British Cinematographer: LIGHTING FOR BALANCE: FORGING A SUSTAINABLE CINEMATOGRAPHY PRACTICE

Jack Shelbourn, a cinematographer and University of Lincoln lecturer currently undertaking a practice-based PhD on sustainable approaches to cinematography, recently completed two linked studio experiments that expand the concept of New Naturalism into a controlled environment. Here, he explains how the work investigates how reflected-light systems and modern LED sources — specifically the Aputure 600D alongside Dedolight and Lightbridge tools — can reproduce the aesthetic qualities of natural light while cutting on-set energy use and carbon output.

I’ve spent most of my career doing more with less, often by choice, usually out of necessity. That constraint became a style, and that style became a research question: can a New-Naturalist approach to cinematography cut carbon without compromising craft? My work on Mind-Set (2022, Dir. Mikey Murray) led me from the street and the solstice into a studio experiment designed to quantify what many of us feel instinctively when working with natural and reflected light. 

From set to study: Practice first, theory second 

I’m a working cinematographer who teaches, not an academic parachuting in with prescriptions. My route into research was through the camera, through no- and micro-budget features where the luxury of gear trucks and generator farms was absent by default. Those constraints shaped a language: favour natural or available light; move handheld when it serves the moment; embrace backlight; work with the environment rather than overpower it. I learned to find balance between story, place, weather, crew, and time, and to treat that balance as a creative target. 

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