NickFiorentino
Member
Ok so I'm trying to make a horror film and theres going to be a killer chasing after somone outside at night.... So how can I make it look like its night but the actors still be visible?
Horror night light
- Thread starter NickFiorentino
- Start date
mjdorris
Well-known member
Hi Nick,
I am by no means a lighting expert, or an after effects master, but videocopilot has a cool tutorial on day to night in after effects:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=1
while it doesn't really answer your question it might give you some ideas!
matt
I am by no means a lighting expert, or an after effects master, but videocopilot has a cool tutorial on day to night in after effects:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=1
while it doesn't really answer your question it might give you some ideas!
matt
kevin01
Member
On the cheap, I did the following with a daylight-balanced 30-watt CFL in a photoflood fixture and a lowel prolight with a CTB gel. The blue hue is achieved in-camera by setting the camera to a "tungsten" white balance preset. The blue tint would be removed by white balancing properly or by using the "daylight" preset.
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Shed_grapple.jpg
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/car.jpg
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Leah_slideup.jpg
A few caveats with this setup, the CFL bulb was put into a fixture like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/308802-REG/Impact_401483_1_Flood_Light_Kit.html
The CFL bulb serves as a general fill light but it falls off fairly quickly. The prolight is a hard light that you can use as a kicker or when you need to throw the light further.
Hope this helps.
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Shed_grapple.jpg
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/car.jpg
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Leah_slideup.jpg
A few caveats with this setup, the CFL bulb was put into a fixture like this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/308802-REG/Impact_401483_1_Flood_Light_Kit.html
The CFL bulb serves as a general fill light but it falls off fairly quickly. The prolight is a hard light that you can use as a kicker or when you need to throw the light further.
Hope this helps.
NickFiorentino
Member
I'm a highschool student and all the terms and kind of lights your talking about are like a different language to me haha. Can you show me some good products to buy that arent real expensive and tell me what each is used for?
Looks nice!
ProfessorU
Veteran
Google these terms and give yourself a quick tutorial.
"three point lighting"
"day for night"
"high key" and "low key"
Lights are lights. You can use the same three lights to make it look like daylight, night, sunset, mars, whatever you like. It's all about how you use them.
"three point lighting"
"day for night"
"high key" and "low key"
Lights are lights. You can use the same three lights to make it look like daylight, night, sunset, mars, whatever you like. It's all about how you use them.
kevin01
Member
Sorry Nick, I guess my initial response was a little abrupt. Its been a slow day at work, so here's way more information than you wanted. Make sure you are seated comfortably. Lets just start with the first pic I posted:
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Shed_grapple.jpg
As ProfessorU points out, you will want to do some research on 3-point lighting (ex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting) to understand some basic lighting principals. Once you understand the basics, and understand the 'why' of each light, you can start making creative decisions. For example, we cheated and only used 2 lights for this shot: a "key" light, and a "back" or "rim" light. We intentionally skipped the "fill" and "background" light.
To keep things brief, I used a 30-watt compact fluorescent, or "CFL", bulb in a basic photoflood fixture (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/308802-REG/Impact_401483_1_Flood_Light_Kit.html) as my key light. The light was positioned above and just to the right of the camera and pointed at the actors. The key light provides general illumination and takes your shot from zero-to-something. While the key light allowed us to see the faces, the guy on the left posed a bit of a problem. For artistic and story purposes we didn't want to illuminiate the background, so that left us with an actor wearing a black hat and black leather jacket standing in front of a black background.
To prevent the actor from blending into the background, I needed to use a second light to help seperate the actor from the background. In this case, I used a Lowel Pro-Light as a "back" or "rim" light.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/285959-REG/Lowel_P2_102_Pro_Pack_One_Light.html
The Lowel Pro-Light is a small 250 watt spotlight that was positioned about 10 or 15 feet to the left of the camera and pointed at the shed. This light created the highlights on the back of the leather jacket, as well as making the branches of the bush stand out more. This helps define the shape of the actor and prevents him from completely disappearing into the background.
As for the blue hue to the image, that's a little harder to explain. Without going into a rant on "color temperature" (do a search on this forum and/or Google... its really an interesting subject), lights intended for video, photography, or film are usually classified as either "tungsten" or "daylight" balanced. To over-simplify, tungsten = yellowish, and daylight = blueish. Even a basic camcorder will have tungsten and daylight presets and will usually have a lightbulb or sun graphic associated with them.
Why is this important? My CLF bulbs are daylight-balanced (i.e. "blueish") and the bulb in the Pro-Light is "tungsten-balanced" (i.e. "yellowish"). In general, mixing like this is not recommended and can produce some unusual results. To ensure that the two light sources had the same color temperature, I added a blue gel to the Pro-Light. A gel is sort of like colored celophane, but it won't melt or catch fire easily. The blue gel I used is called a CTB gel, becuase its designed to take a yellowish tungsten-balanced light and shift the lights color temperature to daylight, or blueish (get it... CTB="color temperature blue"). At that point, both my lights were daylight-balanced and would play nicely together.
In order to achieve the blue tone in-camera rather than tweaking each shot in post, I told my camera to behave as if my lights were tungsten, or yellowish. Because of that, the resulting image has the blue tone as seen in the picture without having to do any tweaks in post.
I hope this is more helpful.
