How to light this scene?

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Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hello,

I really like the look of this shot. How do you think the shot is achieved?
qobptt.jpg


Is it a Arri 1K(not sure what gel should be used) shot trough a window combined with some Haze, and a diffusion filter?


Thanks!
 
Could very well be something like that. Don't get too caught up in what fixture to use though. Ultimately what matters much more is how a light is positioned and what's between it and the subject.

If this were on a stage there would have to be something else to bring up the ambience in the room such as a 10k hitting a clay coat that's table topped above the outside of the window, to mimic skylight. If it was on location during daytime, it could just be a light by itself way high up and far back from the window. It also looks like there might be some sort of soft topper. I don't see any shafts of light indicative of haze or fog, but there is definitely a filter in front of the lens as you pointed out, looks pretty strong too.
 
Could be softened in post as well. The highlight through the window is easy to do; the difficult part would be keeping everything else so even. Extremely soft ambient fill, and with a small enough difference between the two to stay within the dynamic range of the camera. It looks like there might be a second bright one, since some of the reflected highlights don't match the 'sun'. If it's in an actual room in a house, which I'm assuming, getting a large light outside the window (or actual light, if you put something over the window) would start it. The rest could be light bounced high up, or some other combination of diffusion... depends entirely on what happens to be in your kit.
 
A fresnel through the window (from the looks of it, with a little added warmth), and some soft ambient fill (a Kino bounced off the ceiling perhaps). That's all you'd need.
 
Thanks guys :) Any tips on how to gel the thungsten light? (I may also have acces to a HMI, so what gells should I use on this Probably a lot more CTO) Should I also throw some CTO/CTB on the ARRI 1000w or 650w(not sure which one I will use yet)Thanks guys :)
 
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That looks pretty color neutral to me. You should always have all the different grades of CTO and CTB on hand, apply it as needed.

I will say that a 650 is going to do hardly anything for you if you're shooting this on location in broad daylight. The least I would use for tungsten is a PAR can with a medium bulb, I got away with that on a cloudy day on a low-budget shoot once. If you have a tall enough stand and enough space outside of the window, a narrow bulb will look a little nicer. But by all means, try to get an HMI, even if it's just a 400w Joker you'll get more output than a 1k baby.
 
thanks guys! waiting on golder hour might also add to the flavour, but then we will be on a tight time schedule.
 
If you are seeing the exterior through the window (they didn't in this shot, but I'm assuming you have other coverage), you'll need a lot of firepower to create that effect against the ambient light. You don't want to know what I'd use because I'm not popular around here when I spec instruments that are big and expensive and require a genny, haha. But daylight is daylight, and if you want it to look realistic (not blown out--the ambient suggests late afternoon, so the view out the window would be backlit and relatively low level), you need an instrument that can be positioned back far enough to not get in the shot, have enough spread and firepower to look correct.

If you aren't seeing out the window, all is well. You can flag off the ambient light with floppies or some ad-hoc version of same outside until the level is brought down enough where a smaller head will do it. It looks to me as if there is a window off to the left based on the sheen on the girl's leg. It's much lower level than the sun splash and cooler, which again suggests late afternoon ambience. If I was recreating this scene at night (on stage or if on location, hopefully it's a ground floor room--bedroom often aren't) using tungsten lights, I'd do a large bounce outside the windows for ambience with 1/2 blue, 1/4 CTO on the sunlight key (2K or 5K fresnel depending on desired stop and ISO) and another cool ambient bounce from either real or imaginary window off to the left. I wouldn't do it off the ceiling as Grug mentioned, because I see no indication of toplight in evidence here.

The beauty of this shot is how the light returns from the girl's clothes and skin and illuminates the other girl's faces.
 
CharlesPapert said:
The beauty of this shot is how the light returns from the girl's clothes and skin and illuminates the other girl's faces.
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Agreed, which is why I think a wide dynamic range is going to be key in making this shot possible without complelety blowing out the white clothing.
 
egproductions said:
Agreed, which is why I think a wide dynamic range is going to be key in making this shot possible without complelety blowing out the white clothing.
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Yeah the example was shot with a alexa. I will only hava access to a c100(12stops) at best. But ill see what I can do :)
 
Even with a camera that has wide dynamic range, you might benefit from a low contrast filter for this. I hate putting filters in front of a lens but in this case it might be appropriate.
 
I dont see the need for a WDR camera.. if your lighting ratios are right then the DR will fit the camera.

Just sometimes it is hard to get those ratios without the right lighting package :)

S
 
CharlesPapert said:
If you are seeing the exterior through the window (they didn't in this shot, but I'm assuming you have other coverage), you'll need a lot of firepower to create that effect against the ambient light. You don't want to know what I'd use because I'm not popular around here when I spec instruments that are big and expensive and require a genny, haha.
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Don't let the no-budget naysayers scare you off Charles - most of us like to hear about putting big boy lights to use!
 
^ Indeed. I can't afford it but I like to read about it. Same with high-end cameras and other gear, but this actually makes more sense because there's more to learn in this case. So, thanks for sharing.
 
I found it interesting that no one thus far suggested it could be actual sunlight coming thru an actual window out of frame on the right side....and somehow controlled or broken up.... and then a nice, large Eco-Punch type bounce fill from left of camera to help fill in ambient space and bring up ratio
 
markfpv said:
I found it interesting that no one thus far suggested it could be actual sunlight coming thru an actual window out of frame on the right side....and somehow controlled or broken up.... and then a nice, large Eco-Punch type bounce fill from left of camera to help fill in ambient space and bring up ratio
Click to expand...

It certainly could have been shot in natural light, which would have been a happy accident--I myself was taking the title of this thread literally (but to be fair, the OP did add "how do you think this shot was achieved"). There have been a couple of times that I've leveraged existing light in a location by noting the sun path when scouting and regimenting the shoot times for a given shot based on that, but it is such a stressful situation that I rarely employ it if I can help it (any kind of cloud cover, even intermittent, raises the blood pressure significantly)!

That said, if the scenario I described earlier is where the exterior will be seen through the window, this may be the most economical way to achieve the proper levels. If it happens that the sun will be at exactly the desired angle and elevation, you'd have to schedule that part of the shoot in exquisite detail (backing out rehearsal of the scene and other factors) and keep your fingers crossed that there aren't any delays or that one of the actors doesn't have a giggle fit or gets bored etc...! VERY risky. What I would suggest is that you use a shiny board instead, and make sure that your shooting window is such that you are at a good kick angle (90 degrees or less to the window), which will give you a consisent beam angle for much longer by constantly re-focusing the board.
 
Sorry - Charles, I guess I was being cheeky...about the still grab. I would certainly never try to pull off an interior shot like that (unless it literally was the only low-budget option) with young actors (assuming dialogue too) risking the sun would "hit it's mark". I am not much of a gambler either.

On second glance, there's also quite a bit of detail in the front face of that wood box (presumably just below the window out of frame) that makes me think perhaps more fixtures used than first glance??
 
There's a bit of halation visible in the brightest areas, so likely there was some form of lens filtering/diffusion happening.
 
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