Painting with Light
Encyclopedia
- For the photographic technique, see Light paintingLight PaintingLight painting, also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. In many cases the light source itself does not have to appear in the image...
Painting with Light (ISBN 0-520-08949-9) by John Alton
John Alton
John Alton A.S.C. , born Johann Altmann, in Sopron/Ödenburg, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, was an American cinematographer...
is the first book written on cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
by a major cinematographer.
The book was first published in 1949. The book's primary focus is on light and the many complex ways a camera crew can manipulate it for effect. Although much of the technical information is now obsolete, Alton, who worked on the films noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
classics T-Men
T-Men
T-Men is a semidocumentary style 1947 film noir shot in black-and-white. The film was directed by Anthony Mann with cinematography by noted noir cameraman John Alton....
, He Walked by Night
He Walked by Night
He Walked by Night is a black-and-white police procedural film noir, crediting Alfred L. Werker as director. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former Glendale police department employee and...
, The Amazing Mr. X
The Amazing Mr. X
The Amazing Mr. X, also known as The Spiritualist is a film noir directed by Bernard Vorhaus with cinematography by John Alton. Like Nightmare Alley , this film tells the story of a phony spiritualist racket...
, and The Big Combo
The Big Combo
The Big Combo is an American film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis and stylistically photographed by cinematographer and noir icon John Alton with music by David Raksin....
, explains how lighting, shooting locations, and various camera techniques can be used to create a visual mood in film.
It was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
no. 4845, (1996): 18