Lighting question

P

Paul Gibbs

New member
I am shooting with an AG-DVX100B in a very difficult classroom (screenshot attached). It's a seven-foot ceiling with fluorescent lights. I have set up some track lighting at 45-degree angles from the left and right of the speaker.

Aside from the white balance, can anyone provide some advice on getting better lighting in a very inexpensive, inconspicuous manner (this is a classroom, not a studio)?

All help welcome!

Thanks much,

Paul Gibbs
 

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Hi:

Your lighting looks very flat and there is almost no modeling on the subject's face. He is wearing the worst color shirt for video possible, white/off white, it's too reflective, you will have a hard time ever getting his shirt and face to expose correctly when lit. You have set up some track lighting? Do you mean track lighting already exists in the location or did you re-wire the ceiling to accept track lighting? Why use track lighting, that is the worse type of lighting for video, just a frontal blast of undiffused quartz halogen.

Do you have video lighting available? Your talking head would benefit from a standard three point light setup of a key, fill and a backlight to separate him from the BG. Pretty standard setup is what you need.

For your key, a small Chimera softbox with a 300 to 650 watt light as the key, a flexfill or piece of foamcore as a fill source and a small 150 to 300 watt fresnel armed in on a C-stand or boom would work perfectly. You could also jazz up the BG by putting cucoloris pattern or slash of colored light across the BG with perhaps a 300 fresnel.

Best of luck,

Dan
 
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Hey Paul,
there's a couple of things going on here.

First the current lighting is VERY bland. It's almost as this picture is the perfect image to start off from to show how good lighting can improve a scene. I have to assume that this might be for an instructional/educational video? If that is case, you will have be doubly clever in offering some good lighting, as most of those things are boring to start off with, so at least make it visually pleasing! ;-)
The background NEEDS something too as it's just way to boring now. Maybe shine a light through some cardboard with some cutouts.

Not sure what "track lighting" you have but try and look up THREE POINT LIGHTING online. Here's one that gives the basics (it's for 3d renders but explains it quite well):
http://www.3drender.com/light/3point.html

This will give you good starting point on how to light a subject. You will need some backlight to separate the subject from the background, as he is so close to it.
 
Another way to make this shot nicer has nothing to do with lighting at all. Make the framing a little more interesting...even just shifting your subject *slightly* to one side of the frame will, at least in my opinion, make the shot more interesting to look at, because he will naturally turn his head a little, putting his face on a slightly different plane from his torso. That's a start, and then the second thing is to put something in the background. I know it's a classroom and there may not be all that much to look at, but at the very least it's got four things that *every* room has: corners. If you pull him away from the wall and put him in front of a corner you'll have a bit more of an interesting background too if you throw it a little out of focus. This will off course look better with a slash of light or something to accentuate the two walls as separate, but there are just tons of ways to make this shot better. Hope some of this helps, and just keep tryin' new stuff.
Peace,

-Harry
 
Wow, such a quick response! I really appreciate the feedback.

I know it's a horrible situation. Thank you for confirming how bad it really is! :)

My main problem with lighting is the setting. It's a classroom, a small classroom, with the ceiling only at 7 feet. Tonight I'll post a picture of the room to illustrate the difficulty I'm having in selecting an inconspicuous lighting setup (well, difficult to me, anyhow!). I really want the room to feel comfortable for the students so that the feedback is as natural and as comfortable as possible.

Paul
 
Paul Gibbs said:
I know it's a horrible situation. Thank you for confirming how bad it really is! :)
My main problem with lighting is the setting. It's a classroom, a small classroom...
Click to expand...

Actually, I am not too sure that this is such a horrible setting at all.
In fact, it seems quite ideal in MANY ways: it is NOT moving; there is no water splashing about; it is not dusty nor windy; it is not -40° or +140°; humitity is very reasonable; it is not a tight, confined space; and you have electricity right there on location

You see, it could be LOT worse. Some simply things will give you excellent results.
 
Tight buget eh...Puredrifting had a great idea for improving your lighting...
However, in a room that size and filled with students, this might prove difficult to manage. You can boost the overall " brightness" of the room by bouncing a couple of 500 watt lights into the back corners of the room. Set the light stands at about 5 .5 feet tall , aim the lights directly into the corners. This will wrap the light around 3 surfaces. two walls and the ceiling. Re- white balance....
Not exactly sexy lighting, but this would avoid annoying, drastic shadows on the walls. Use this in addition to your "track lighting."
It might be better to bounce these lights off of a sidewall and ceiling , aprox 2/3 back from the front of the room. And the other from a back,opposite corner. This would make the lighting more interesting, and provide more of a sidelight (Key) and fill from the back of the room.. Again, use this with you existing track lights, re-white balance ...7 foot ceilings----ouch..Otherwise I would recommend a couple of other routes to take...These suggestions are intended for an extremely tight budget. Many other light souces could be used, including buying two or three 4 ft-4 bulb shop light ,flo fixtures, and getting the school's custodian to loan you extra flo bulbs that match the ceiling lights. All schools have extra flo tubes laying around in a closet somewhere. OK, how 'bout 2- 5k hmi's out side, shooting into the room..lol
 
You might try to stick the speaker as close to one side of the room as possible (if possible). Then I'd use one of the tracklights as a direct key, bounce one off the wall closest to the speaker for a fill, and use a third to hit the wall behind the speaker (diffused if possible - wrap it in spun or fabric softener for a real low budget) to eliminate any annoying shadows from the key. This should provide a more modeled look to the speaker - worth trying.
 
Thanks again folks.

I took the pictures of the room today but when I got home discovered that the USB connector on the camera is non-standard. So, none of the three USB connector types I have here will work. I'll post them in the morning! Thanks much.

Paul
 
Here are (1) the pictures of the room in question and (2) new screenshots I took with the iris in manual mode (F6.8).

The problem I'm having with adding 500w bulbs is that the angle of the lights with a 7.5-foot ceiling (not 7-foot, as I mentioned previously) puts the light nearly directly in the speaker's line of sight.

Can anyone volunteer some thoughts on how the screenshots at F6.8 look?

Thank you!

Paul

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Looks WAY better (but you already know that!)

Lacks *drama*, but in this instance, for this purpose, dramatic lighting might not be the right tack.
 
lose as much light as possible on the speakers right side. Definitely looks better than before, but still kind of flat.
 
dustino said:
lose as much light as possible on the speakers right side
Click to expand...

GREAT point!
Instead of (or in addition to) ADDING light, you can try and take out a few bulbs at the correct lighting fixture.
 
dustino said:
lose as much light as possible on the speakers right side. Definitely looks better than before, but still kind of flat.
Click to expand...

Good idea! Maybe that would work. Dustino (or anyone), as you look at the photo, do you mean it would be good to drop the light (maybe pull out bulbs as vidled suggested) on the right side of the frame or on the right from the speaker's perspective?

Paul
 
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