Addaiyan Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Available Online: https://aipublisher.org/articles?journal_id=2&volume=7&issue=8 2025; 7(8):34-44 Page 34 | ISSN: 2581-8783 (Online) Addaiyan Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences © Addaiyan International Publishers (An international Publisher of Research & Academic Resources) Journal Homepage: https://aipublisher.org/projects/ajahss/ DOI: 10.36099/ajahss.7.8.4 Investigating the Role of Film Lighting and Its Effect on the Audience's Emotional Response Associate Prof. Maryam Kakar 1 & Rahmatullah Muzafar 2 Department of Cinema, Faculty of Arts, Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan Abstract: Light is a vital element in the world without which nothing can be seen. Lighting is one of the vital aspects in the art and techniques of cinematography and filmmaking. The role of light in filmmaking is very important in creating atmosphere, environment, defining characters and creating visual effects. Filmmakers can convey their stories and emotions to the audience in the best way by using lighting. The current study examined the impact of three film lighting styles on participants’ emotional responses. The light styles - High Key, Low Key, and Available Light – were selected based on Film theory. Thus, this study combines Media Effects and Film literature to empirically study the impact of structural elements of film on media audiences. Significant relationship between different lighting styles and the emotional response of viewers was found. Participants who viewed the film in Low-Key lighting reported significantly more feelings of mystery, suspense, malice, intrigue, and other uneasy feelings associated with Low Key lighting. Surprisingly, Low Key lighting also elicited higher levels of emotional response in more happy and positive emotions. Though this is just the first empirical study of emotional responses in relation to film lighting style, significant results were found. Further studies must be conducted to develop a database and to provide more support to the findings in this study as the results indicate a relationship between film lighting and emotional response that has been indicated in film literature. This relationship can be empirically tested with significant results. Keywords: Audience; Effects of lighting; Emotional reaction of the audience; Light, Lighting. Introduction “Lighting is to film what music is to opera” – C.B. Demille [Brown 1996] “When people look at a beautiful countryside, we like to derive pleasure from it. We receive light sensations of different colors, different wavelengths reflected by the various objects all over the field of vision. This concert of light is similar to the one played by a hundred different instruments, in other words, a symphony of visual music” [Alton 1995] For the last 100 years, the moving image has been illuminated with specific lighting styles defined and practiced by filmmakers. Ideally, if a filmmaker is performing his or her job correctly, the audience member should never be conscious of all the theory, methodology, and Corresponding Authors* Rahmatullah Muzafar Article History Received: 28.07.2025 Accepted: 16.08.2025 Published: 31.08.2025