Want to take good photos? Go watch The Lion King.

Seriously.

A few days ago I saw the re-release of the Lion King (I remember when it came out in '94, boy do I feel old) and the whole time I was thinking:

"Oh my god. The light. The color. Every scene."

That Walt Disney company sure knows how to convey emotion through light and color. There isn't a single scene in the entire movie where you can't tell the mood JUST by the lighting, regardless of whether or not there are characters in the frame.

The vast majority of scenes were 'shot' in afternoon, twilight or morning light. Every scene in that movie tells a story. All the shots are moody or evocative. So put the camera down in broad daylight unless the situation absolutely requires it(of course there are situations that must be documented in broad daylight, so be it). But if it's dramatic, striking or otherwise interesting photos you're going for, watch The Lion King, learn from the best, and keep the camera at home during the daylight hours.

I am convinced that is the single fastest way to improving your pictures. Study dramatic light, color and emotion through works like this. It really hits you over the head with it so you can pick up on the importance quickly.

How about black and white photos? While I agree with what you're saying, color is just one way of having great photos.

Not only does the color of the light change at sunset/sunrise/etc etc, the quality of it changes (softness, shadow direction, wrap) as well, and that can definitely be seen in black and white photos, however it may be to a lesser extent.

Just saw an opening for a lighter who is the person who takes raw animations and controls the lighting and shade engine in each frame. You can bet that mood is exaggerated for as much effect as possible. Think of the software tools they have to do this and there is a tools department where people produce the software to generate animations.

@jetcode - and you can bet that they are probably paying easily mid-six, probably seven figures worth of money to get that dramatic lighting and shading done correctly for these big budget films- which shows how important mood conveyed via lighting really is!

I watched a movie last night called "daydream nation" where I thought the same thing. Throughout the whole movie it was as if each shot were planned to stand on its own as a nice image.

I think that 3 Kings was filmed really well too, though some may think that the visual style was a bit too gimmicky.

I'll also add There Will Be Blood and The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. Those movies were simply gorgeous.

As far as TV series go, I've often been very impressed by the photography on Breaking Bad.

Check out all the "film noir"s

The film Vanilla Sky has good filming technique. Obviously Avatar had some cool lighting (if that's your style). The Mel Gibson film Payback is filmed with interesting light.

Mike, that's an interesting observation, checking out animation! I know a lot of us check out the photography in films and note various things (have you ever found yourself saying "Hey, look, they got real bokeh!"?). But your point about "lighting techniques" in animation is cool.

Good for them they don't have to jump through hoops to get the "Day For Night" effect properly!