lighting dark clothing

smelni

smelni

Veteran
Ok - heres the situation - you have a person in dark clothing in front of a dark counter. Their shirt blends in with the counter. whats the best way to light the clothes without blowing out the face or to give the clothes enough texture to keep it separate from the counter.

I know you can just put a light on the clothes - but often that doesnt work if the actor needs to move quite a bit

any ideas?
 
Well, the first question is why are you going with this particular wardrobe choice? I'm not trying to be cute, rather I'm trying to understand what you're looking for. Can you describe the scene a bit and what you're shooting for. Do you want it to blend in?

This is going to be one of those situations where I think you're going to want to use a LOT of light and then stop down and use ND filters to get your look. Shoot fairly flat to preserve latitude and expose for the shadows (and carefully control highlights in your lighting scheme). Then you can adjust your levels in post. You may also have to create some masking or composite your shots for the particular look you're going for? Also assume you will have to change part of your lighting setup for each shot. A small light on the clothes maybe 1/2 to 1 stop brighter than the counter might work, but again, what are you going for...
 
good question but its more of a general question - we can tell our wardrobe manager to use better colors for the situation but then we are at the mercy of our locations and continuity and its quite possible that this situation might come up because that person was already in that clothing.
 
Well, this is where good art direction comes into play.... You could also try to find an alternate location...

But ok, otherwise I would experiment with what I gave you. Hopefully others will chime in.
 
This is no different then any other scene you light, always light clothing seperate from skin, usually your cutting lite from the clothing, but in this case you'll have to cut light from the skin. Also using a strong backlight on the entire body will help outline a dark subject from a dark background and give seperation.

One other alternative is let your set dresser break or change the counter color.
 
Seems if you back light them and fill on them a little more they will come out the background and have more light filled on them than the counter.
 
I would try to work with the counter either as suggested before, changing color or try to illuminate it so you separate your subject with the dark clothes. Back lighting might help, just creating highlight so shapes get better definition. I know all these is jus plain talk. The real twist is getting it to work on the set. Good luck
 
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