CC and Lighting

L

LuckyProducer

Well-known member
Hey guys, this is the first time I actually tried to use the 3-point lighting method. I went to my friend's house and we got bored so we decided to mess around with some lights. He didn't have any good lights so we just used two normal lamps and tilted it. I was just curious to see what it would get me. I have somewhat better lights at home. Let me know what you guys think. I simply had a key light and a backlight (no fill). So let me know what you think and what I can do better to improve my lighting or CC. Thanks!

No Lighting
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Key light only
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Backlight only
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Key and Backlight
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Key and Backlight 2
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Key and Backlight 3
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Key and Backlight 4
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Key and Backlight 5
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The quality of light in all of them except the third is beautiful. The third is a fairly neutral, realistic rendition, but not really interesting or filmic. The other ones however, all have very cold or warm tones, which is just great.

Though all I notice are his glasses. Maybe it's just me, but if I'm shooting someone, I almost always ask them to remove their glasses because it just distracts too much from the composition.
 
looked ok. better lights would definately help. keep experimenting with lighting. only bad thing are the glasses. they reflect the source light too much and are really distracting from the images. they stand out too much. try repositioning the lights or even filtering the light.
 
Yeh, thanks guys for the tips and comments. I noticed the glasses too but didn't bother getting rid of them. I will def. experiment more. Thanks! If you've got more tips or comments, keep them coming! Lol!
 
reflection in his glasses = bad.

try using a lighting kit, lighting normal 60W tungsten lamps creates very uneven results.

I dunno what else to say... these kinds of posts are usually pretty boring (they just tend to be... images with no context...)

peas.
 
Loki said:
try using a lighting kit, lighting normal 60W tungsten lamps creates very uneven results.
Click to expand...
I agree that practicals can be uneven, but you can't say they don't produce good results:

I used only a 60W bulb in the ceiling fan, and a 60W bulb in a desk lamp to light these shots. No color correction.

hiphop4.jpg

hiphop2.jpg

hiphop3.jpg


... And, two flo's in the window sills, but that doesn't necessarily count!
 
Lucky-

The problem is you've got a white guy against a white wall. It's boring. If you fix the problems in the art department first (sets, props, locations, clothes) then you'll have a much better palette to work with your lighting.

As it is, there's nothing that could make those shots "good" because the location, wardrobe, etc is bad. Not your fault, but it is your problem.

As always, hope this helps.
 
I wish I knew how to light well. I use the scape that "I enjoy natural light more" instead of saying "I have no idea how to prepare lights".
 
thisiswell is totally right!

you know everybody in hollywood is using the same lighting techique but why do their pictures look better than mine or yours. It's because a good picture consists of several elemts not ONLY lighting.

first of all you rather enjoy watching catherine zeta jones than your little brother or whoever that boy is (nothing personal against that guy:-)

but that's nohting you can do about, because you can't afford catherine zeta jones

but what you can do about is costume and setdesign! these things are exactly as important as lighting! + there is framing but your's is good anyway...

you could say now: hey why do I need to care about setdesign or costume or actor when I'm only taking some test photos with my little brother?
because then you post it here and everybody says: well it's ok.... yeah try to use three point technique............boring..........
you want great response to your images? then give your BEST while making them
(take pictures of your older sister :-)

for a good picture everything needs to be perfect - that's the difference between pro an amateure nothing else. And use softer lightsources. buy a 500W light from home depot and put a white sheet between it and the thing or person you want to light and voila your image is much more pleasing. and watch the background!! When I started and still now I tend to forget to light the background properly .
But you did that in 2,3,4,5,6 so I think you got that :-)

good luck und buy some stronger lights! you wont always light portraits (that's the easiest thing) for wider shots you need more light!


sorry for writing that much :-)
 
this is an image of my older brother :-)

and the light is even simpler than yours (only one soft light from the side) but he wears a suit and there is nothing in the background that could distract you....

DSCN1317.jpg


simple :-)
 
Big second to the fact that what's in the background is very important (or the absence of it, in the right context - ex. Gabriel's grab).
 
Gabriel, did you put a black sheet behind him? how did you get it to be pitch black like that? awesome...
but hey guys, I know all about that costume stuff, I mean like I said. Me and my friend were bored one day and we decided to do it. but thanks for the tips anyway. most of them helped. Thanks!
 
a producer/director I know told me to shoot moving images as though they were a series of still images. After all, they are. Would this not also apply to lighting? Light your scene as though it were for a photo and keep this in mind during the movement of the actors or the camera.
Just a thought.
 
these grabs look pretty good, especially with what you were using, and while you do have one straight on shot, my rant below is not directed at them, just my pet peeve with white walls and the fac t that often the simplest thing is not done to make the shot more interesting in lieu of art direction and lighting - not belittling them just don't understand why people don't do the simplest thing when they don't have art dept or lights:

Move off axis.

So I agree on the white guy white background thing except that nothing is uglier, less aesthetically appealing than the white plaster sheet drywall walls in 90% of the places alot of people live - especially aspiring filmmakers - i.e. apartments. So I think the kid could be green and that wall would still be distracting and flat and remind you that you are in a two dimensional medium that we want to pretend is three dimensional.

The worst thing to do is to shoot in one of these very common white wall apartments or suburban homes is shoot the wall straight on - it will just plummit whatver you are doing from edgey low budget short down to the level of some guys screwing around with a camera.

So if there's no art department, minimal lights, at least just shoot off axis to the wall so they are not lined up like a mug shot. Even with superblly art directed sets you almost never see this. So think of positionint the camera in relation to the actor so that the background gives as much of a line perspective effect as possible.

Worst worst of all is that its not always just in close ups, sometimes you see it in a medium or master where the guy is in the easy chair which is flush against the wall and the camera is pointed so the wall is completely flat - icky icky icky
puking.gif
 
Alright, sweet. I love your comments. Everyone of them. thanks danstan. And thanks for the helpful tip John Hudson. I didn't have much to work. I didn't have any stands or anything. Not even chairs. We just wanted to work with what was in our room. Well we could've gotten a chair, but I didn't think about it. Lol! Alright, well one of these days we will do some more testing. That kid that is on the picture is called James. I am actually training him to be my partner for Lucky Productions. He is LuckyAssistant her on DVXUser. He uses my DVX so you can count him as a DVXUser. Actually, tonight, we had a job for a Brazilian birthday party. He went with me and I was showing him the ropes. He is just training and getting better and better. It can give him so extra cash once in a while. But anyway, the party was crazy. It was a Brazilian party. I'm Brazilian too, but the house was soooo small and there were soooooooo many people there. Thank God for the wide angle lens of the DVX. I had to film everything close up. Also, the lighting was so low. I didn't bring my light (I wasn't paid for this. My mom made me do it so she can give it to her for a gift...grrrrr.) Many times I had to use the gain boost on the third level. It caused the picture to be more grainy, but hey, what could I have done. I will post some grabs later. I got some pretty good shots here and there. I also found a nice technique to get smooth shots with just bare hands. Well, I don't want to make this too long for you guys to read so Imma go now. Peace!
 
I don't find the grabs boring and if it provokes discussion so much the better. I think the improvement over what you started with is evident in the transition between grabs. Thanks for posting them. Its the journey towards perfection that is important. I haven't yet met an artist who thinks of his work as "perfection". Most are never satisfied.
 
Wow...Gabriel that grab is amazing! Im going to go sell my DVX...im not worthy. Im really egtting ticked by my lack of clean focused shots...again, perfect job, that shot looks amazingly good.
 
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