I'm using LED's right now for my interview set up. I like them because they are low wattage and just easy to use for my set ups. But they don't have very good throw when you need alot of light. Sometimes I get a subject that is lit great and don't want to change my camera settings, but want to brighten up the background, or part of it, a 1/2 or full stop. Whats the best kind of light that has a good throw of soft diffused light?
Good light to brighten up background a stop....?
- Thread starter grantw
- Start date
Soft diffused light doesn't really have any throw, as the farther the light source is from the background the harder the light will appear, so it soon loses it's soft light quality.
I would not worry about how hard your background light is. I would be concerned about what it's falling on, and how bright it is relative to your main interview lights.
For this sort of thing I would use a compact Lowel light with barndoors ( if I was concerned about the size and weight of the light ), or a small Arri fresnel like a 650 or 1000 watt ( assuming weight and compactness is not as big a deal ). Color balancing and being able to properly dim this background light to match your interview lights are other things I would be concerned with too.
I would not worry about how hard your background light is. I would be concerned about what it's falling on, and how bright it is relative to your main interview lights.
For this sort of thing I would use a compact Lowel light with barndoors ( if I was concerned about the size and weight of the light ), or a small Arri fresnel like a 650 or 1000 watt ( assuming weight and compactness is not as big a deal ). Color balancing and being able to properly dim this background light to match your interview lights are other things I would be concerned with too.
starcentral
Veteran
there are many ways to light up your background with a variety of different lighting instruments depending on what you currently own and are currently using to light your interviewee.
One big thing you need to watch no matter what light you use or how you light it is that the light you are adding doesn't increase the brightness of your subject. This can happen easily when a light spills out the sides, or you position it in front of your subject instead of off to the side, or even slightly parallel / behind.
So you have a couple cheap and dirty tricks that has worked for me in the past - actually as recent as this past weekend where I had to do the exact same thing.. brighten up a wall along the background that was just a bit too dark.
One option you have is to use something like an ARRI fresnel light and point it towards the ceiling behind the talent but angled towards the back wall. You will not need a lot of power for this, and if the light is too bright you can use a dimmer or scrims to cut down the light. you can also adjust the light from spot to flood which will decrease the power. Use barn doors on the light to keep it directed. I don't know how powerful your key light is, but my guess is you are using low wattage LED panel or something. You might be good with a 150w or 300w ARRI. You can use gels to match the color if needed.
In my case I was shooting in a large garage with 60 foot ceilings and there was no way to bounce off the ceiling so instead I used some diffusion material over top of a fresnel and doubled it to weaken the strength of the light. It was very far away from my subject though so I didn't need to worry about it spilling back into my scene. I was working in a very large space.
If you are working in a smaller space you can also try this out: using a large piece of foam board or even a white light reflector disc just aim your light at the disc so the bounced light lights up your background. So it means your light is actually aimed away from the wall and towards the camera but the reflector keeps the light from coming into your scene and mainly bounces back to light your wall. You can position this off to the side and slightly behind or even below your subject and it will work pretty good.
One big thing you need to watch no matter what light you use or how you light it is that the light you are adding doesn't increase the brightness of your subject. This can happen easily when a light spills out the sides, or you position it in front of your subject instead of off to the side, or even slightly parallel / behind.
So you have a couple cheap and dirty tricks that has worked for me in the past - actually as recent as this past weekend where I had to do the exact same thing.. brighten up a wall along the background that was just a bit too dark.
One option you have is to use something like an ARRI fresnel light and point it towards the ceiling behind the talent but angled towards the back wall. You will not need a lot of power for this, and if the light is too bright you can use a dimmer or scrims to cut down the light. you can also adjust the light from spot to flood which will decrease the power. Use barn doors on the light to keep it directed. I don't know how powerful your key light is, but my guess is you are using low wattage LED panel or something. You might be good with a 150w or 300w ARRI. You can use gels to match the color if needed.
In my case I was shooting in a large garage with 60 foot ceilings and there was no way to bounce off the ceiling so instead I used some diffusion material over top of a fresnel and doubled it to weaken the strength of the light. It was very far away from my subject though so I didn't need to worry about it spilling back into my scene. I was working in a very large space.
If you are working in a smaller space you can also try this out: using a large piece of foam board or even a white light reflector disc just aim your light at the disc so the bounced light lights up your background. So it means your light is actually aimed away from the wall and towards the camera but the reflector keeps the light from coming into your scene and mainly bounces back to light your wall. You can position this off to the side and slightly behind or even below your subject and it will work pretty good.
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Moseph
Veteran
Arri 150's are one of my least favorite lights. Very poor performance brightness wise when spotted in due to the small lens, only rated for 150 watts which means lower color temperature (ESP is 2900 as opposed to 3200 with the FEV) and a disproportionately lower output due to the filament burning at said lower temperature, and the tiny barn doors aren't all too useful for shaping since the outer edges of the leaves are so close to the source. Midgets and mini moles are my preference for a small fresnel (which is what I usually use for lighting a background). Spot it in about half way to give the appearance of a soft light due to the long falloff, apply some hampshire frost to get rid of imperfections in the beam.
David G. Smith
Steak Knife Member
On the lower cost and simpler end, frosted medium base (E26) mushroom bulbs, R20, R30 and R40, are available in various wattages up to 500 watts and can be mounted in inexpensive fixtures to make an effective background wash. These lights are not as controllable as Fresnel lights, but with creative placement and the judicious use of black wrap, and what not, they can be very effective lights. I usually control intensity with a dimmer. These lights tend to be warmer, especially when dimmed, but I like using lighting of various color temperatures within a shot to facilitate depth.