I wanna see your - BTS Lighting Setups!

[DDirector]

I know this has been posed several times, but usually only like 2-3 pictures are posted and then the thread dies.
I want to see some lighting setups so I can learn what you did, why you did it, and how it looked.

Indoor, outdoor, dramatic lighting, simple lighting, etc.
Anything you have, please share. Even the simplest lighting thing... well, maybe not like "Oh, i have a reflector..."

I'm not interested in the interview lighting setups though. Such as documentary interviews. Preferable something where there is movement.

My main concern is, lighting LARGE areas & lighting in places that you know are only overhead lighting (offices w/ no windows) and lighting in places where you see no lights, and are in a closed off room... which would basically also be overhead lighting in a way.

I'm constantly told not to make an image look flat. But, what about places like offices or rooms where the light isn't so powerful and in real life it is flat?
I want to see how you pulled it off.

The more complex, and bigger budget. The Better!

 

[Patryk_Rebisz]

You can find some on my blog:
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2...summer-a-12-day-feature-fast-food-restaurant/
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/lasta-day-of-summer-a-12-day-shoot-hotel-room/

 

[Tvdie23]

This is how Bradford Young on the movie, Ma George did it.
We were shooting in a clinic, front desk area. Office look, fluorescent over head.
We played around with the light switches, so the row that is close to the wall is off. Three rows either switches off or we took the bulbs out, (three walls, three rows).
Now, we change the remaining bulbs to new fluorescent bulbs. At the same time, we asked grip to put duvetyne to cut the light off the wall even more.
Now you have bump up the light intensity and cut light off the wall, it is not as flat as before. And use negative fill or bounce if needed.
Production design will play a big part in those situation too, ask them to fill in the blank.

If you shoot with ISO500, 800 F2.0-2.8, you will have enough light.

Remember, there are million ways to approach the scene. This is just an example.

How about studio lighting?white cyc, there is no window, interested?

 

[legrevedotcom]

You can find some on my blog:
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2...summer-a-12-day-feature-fast-food-restaurant/
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/lasta-day-of-summer-a-12-day-shoot-hotel-room/

Thanks for sharing that, it's quite helpful! May I ask, how do your gaffer and grip go about putting the flos on the ceiling?

 

[prexdealer]

That was great thanks!

You can find some on my blog:
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2...summer-a-12-day-feature-fast-food-restaurant/
http://patrykrebisz.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/lasta-day-of-summer-a-12-day-shoot-hotel-room/

 

[El Director]

Build a 5x5 foot PVC frame and hang a white shower curtain from it. Buy a 2 Light rack of Halogen worklights at Home Depot and pump through the curtain at your subject. Gives a soft, yet contrasty look.

We used no lighting outdoors, just ND filters when needed.

 

[Patryk_Rebisz]

Thanks for sharing that, it's quite helpful! May I ask, how do your gaffer and grip go about putting the flos on the ceiling?

Baby plates screwed to the walls and a c-stand with a baby-boom for ceiling mounted kinos.

 

[Michael Carter]

Here's a VFX breakdown I never really finished.

For this shoot, I did a lot of 4 bank flo's or 150 watt daylight HIDs through 6x6 frames with white mesh. Backlit with tungsten or 2-bank flos.

I'm finding I like to just hang giant sheets of diffusion for this look though. With flo's I tend to use white guaze or bridal mesh for diffusion, as the light is already soft and I like the character of it.

For the "laying pipe" scene, I used a 750 tungsten fresnel from behind. You can see some of the setups in the video.

 

[DDirector]

Cool..
Any more Behind The Scenes Photos on your lighting?

 

[pfista]

Here's a pretty simple setup for a shoot I did last weekend. I just had two tota-lights with their umbrellas to simulate light coming from the windows. Used a white bounce board on the opposite side to add some fill.



production stills:

 

[ErikTande]

Build a 5x5 foot PVC frame and hang a white shower curtain from it. Buy a 2 Light rack of Halogen worklights at Home Depot and pump through the curtain at your subject. Gives a soft, yet contrasty look.

We used no lighting outdoors, just ND filters when needed.

Cool setup! This is one of my favorite tricks, I just used it on a music video shoot. You get a giant softbox with amazing lighting for little cost. It's an excellent solution.

 

[ulisses]

Using these halogen worklights, what is the color temperature ? I guess it should be quite high not matching with anything else.

Ulisses

 

[ErikTande]

Here's a setup I used a couple weeks ago, I had some 650w Arri's shooting through the white backdrop.

 

[Gabel]

Here's one from a music video I shot a month ago. The image next to the right is just a quick grade I did then, will link the full video later. Rather simple setup, one top light (Coollights 455) on a C-stand (with a black cloth to hide it) and then the light on the left is bouncing into a reflector.

 

[Chris Johnston]

OT Dude looks like Isaak Asimov. just sayin.....

Here's a pretty simple setup for a shoot I did last weekend. I just had two tota-lights with their umbrellas to simulate light coming from the windows. Used a white bounce board on the opposite side to add some fill.

View attachment 51416

 

[KyranFord]

El Director, thank you for posting that. I bought the supplies and built it. I've only had the chance to do some tests, but I will be using it on an upcoming silent film that takes place inside of a house during a thunderstorm; should be neat.

Here's my blog post on the setup, including some stills from some test shots:

http://www.sleepingsunfilms.com/#!/2012/04/15/usingworklights/

Feel free to leave a comment!

 

[DDirector]

Can anyone post any BTS pictures of lighting large areas? Anything from classrooms to large .

Less DIY type, and more on the professional type of rigging/lighting

 

[legrevedotcom]

Can anyone post any BTS pictures of lighting large areas? Anything from classrooms to large .

Less DIY type, and more on the professional type of rigging/lighting

Did you check out the Hugo BTS with the steadicam? I think there's much to learn from those small 2 minutes if you go through it and pause now and again.
I also saw some interesting setups in various American Cinematographer mags.

How about rigging china balls throughout the room?

 

[DDirector]

Did you check out the Hugo BTS with the steadicam? I think there's much to learn from those small 2 minutes if you go through it and pause now and again.

Actually, I did. Quite interesting.
Do you or anyone have any details about how exactly they lit this and the lights used?
Seems like some large soft light from straight above, with china balls (which I don't get) and how powerful does that light need to be?!

If its all a large soft light from above, wont that cause weird shadows though?

 

[RickyC]

What I've seen done in large areas is stacks of kinos or those big chimeras on the sides. Sometimes we've replaced kinos ontop (if the budget permits). Lost those pictures with the phone.

Sorry for low quality, that was my old phone.

I recall we had a 2k going from the side, through a big silk which was up close to the talent, a 650 up top going through a 2x2 gel (forgot what we had used, 25-something) and a source 4 bouncing off a bounce board on the right). It was pretty experimental, but here is the final result (camera dpt didn't do a great job with exposure)

I'll post more elaborate scenes