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/InteriorNight/Shed_grapple.jpg
As ProfessorU points out, you will want to do some research on 3-point lighting (ex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting) to understand some basic lighting principals. Once you understand the basics, and understand the 'why' of each light, you can start making creative decisions. For example, we cheated and only used 2 lights for this shot: a "key" light, and a "back" or "rim" light. We intentionally skipped the "fill" and "background" light.
To keep things brief, I used a 30-watt compact fluorescent, or "CFL", bulb in a basic photoflood fixture (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/308802-REG/Impact_401483_1_Flood_Light_Kit.html) as my key light. The light was positioned above and just to the right of the camera and pointed at the actors. The key light provides general illumination and takes your shot from zero-to-something. While the key light allowed us to see the faces, the guy on the left posed a bit of a problem. For artistic and story purposes we didn't want to illuminiate the background, so that left us with an actor wearing a black hat and black leather jacket standing in front of a black background.
To prevent the actor from blending into the background, I needed to use a second light to help seperate the actor from the background. In this case, I used a Lowel Pro-Light as a "back" or "rim" light.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/285959-REG/Lowel_P2_102_Pro_Pack_One_Light.html
The Lowel Pro-Light is a small 250 watt spotlight that was positioned about 10 or 15 feet to the left of the camera and pointed at the shed. This light created the highlights on the back of the leather jacket, as well as making the branches of the bush stand out more. This helps define the shape of the actor and prevents him from completely disappearing into the background.
As for the blue hue to the image, that's a little harder to explain. Without going into a rant on "color temperature" (do a search on this forum and/or Google... its really an interesting subject), lights intended for video, photography, or film are usually classified as either "tungsten" or "daylight" balanced. To over-simplify, tungsten = yellowish, and daylight = blueish. Even a basic camcorder will have tungsten and daylight presets and will usually have a lightbulb or sun graphic associated with them.
Why is this important? My CLF bulbs are daylight-balanced (i.e. "blueish") and the bulb in the Pro-Light is "tungsten-balanced" (i.e. "yellowish"). In general, mixing like this is not recommended and can produce some unusual results. To ensure that the two light sources had the same color temperature, I added a blue gel to the Pro-Light. A gel is sort of like colored celophane, but it won't melt or catch fire easily. The blue gel I used is called a CTB gel, becuase its designed to take a yellowish tungsten-balanced light and shift the lights color temperature to daylight, or blueish (get it... CTB="color temperature blue"). At that point, both my lights were daylight-balanced and would play nicely together.
In order to achieve the blue tone in-camera rather than tweaking each shot in post, I told my camera to behave as if my lights were tungsten, or yellowish. Because of that, the resulting image has the blue tone as seen in the picture without having to do any tweaks in post.
I hope this is more helpful.
NickFiorentino
Member
Ya man thanks a lot! Thanks to professor U too.... The second light is too expensive for me, but I could get the first one, do you think it would be useful to me even if thats the only light I get. If not what are some other lights that are under 75 bucks that I could get. Also where do I get gels?
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Nick, since you're in Pittsburgh, maybe you could find a decent lighting guy to help you out -- someone with his/her own gear. Try contacting the Media Arts Center (http://pghfilmmakers.org/). Maybe they can help you find someone.
I don't know how it is in Pittsburgh, but around here (Charlotte/Atlanta) if you have a good script and it's not a huge time commitment, you can usually get people to help you for meals, credit and a copy of the finished film. It's worth a try.
Good luck!
I don't know how it is in Pittsburgh, but around here (Charlotte/Atlanta) if you have a good script and it's not a huge time commitment, you can usually get people to help you for meals, credit and a copy of the finished film. It's worth a try.
Good luck!
kevin01
Member
Nick:
Again, a key light will take you from zero-to-something, so I definitely recommend picking up a light to get you started. To manage your expectations, here's a shot that was lit with a key light only. As a matter of fact, I used the exact same photoflood with the CFL for this shot.
http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/RevolutionRoom/tom_night.jpg
I will be the first one to admit that this is definitely NOT the greatest shot I ever lit. On a positive note, you can definitely tell that there's a guy standing next to a house. The downside is that parts of the actor get lost in the shadows. In particular, the actor's left leg, arm, and head end blend into the shadows. Its not horrible, but its not great. A back light would have corrected the problems with this shot, but a second later the character is tackled and would have fallen into the light stand so we opted not to use it.
IMO, a general purpose photoflood fixture is a cost-effective way to get started. Not only do I use it for exterior night shots like the examples above, but I also use it for small interiors. Pick up a couple of the 250-watt photoflood bulbs listed under the accessories, and then pick up one of these...
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/48785-REG/Smith_Victor_401309_Diffusion_Screen_for_10_.html
...and you have a poor-man's softbox (<- add that to your list of things to research) that works really well as a soft key light for smaller interiors. Its not as easy to control as a professional softbox, but it can get the job done.
As for gels, B&H carries them. As a matter of fact, you might have fun with something like this variety pack that contains different colors as well as some sample diffusion filters.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/74132-REG/Bogen_Manfrotto_CI_FP209_Variety_Filter_Pack.html
If you order the gels, be sure to swing by your local dollar store and pick up some C-47's (wooden clothes pins) to attach the gels to your lights.
Good luck.