I hate shadows...

D

DDirector

Veteran
When I light a subject and they are close to a wall or an object, I have problems with shadows.

When I light, I try to use soft light. But, even so, I still get shadows on walls and other stuff when I dont want it there.
Sometimes its fairly dark and the subject needs to be lit well, and that causes bigger problems with shadows.
Its not just a problem with one shadow on the wall, but having multiple shadows in multiple directions.

Whenever I watch 'Hollywood' movies, the subject is lit nicely and bright. So is the background, but I dont ever see any shadows.
This is the biggest thing that bugs me when lighting.
 
This is an issue that every gaffer has to deal with. There's only several ways to deal with it.
1. Move the actors away from the wall
2. Light the actors from above, with the light between the actor and wall facing outward at the actors.
3. try China balls from above
4. Or you could try to bounce the light off the wall reflecing back at the actors and reversing the angle of the light. this is a shot in the dark( no pun)

Bottom line, there is no easy solution, you have to use the softest light you can manage, and like I said above, get them away from the wall.
 
Depends on the look you are after as well. Flat lighting has it's place, but in reality there are shadows all around. And if you really were to pay attention to Hollywood movies you would see how shadows are used all the time to help define a scene and set a mood.

It just takes practice!
 
I was so surprised at the title of this thread. I love shadows!, without shadows everything looks two dimensional.
For example if you light a persons face with just a light mounted on the camera (eg a flash on a point and shoot) the persons face looks flat, 2D, no shadows.
If you place a light above their head and over to one side then suddenly the face becomes rich and contoured because of the shadows.
 
shadows are shadows, they are all connected. Learning to control light is learning to control shadows
 
to the original poster, there are two things that allow you to change the shape of a wall shadow

- softness, you could have and incredible bright source but if it is large, soft and diffuse the shadow will be reduced, the reverse is true as well
you might have a very dim source of light but if it is a hard source it will cast a shadow. A candle is a good example of a hard dim source that
casts a shadow of you on the wall, a $100 pre-owned lowel tota in a softbox is a good example an of an inexpensive bright diffuse source

- distance to between the wall the actor and the light. If you can't change the distance between the actor and the wall, move the light so its light
hits the actor and not the wall, another trick is to move the light above so the actors shadow is hidden behind them


example with lowel tota in a softbox and beautiful shadows behind. You can see the light falling off her face and hair
and hand. Even though she is not next to a wall I don't believe the image would suffer much as it would read as a gradient.

4590712832_62739986a7_o.jpg
 
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J Davis said:
example with lowel tota in a softbox and beautiful shadows behind. You can see the light falling off her face and hair
and hand. Even though she is not next to a wall I don't believe the image would suffer much as it would read as a gradient.
Click to expand...

...curious which softbox your using to put your tota in? I been wondering about something like that to buy myself. Thanks..
 
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J Davis said:
shadows are shadows, they are all connected. Learning to control light is learning to control shadows
Click to expand...

Right. And shadows are good. Life has shadows. Where you don't put the light is not a speck less important than where you do.
 
Yeah, but it just looks unnatural. It looks like artificial light coming from all directions. You can clearly tell its been lit up and poorly.

Its most likely because my lights arent soft enough and cast these large ugly semi-hard shadows. Its worse when there are like 2-3 shadows in different directions. haha
Oh, my horrible lighting skills :/
I am just not good at lighting small spaces.
 
Where is the natural lighting in the scene coming from? Try to match the direction and characteristics of that light. I use large sheets of foamcore for soft bounce fill from camera position and use key light motivated by natural sources to match the natural shadow fall of the environment. Less is more.
 
listen to JDAVIS, He's correct in what he says. Shadows are just the biproduct of light. it's what you do with the biproduct that makes it look good or bad.
 
When I light I first decide where I want my shadows. Then I light for them. Shadows are what create shape,dimension,mood and all the other great things in a scene. If you change the way of thinking you might see better placement of lights to create shadows where you want them and incidently lose the ones you don't want. You are thinking about lighting the face. I suggest you think about where you want shadows on the face and wall then place and shape your lights
 
starcentral said:
...curious which softbox your using to put your tota in? I been wondering about something like that to buy myself. Thanks..
Click to expand...

i sold it but info on this softbox setup is here
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?211539

DDirector said:
Its most likely because my lights arent soft enough
Click to expand...
bingo
DDirector said:
lighting small spaces.
Click to expand...

... is tough. use less light


also experiment with a dimmer on your arri tungsten lights. The color temp will change and get warmer
but don't worry about it for now. The purpose is for you to see what happens when you have the right amount
of light in the room. Once you've figured it out. Swap the bulbs to the correct wattage remove the dimmer.
 
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