Screens of lighting test

EP2005

EP2005

Well-known member
Screen shots of a test with lighting and CCing. Its suppost to be a guy in a dark room at night. Not sure if im going the right direction, or if im way off. Im trying to get a gritty drug abuse look.


ORIGINAL RAW:

test3.jpg



and with CC'ing:

test2.jpg


test1.jpg


test4.jpg




ORIGINAL RAW:

TEST6.jpg



and with CC'ing:

bedroom1.jpg


TEST8.jpg
 
The CC'd ones dont grab me as "night in a dark room." They seem way to oversaturated and bright to be in a dark room. The CC is good, they just need to be much darker i'd say. #3 is the closest to believable i'd say, but still needs to be darker.
 
**** dude
did you have the gain on when you filmed this? Looks like gain on with apeture on higher settings.

looks really noisy man.

and if you want to achieve that night look, flatten the image a bit by lowering the contrast, then crush the blacks a little bit, dim the picture by lowering the gamma a tad, remove all reds as reds are nearly impossible to see with no light and increase the gain of the blue a tad.

as for the dirty drug look. You can only doo so much to CC , especially with night look, to make your cahracter look a certain way without over affecting the rest of the picture, basically neutralizing the effect. Do more of it with makeup and lighting.

im gunna give these a shot and see what happens:)

wow, even mine isnt that great.

you should play with lighting al ittle more next time, maybe if you could get a nice backlight in there with a little less key, could be very interesting.

besticoulddo4mj.jpg
 
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man i have to just ask, what were your settings on when you filmed this? cause it really doesnt do the camera justice. This is in no way a bash to you, i just feel like, if i was the one filming " ****, i put the gain on "
 
Thanks for the replies. Im definatly not satisfied with the lighting, but im not sure how to light a room that is suppost to be dark, no lights.

The grain is a mix of the low light and using an M2.

If I use any of my "real" lights, its too bright, not the look i want.

I like how these turned out, but only for these angles:

bedroom3.jpg


bedroom4.jpg



Im looking for grain, not this much though. Im thinking I may just use my kit, light everything like I should, and then just darken it in post. Maybe even try a day for night.
 
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Hey EP2005-
I'm going to offer a paraphrase of a bit written in the book "Cinematography" by Kris Malkewicz and M. David Mullen. Basically, in the chapter about lighting, it says
"A common misconception is that to get a dark, low-key look, one must simply use less light or just underexpose. This is not correct however, a low key scene should instead just be a properly exposed scene with areas with no exposure, some with proper exposure and a few that are even over exposed."
Not a great summary, but basically you want to control your lighting to be dark in many parts of the frame and only show small pieces well rather than just making *everything* dark and hard to see. I certainly don't mean to discourage you, but that little bit from the book helped me immensley in my understanding of "film darkness." Hope it can help you too.
Peace,

-Harry
 
To achieve a nice night/dark look you actually have to film with light. The DVX (well, digital cameras in general) needs light otherwise it can only record a limited range of values. You end up without enough data to work with. That's why you get the grain you see in the images above. There just no data there to work with.

When you shoot your "night" scenes with the proper lighting they will be bright. It's contrary to what you think you should do. But remember, you are shooting and lighting for what the camera can see, not what your eyes see.

The raw images you capture will then need to be CC'd. "PaPa" explained come of the tricks to converting to a darker night look. And when you have captured with enough light (data) it allows you a wider range of adjustment and without running into the grain issue.
 
Best solution is to always come up with a practical source of light. Is there a light outside of the room that spills inside? Is there a small bulb inside lighting the room. Is it suppose to be a room in middle-of-nowhere and just moonlight is siping through??? ANswer those questions and we'll be able to give you better advice on what the lighting set up is suppose to be like. In general low contrast and as liitle visible as possible -- meaning backlight with no fill is a good rule of thumb.
 
this room is a major part of the feature ill be doing. The guy basically locks himself in the room and is drugged out. At the beginning, he is experimenting, he sleeps a lot. At the end, he's used to it, he never leaves, and he begins to lose himself in the room.

I originally didnt plan any lights being on, but i think i might have to change that. This no light thing doesnt seem to be working. The character gets visitors, so ill have shots of light seeping through the door cracks and when the door opens. But there are times when he has conversations with people, and im not sure how to properly light a convo that goes on in a dark room.

Maybe a single lamp without a lamp shade wont be that cliche, but i dunno lol.
 
first of all don't be afraid to make or use shadows...look at any painting. you'll see the artist used lighting and shadows to create depth. when you are making a video image you are painting with light and to quote a lighting director "it takes a lot of light to make a scene dark."

here's a still from our current production "5 Days"

phonerings.jpg


we lit the room, white balanced, and then used gels. this is basically a straight frame from the clip. the only effect added was the levels filter just to make it a tad darker. the actor is watching television which is the source light for the scene. the actual light is above the actor with a fill light screen left and a practical (off screen in this pic) in the window. the practical looks like light from a street light coming in the window. the reason for the big smile. it's nice and quiet, he's "talking" to a friend on the phone, he's delivering his line with precision and then the phone in his hand starts ringing. we thought it was off.
 
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Try to come up with a practical as then it's much easier to explain the source of light. In any case rent out "War of the Worlds" and watch the scene in the basements with the crepy guy -- there suppose to be no lights. But we see stuff. You will notice lots of small lights lighting up from the bottom or top ... leting actors walk in and out of shadows... You know this kind of stuff.
 
I always think of this scene in Fellowship of the Ring when I think of dark cinematography

PDVD_864.jpg


displayimage.php


If anyone knows how this is generally done (light setup), that would be awesome.
 
speaking of a scene that should be dark...terminator 3:rise of the machines...they're in the back of that truck and it is lit amazingly well considering there's no light.
 
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