“Chiaroscuro” is often taught as a technique, but it endures as an idea. It reminds us that meaning is rarely found in pure brightness or total darkness but in the uneasy space between the two.

Lighting techniques are invaluable for filmmakers at every level. For a director, they can help you communicate with your cinematographer.

In “Master of Light,” Rosa Ruth Boesten’s superbly intimate portrait of painter George Anthony Morton, shadows matter as much as light. The documentary, which won the grand jury prize at the SXSW Film ...