For you lighting experts

Shot at :47 is her standing in front of a muslin, lit with a large, soft frontal source. The source has probably been shaped with a sort of giant snoot or more likely, the vignette is achieved in post. The only way to achieve this look is with a large soft source, probably like a 6x6 or more likely with an 8x8' silk with a 2k/4k or larger punching through it. Pretty simple shot if you have the right gear.

It looks pretty warm so it's probably tungsten. HMIs have a bluish look that is the opposite of this kind of look. With music videos, you can never tell though, they typically go nuts with the cgi and tweak everything within an inch of it's life. It could be HMI but looks like tungsten to me.

Dan
 
wow! great info, I noticed that there are no shadows on her face so the light is head on, do you think maybe one light on top and another coming from the bottom?
 
Nope, it is a single soft source from straight on, through a diffusion of some kind, angled down, filling in the shadows nicely. Look at the shadow under her chin, this is how you can tell the level of diffusion of the light, as well as the angle. This is a semi soft source, not super soft, but definitely softened.

This look is one of the easiest to accomplish, and could easily be recreated with a number of lighting tools. Basically any large, soft source would suffice.
 
I think the light is not extremely soft, the shadow below her chin looks relatively hard. The angle is low in both directions - right above the lens, the typical flat beauty-lighting also used a lot for tv presentations and tv news.
From my point of view you can also do this with a 4 or 6-bank flo-light (I'm a big fan of fluorescent soft sources). Although the 6-bank might already be softer than what you can see in the video.

And then... never forget the make-up! I guess Ms. Lewis has been in the hands of a very skilled makeup artist for at least two hours. This makes the hell of a difference on both film and video!
 
And it is something that is usually overlooked or skimped on. Trust me, good makeup will make your cinematography look that much better.
 
I dont know... My knee jerk reaction was the same as everyone elses.. big soft frontal light. But im looking at it and shes casting a fairly hard shadow under her nose and chin... too sharp for a 6' soft bank or any kind of kino IMO.

I would say its a big ass 10k fresnel either lamped down to 2k and scrimmed way down and brought in close. This explains not only the semi soft lighting seen in the video but also the sheen in her skin tone as the light from such a source would be specular.

Or it could be a small Briese light which produces a specular semi-soft focusable source.

Or it could be a hard light diffused with a 3' or 4' silk diffusion frame... Those silk diffusion frames soften the light while retaining some of the specular quality of hard light.

Hell, you could probably get that look with a 2k with some diffusion pinned to the doors.

The background is most likely lit separately from the foreground.
 
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If you look at the catchlight in her eyes at 1:43 you see the source reflected. With the Youtube resolution it's hard to be sure but the source appears to be a single round light that's a bit above and almost straight on.

I don't think there is a bounce or a 4X diffusion frame or a Kino, nothing that large (or relatively large, see below.)

I'll bet you can get that look from a small China ball a few feet away or large snooted fresnel with a little diffusion on it.

Remember softness is not a function of the size of the source, per se, it depends on the size of the source relative to the object being lit. (A big source close up is soft, the same source far away is less soft or even hard.)

I don't think this light is too far away because comparing the shadow from her chin with the one from her nose makes me think the beam is not almost parallel, collimated light coming from a long distance. There's pretty fast falloff, too.

The shadow behind her at 2:5X, I think, could be from the source as its height would push her shadow down and hide it behind her and the ellipsoidal shape is about what you would get from a round light that throws a beam a bit downward onto a vertical surface.

Heh, somebody should track down who shot this and ask. Could be it's as simple as a baby fresnel with some opal on it and some black wrap around the doors.
 
Sorry for resurrecting this thread but the link in the first page is not working anymore (obviously) and I was wondering if anyone remembers what music video the OP is talking about ? I was searching the net for how to achieve this hard shadow but at the same time still soft look effect, and Google came up with this page...I think this is what i'm looking for but it would be great if I could actually see what the guys where talking about.

Many thanks.
 
i was looking into the same think and again was disappointed on the broken link ( I mean the Youtube video was taken down). Do let me know if anyone manage to get it back anywhere else ok.
 
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