Acoustic Guitar Performance lighting

T

tgilberg

New member
Hello,

I have read through all the lighting stickies, experimented for hours on different
lighting configurations but cannot seem to capture the lighting style of this video link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojm9jWPEJSc

I have softboxes as well as par cans

The camera i use is a dvx100b

i am baffled i cannot get anything even close to the above video if anyone could shed some light on this lighting config (pardon the pun)
that would be awesome

I am familiar with 3 point lighting
if someone could tell me possibly the lighting placement approx wattages etc i know there are multiple cams here but I would like to get the lighting style for a performance video i would like to shoot


Thanks

Tim
 
On the wide perpendicular two shot I would say they used 4 lights. One key soft light, 1k lets say, up real high so it spills on each of the performers left sides, then directly to the floor, avoiding extra spill all over the background. Then I would say that there are two kicker/ backlight's barndoor'd on each of the performers hair/cheek probably around 500w, no diffusion, up on c-stands fairly low, just out of sight of the camera. Then I would say they used a small pepper light around 250 barndoored down in the background to add an element of seperation. I'll throw up a diagram in a bit to give you some more detail. But I would guess this is what was used.

Hope this helps!

my guess:

1227946207.jpg

my.php
 
Last edited:
I think Andrew about got it. But not so sure on that softlight being so high.

When I analyze lighting like this I look first at two things. Where and how the shadows are falling, and what is showing up in the reflective surfaces. In this case, The guitar on the left side of the frame is actually showing you the softbox. The shadown edge transfer is showing you the relative size of the source and the backlight. The glasses of the singer on the left are showing you the height of the soft key. The floor is showing the downward angle of the light.

What is interesting is the shadows on the legs of the performers. It shows more shadow than one would imagine for a large softbox, so I don't think the softbox is all that soft, or they are using diffusion on a harder light as Andreww shows in his diagram.

Fun stuff.
 
Awesome
thanks
on the 2 500 watt fresnels behind the performers what elevation would they be placed
for example would they be mounted head level, or up from the floor

thanks for the diagram

Tim
 
I would say that the fresnels are just above the frame of the camera. I say this because the guy on the right has a bit of hair light and and kick, not fully hairlight or not fully kick.
 
I like a key from above, a stong backlight, and a lil bounce form the bottom.
We all differ in taste. I like highlights.
 
Thanks for all the help, Hopefully last question,

in the Diagram it states 1k Par up real high,
the 2 guitar players are seated could you give me an approximation of placement
for that light
for example should the light be approx 3 feet above the seated players


Thanks

tim
 
I would say the light is high enough to throw the shadows to the floor and not have any spill light into the back ground. I can't give you this exact height, you should just adjust the light when you are on set to figure it out. Just throw the shadows to the floor.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
 
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