighting that you want. This applies to both outside shooting as well as indoor shots. Walters demonstrates it in this video and sow some simple DIY techniques as well as the more traditional way of using negative fill. It is all very simple but not something that many of us think about in every shot.

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid.

Via: slrlounge.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

2 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *