How to get this look?

D

David Evans

Well-known member
Hi guys,

Next week I'll be shooting a night exterior on a very low budget short film and I want to make it look as good as I possibly can with the budget I have. I also have to keep the lighting and apparatus very discreet as we don't have a permit (that's fine in my city as we'd only need a permit if we were to disturb, be noisy or stand out).

Here's the photo of the street we'll be shooting:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a6/f5/be/a6f5be63064e8da929e457cfdda7012c.jpg

There will be two actors, sitting on the ground, in front of each store (restaurant will be opened and lit). Camera will be placed between them so we can get good depth on the background with the car lights, restaurant lights, etc.

I'm aiming for a concept of light very similar to this frame of Resurrecting the Champ (especially the light on Sam L Jackson):

resurrecting-the-champ.jpg

For me, the most practical thing to do would be to rent two LED panels (no noisy generators involved and very light) like the NanGuang Flexible Led Panels (I can rent the two panels kit for 50eur in my city) and try to augment the lighting on the actors.

Here are my doubts:

1 - How would I balance correctly the light from the lamps with the light from the LEDs? I will go on location today and measure the exact kelvin temperature of those street lamps.

2 - How would you place the lights to get that look, knowing the actors will be sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall?

Thanks guys!
 
I'd try to make sure that the actors eyes are lit, as is the case above. As to the white balance, this would depend if you're shooting raw or semi-baked in. Me thinks that, with the multiple and constantly changing sources, you're kind of screwed during the shoot and it's going to be a post problem. To solve that, I'd try that with the stand-ins first and then try to get the desired look in post. At least, with the stand-ins, you have a lot more time to adjust the basic camera setup.

And, if you have to be that stand-in yourself ...
 
Thanks DLD! Today I went to the location and did some screen tests with different lenses (without any artificial lighting). I measured the overall color temperature at 2500k.

Here are some screencaps I just did on Resolve and that exemplify the kind of framing I will be going for:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ef/59/aa/ef59aa310a72cd862c351555f6aeaae9.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7c/66/12/7c66121b5d5ca3329abd0224c5956a08.jpg

I'll be shooting raw. I was thinking of renting one of those Dedolight DLed7 kit. They can go as low as 2700k. Do you think I should add some measure of CTO/CTS or just try to correct in post?

Cheers
 
David Evans said:
Here are my doubts:

1 - How would I balance correctly the light from the lamps with the light from the LEDs? I will go on location today and measure the exact kelvin temperature of those street lamps.

2 - How would you place the lights to get that look, knowing the actors will be sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall?
Click to expand...


If the street lights are newer LED units, adding 1/8 plus green to your daylight LED heads should get you pretty close. If the street lights are low pressure sodium (yellow looking to the eye), you'll have to add a lot of red to your LED heads. I would just match by eye. Low pressure sodium have pretty much no green or blue in them, metal halide and mercury vapor are very close to daylight with maybe up to 1/2 correction more of green.

The example shows a traditional far side key placement, so your heads would be behind and beyond the backs of each actor. I would expect you'd need to arm the LED heads into position.

Also, you might want to think about some negative fill or teasers to block whatever other ambient light is falling on your actors if you want the same contrast shown in your example.
 
Hi guys,

Just to let you know that we already finished this night scene and I had some very decent Rotolight anova pros to do the lighting. Very nice lights, easy to use and decent output.

Here are a few grabs (please note this still has to go through our colorist to match lenses and color tweaks):

e96c66a948aa6b7dbc2beb113a01a6b3.jpg

85bd481ce93e4936b702aec62fd2945a.jpg
 
Hi Chris,

I used Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and Zeiss 85mm 1.4 (both Planars). I think I had both stopped down at 2 or 2.8.

Cheers
 
I think its Rosco that makes 'Urban light' gels that mimic the sodium vapor look . B&H has them as do other shops. They might have used it for the light in the original post.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Rosco 3152, Urban Vapor. That's the one I use the most often.
Click to expand...

What kind of look does it give? Is it pleasing? Raw or gritty? I shoot mainly relationship dramas, not horror or urban crime footage. But I liks the 'low rent' look for one of my characters who lives in, well, the low rent district.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top