Love is in the air, which has gotten me to thinking about lighting. (Come to think of it, what time of year doesn’t do that?) If Valentine’s Day always gives you a hankering to pop Gone With the Wind or your favorite rom-com into the DVD player, have you ever thought about what goes into making those romantic films?

Color temperature is one of the first things to note when studying the lighting in a romantic scene. Is it orange? Bluish? White? Most often, warm colors add to an inviting, romantic atmosphere. For example, the warm light in this sunset scene in Titanic draws the audience in, unlike the cold, blue lighting later in  the movie, after things get dire.

2. Brightness (and Shadow)

You can judge the quality of light in a film scene through the hardness or softness of its shadows. Hard quality light has dark shadows with sharp edges, and often feels more raw than soft quality light. Soft lighting, often used in older films, has lighter, diffused shadows and tends to feel more sentimental. If you’ve seen Casablanca, you know what I mean.

Of course, there are always exceptions to these rules.

Cool lighting can still be quite romantic in the right setting. Like in this still from The Notebook:

And with advances in film technology, sharp shadows can also be quite romantic. Case in point, this still from the end of the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice: