Maximizing control is the name of the game when it comes to cinematography. There are obviously tons of different ways to do it, but let’s focus our attention to siders.
A sider is a tool used to prevent unwanted light spill coming from the left or right of a light.
Most of the time a sider will be a solid flag/floppy. But in this case, we’re using what’s called a soft sider, meaning diffusion instead of a solid.
Let me walk you through the thought process:
❌Without the sider, we get hard light spilling onto talent and the frame left wall. No good.
❌With a solid sider we get rid of the hard spill, but we lose some exposure on talent.
✅ With the soft sider, we eliminate the hard spill whilst seamlessly adding light to talent.
A soft sider isn’t always the best option, but for these shots it did the job.
Amir Hashmi 