Lighting

[Zak Forsman]

this shot was lit by four handheld 18" 15w fluorescent fixtures waved around on either side of the camera. two tungsten balanced, one daylight balanced, one daylight with green gel. camera balanced for daylight.


practicals only. 90% of the light is coming from the 15w 18" fixture she is holding.


floating chinese lantern with an 85w compact fluorescent inside.


4' fluorescent fixture above and facing her. a 15w 18" fluorescent practical just off screen right.


the same 15w 18" fluorescent practical as before, but working on it's own this time


two Kino-Flo Diva 400s with red gel for fill. one practical DJ light flashing yellow.


no supplemental lighting. this is available light provided by the Los Angeles MetroRail system.

[Essor]

What camera did you get these shots with?

[PaPa]

wow

"no supplemental lighting. this is available light provided by the Los Angeles MetroRail system."
with or without an adapter?

[jansik]

Gopher's comment is excellent.
I am not sure if your intention was Chairoscuro (!?).
Lowering light would take care of eyes. Eyes are important and you need to pay attention to it.
Adding some backlight would help with separation. I would also pay attention to all reflections (upper left) by flagging them off.

[jansik]

Nice Mood Barry. I think that positioning your Pools of light more frontally would get their faces, and if you kept them slightly to the side you would not have to compromise the mood. That would surely help with the face of the keybord player. I agre comments concerning backlight as it would add separation.

[Zak Forsman]

What camera did you get these shots with?

HVX200

wow

"no supplemental lighting. this is available light provided by the Los Angeles MetroRail system."
with or without an adapter?

with the Brevis35, CF1L.

[Justin Aguirre]

Hey Zak,

For the Metrorail shot, what system were you on? I can't tell if it's the subway or lightrail at night. Also, what time of day did you shoot on board the train?

[Zak Forsman]

the Red line underground somewhere between North Hollywood and Union Station. we rode down and back, shooting nearly an hour of footage (guerilla style). that day we started shooting at a mattress store around 10am, so i imagine we started shooting on the metrorail by noon or 1pm. so it would have been mid-afternoon -- 1pm to 3pm. looking at my calendar, it was a Wednesaday. September 12th.

[puredrifting]

Hi Zak:

Too funny, I just shot a video FOR LA Metro riding on that same train as well as most of their other ones.

Nice frames!

Dan

[Qzar]

I recently decided to try out a better light setup. I chose to go with fluorescent lighting. The total price for about 2 light fixtures and 4 bulbs was around $25 USD. To me, it was worth it. All I need now are better stands (possibly the diy c-stand).

~ Tatsuya Graham

Care to go into more detail into these lights? For $25 that sounds like quite a steal. Where they DIY? or just a deal on actual lights?

I have heard a lot about people using flourescents but for some reason they always came off to me as being expensive and difficult to use. That shot however is very nice and for a student on a budget, lights like these are starting to sound more and more appealing.

[Justin Aguirre]

the Red line underground somewhere between North Hollywood and Union Station. we rode down and back, shooting nearly an hour of footage (guerilla style). that day we started shooting at a mattress store around 10am, so i imagine we started shooting on the metrorail by noon or 1pm. so it would have been mid-afternoon -- 1pm to 3pm. looking at my calendar, it was a Wednesaday. September 12th.

Thanks Zak,

How was it shooting during the afternoon? Anyone say anything to your crew?

[Zak Forsman]

Thanks Zak,

How was it shooting during the afternoon? Anyone say anything to your crew?

we had a big audience. but the employees never hassled us. crew-wise it was me shooting, an A.C. helping with camera support, the A.D. and co-producer acting as security to keep people away from the actor.

[cckid]

this is the best thread on lighting that I came across...real life exmples with pictures supplied...hope this will catch on...

[ProfessorU]

From the short film "Six Bullets" shot in SD on MiniDV.





These two were one setup, originally intended for color but made b&w for clarity (it's a flashback). Very close quarters. Camera WB for tungsten. The colorist used a glow effect that looks a little like bad focus but looks good in motion.
500w fresnel just over her shoulder, did a nice job catching the rain, very close, gelled magenta.
Two 500w fresnel, gelled to 3/4 ctb and bounced off a white card just over camera's left shoulder.
One 500w broad worklight about 15 feet behind the camera, gelled some kind of blue, boucing off the ceiling, to reduce contrast just a smidge.




These were shot on a set that the director hated. Same setup for both. "Whatever you do, don't show the walls." We put styrofoam packing peanuts above the window and dropped them for a snow effect (hard to see in the still, but it worked well). I was tempted to put more light behind the window but the director wanted to be able to see her breath (we shot this around 45F and kept feeding her hot chocolate to get better steamy breath). Camera WB for tungsten.
Two 500w PARs about 5 feet outside the window, acting as one source, gelled CTB. They were pretty low, maybe two feet above her head.
Two 300w broads gelled double CTB 90 degrees right of cam, about five feet past the edge of the frame in the wide shot, that's what catches the cabinet on the wall. We had a wider shot with furniture in the foreground, it was edge lit with this fixture.
One 500w broad gelled triple CTB at the camera's right shoulder, brought the blacks up but they were pushed back down in post.

[ESTEBEVERDE]

I love the Black and Whites!