daylight with lighting

T

thompson

Member
I have two daylight balanced lights 1000w each, I use these for key and backlight, I use daylight from a window as some fill and a ring light on the camera which removes any shadows on the face

I find that the more ambient daylight in a shot, the better the footage looks

I use xh-a1 for filming

does anyone else use daylight mixed with lighting kits?
 
sorry I meant to say they are daylight balanced with the gel paper, looks good tho

my question is basically, is it ideal to use daylight where possible as the quality of image seems to be a lot better than just using the tungstens
 
it only matters what color temp your light is if your camera's sensor is skewed one way or the other (RED) or if you are going for a particular look.

Also, when you're gelling your 1k's you're losing 2 stops of light.
 
I suppose it's a matter of taste, but the better it looks, the better it looks! As long as you've got plenty of light and the gels to match, you're good to go. There's no real "right" way or "wrong" way to do it. I've used tungsten lights outdoors a lot, sometimes even without gels to get a magic hour look.

Just experiment as much as you can and feel free to do things exactly the opposite of what anyone suggests, including myself. And if you make a mistake, you'll know exactly what you did to achieve horrible lighting. Best lesson ever.

:thumbsup:
 
thompson said:
I have two daylight balanced lights 1000w each, I use these for key and backlight, I use daylight from a window as some fill and a ring light on the camera which removes any shadows on the face

I find that the more ambient daylight in a shot, the better the footage looks

I use xh-a1 for filming

does anyone else use daylight mixed with lighting kits?
Click to expand...

1 6x55 fluorescent lighting bank
2 4x55 fluorescent lighting bank
2 150 CDM Fresnels

All from www.Coollights.biz

great kit to do the majority of indoor daylight balanced work.
 
semila58 said:
Just experiment as much as you can and feel free to do things exactly the opposite of what anyone suggests, including myself.

:thumbsup:
Click to expand...


But then, if he does the opposite of what you just suggested, he's gonna end up doing EXACTLY what everybody suggests! Oh the conundrum! :Drogar-Happy(DBG):

Hee, though with all the great minds in this place I doubt he'd fall far of course anyhoo...
 
I love to use daylight. Get some ND gel for windows to control it, and you've got gobs of free beautiful light, whether for key, back or fill.

In fact, some of the best looking stuff I've ever shot is just controlling and accenting daylight.


If you can invest in, or build some fluoros to round out your kit, you'll be looking for excuses to use daylight.
 
Daylight is mostly pretty beautiful light. You said you use windows for fill - that does look beautiful because the windows are a pretty large source of even, soft light (as long as the sun doesn't blast directly into the windows. The cri of sunlight is 100, so yes, it's beautiful light. I always try to use indirect sunlight from windows for interviews whenever I can (because mostly I only have time to use a sungun when shooting eng, and a window with indirect daylight is much much nicer than a sungun).

I have also used daylight as fill and ambience in interview situations (two people talking, two camera shoot). I used about the same setup you described. The light from windows was my fill and ambience/background light, two 1000W pars with 3/4 ctb were my combined key and hairlights. I have mostly done this to save time, because I didn't have the time to first darken the room, then light two people and two backgrounds.

The downside of using natural sunlight is that it might change mid-interview (clouds) and you can't get a contrasty look with little spotlights and stuff. The fill from a row of windows just makes everything bright with soft light. Beautiful, no doubt, but not always the look you might want to achieve.
 
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