I want to distort the hell out of light! (dirty light)

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Kyaxia

New member
I recently posted this same question elsewhere, but I figured it might be just as viable here (can I make the same post twice?).

I've recently wanted to do some serious distorting of light for a music video I'm making, and I couldn't find any other good examples until I came across this other video recently.

Zedd - Stay The Night (featuring Hayley Williams) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gyZ35074k)

If you watch it, give it time to kick in. The effect is insane.

It perfectly demonstrates the kind of thing I want to do with the lighting (as well as the editing, shaky cam, and some other things too).

There's also a behind-the-scenes video here:

http://www.billboard.com/video/zedd-...-video-5720435

...which demonstrates a lot of what they did, but still, it hasn't shown me enough to create the effect I want, and so I wondered if any of you creative folks could give me a few pointers

The director has someone wave a light bulb in front of the lens, which seems to diffract the practical lights in really weird, beautiful, chaotic way. I like to call it "dirty light". I have no idea if that's a real term, but it seems to fit what I want.

I've tried the light bulb, but, unfortunately, overall it doesn't seem to give me what I really need. Does any one have any other similar ideas which would give me a similar effect?

I would have thought that a lot of the effects were done in post, however, from the video, it seems it was all done in camera. It really is mind blowing (at least to me). I want to do everything in camera too.

But please don't limit yourselves to the techniques used for this video. If you have any cool, crazy ideas that are out of the box, please let me know.

I really want to create insane, crazy, flared, chaotic, dirty light.

Thanks.
 
Try a prism or a pair of broken eyeglasses. Cover both sides in clear packing tape them give them a little smash. Wave that in front of the lens. For extra weirdness you can backlight them with a light, maybe put a colored gel on it.
 
Also try out the old vaseline trick.... back in the old days still photographers used to smear their lenses with daps of vaseline, it can make some pretty interesting effects.

Ofcourse you might want to try on some insignificant lens first or put a UV filter in front...
 
Thanks everyone. Some cool ideas here. I will try everything mentioned.

Any advice on what lens might worked best for this. I have a T2I with a 50mm, 24mm, 135mm. Is it better to go wider, or longer? Or does that not really matter too much either way?

I'd still love to hear more distorting light ideas if anyone has any.
 
Kyaxia said:
I'd still love to hear more distorting light ideas if anyone has any.
Click to expand...

Ever tried shooting a bounce off a reflective water surface (using the water surface as a mirror)? Play with varying levels of ripples. Try other liquids, like vegetable oils. Thick wet paint oozing down a wall (doesn't have to be white, you can use the color to apply a color cast to the subject like using a colored bounce card would do). Just bounce the image through the fluid (that is, off the surface of the fluid, like you would a mirror) to the camera, so the focus point is the subject itself and not the fluid surface. So you get the distortions as an effect, not as the point of the shot.

You could also try shooting through distorted glass -- wavy, beveled, cracked, etc. Up close to the lens so the viewer doesn't see what's causing the distortion. This can work well if the camera is moving and the distorted glass is not, like in a pan or a slide. They did a lot of this (an insane amount, no restraint) early in "Scandal" but I haven't seen that show in years so I have no idea if they are still doing it. I'm just sayin' to use some common sense and restraint; a little goes a long way.

You can also do the above using your lights instead of the camera. Light through (or bounce off of) a rippling water feature can throw some amazing light/shadows that are almost fractal. Light through a couple of sheets of glazing with running water in between (drain into a big bucket).

My favorite is probably water on glass (often (simulated) rain), but that's been done to death and nowhere better than the film noir school in the 1940s. Some films I've forgotten but I remember scenes because of the water/glass combination and how it worked in illuminating faces/scenes. Some beautiful light and shadows that really carried the emotions of the scene.

Film Noir also did some nifty things with lighting through "window blinds" to throw beautifully striped shadows on walls and staircases (and of course faces as required). Maybe start a new cucoloris craze.
 
Very cool video , thanks for the Link. I'm going to try shooting through a mason jar myself if I get the chance
 
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