Dust particles suspended in sun beams.

Finnegan

Finnegan

Well-known member
There's a scene in an upcoming short film I'm shooting where the main character wakes up late in the afternoon. The director wants a POV shot of her looking at an adjacent bedroom window, with warm beams of sunlight entering the room and he wants to be able to see dust particles flying around. Would I need a macro lens to get close enough to see dust particles separate from each other, instead of one big cloud? The director describes it as if the dust particles are sort of dancing with each other, and shimmering. In my head, the wider the lens the more the dust is going to look like a big cloud. Any thoughts/ideas?
 
Sounds like you should just haze it and then add the dust in post. Putting real dust in the room is going to really unhealthy for all your talent and crew, not to mention getting in all your gear. You might actually be able to light haze well enough that it would look like what you want. Haze particles are pretty nice when lit correctly.

Matthew
 
I've caught dust particles in a shot using 28mm. My intent was to get the curtains and flares so
when the dust showed up I took it as a bonus LINK

I think if I were to redo the shots with the aim of capturing dust in sunlight, my biggest enemy would be shallow dof. ie as soon as the dust is out of focus then I've lost them.

Because of this I would avoid macro lens. I would shoot a wide angle with no ND,s a stopped down lens and then place the ISO where necessary. f8 on a 28mm or wider if your framing allows. Look forward to what you end up doing. Be sure to post some results!
 
Does something like fullers earth help you see things like the dust particles? I don't know about using it indoors, but I'd be interested to hear about what it can do from someone who's had a bit more experience with it.
 
Did you search for a reference shot/scene in some movie and check how they did it?

The angle and position of the light that hits the dust and of the camera is important to make the particles stand out / glow and visible to the camera. If you manage this you'll probably be able to have depth of field to taste.
Since it's supposed to be POV, going too wide may not do the job anyway.
 
stip said:
Did you search for a reference shot/scene in some movie and check how they did it?

The angle and position of the light that hits the dust and of the camera is important to make the particles stand out / glow and visible to the camera. If you manage this you'll probably be able to have depth of field to taste.
Click to expand...

i'm not to sure. I had to do snow shots like this in January and the flakes kept disappearing into the dof. Flakes are much larger than dust.
 
Last edited:
"...with warm beams of sunlight entering the room and he wants to be able to see dust particles flying around."

Having done drywall for the better part of ten years, I'll toss out an idea for you. Take some drywall mud (not durabond, more like +3), spread it on a piece of drywall, say two feet by two feet, let it dry. When it's dry, climb a ladder on the set where you want to test out the effect, hit it with a sanding sponge and let the dust fall over the area where you want the light beam to be.

Drywall mud contains a silica compound that causes it to hang in the air for quite a while, and with a properly directed light (narrower rather than wider), it can produce some tremendous beams. Just make sure you wrap all your equipment to prevent damage.

I think this method would be cheap, easy, and replicable. It would be a more pronounced effect at night, obviously, but would work in daytime as well.

/occamsrazor
 
No Handle said:
Drywall mud contains a silica compound that causes it to hang in the air for quite a while, and with a properly directed light (narrower rather than wider), it can produce some tremendous beams. Just make sure you wrap all your equipment to prevent damage.
Click to expand...

Silica dust can be pretty nasty stuff to inhale. There's better and safer ways of doing the shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top