J.R. Hudson
Spirit Animal
THIS WAS POSTED BY SLONDON ! :beer:
slondon
Join Date: Jun 2005
Okay, I'll give you some opinions. Remember, there is no right way to light a scene, there are many, and, there is no one way to achieve the lighting you want, there are many.
I'd go almost strictly tungsten. It's beautiful, continuous spectrum light that gives great skin tones, and its very affordable. I'll get to the one exception soon. Naturally, it also wastes a lot of power as heat. You can live with this. Don't mess around with work lights, home made barn doors, etc.; you can afford pro lights on your budget. Here are a few examples of what you commonly are going to light and how to do it. I'll make assumptions about mood and look. They won't always be valid for your picture. I'll also talk about how to use your kit.
The average bedroom.
Your actors are in or on the bed. It's night. There is a bedside night light in the frame that you want to carry (add light that looks like it's coming from the practical). You probably want soft light because it's flattering to the talent. You can get this in one of three ways. 1) Use a 400W - 650W fixture: old Colortran, Lowel Tota or Omni, etc. or 650W or so, fresnel. Bounce this from a 48" flexible reflector that's held on a gobo arm up on a light stand 2) An 18" China ball with four 100W equivalent CFLs. Get the 3500K NuVision ones with good CRI from Home Depot and use three Y-adapters so there are four sockets for your lamps. We're using CFLs because we might want a fair amount of light and we don't want to burn up the lantern. 3) A 24"X32" - 36"X48" softbox with eggcrate to control spill using any kind of light source - 500W - 1000W fresnel, Tota or fixture made specifically for your softbox.
To control the amount of light, besides moving the lights in or out, use a dimmer on the tungsten fixtures or screw in or out the CFLs in the lantern to use from 1 - 4 of them as needed. Don't worry about the color shift to warmer as you dim the tungstens. You can white balance it away and you might find you like it when using the camera's 3200K preset, anyway.
You will need to control the light from the reflector. Use the barn doors and blackwrap on the light, but principally, use flags made from flat black foamcore boards with little slots in one end that a grip head can slide into and fit on a light stand or gobo arm on a light stand. You can set these as toppers, siders, whatever. Generally, you are trying to keep the light off the ceiling and walls. For the China ball clothes pin on some Duvatyne or similar around the top and un-needed sides of the light as a skirt. The numerous "little barndoors" of the eggrate on the softbox will make this soft source the one with the least spill. That's good because it generally works poorly to set flags with softboxes as they do not cast clean shadows.
If you need some light in the room as though the room lights were off and you have moonlight or a street light coming through the window, set a 1K fresnel with 1/2 or full CTB gel on it outside the window and blast it in but use a dimmer to tweak. (Blue is the much accepted Hollywood cliche for night light and it just looks right on film even if not natural.) If you don't get some good-looking shadows from the windows and blinds, use a cucaloris with a normal irregular pattern or one with slits so you can create the look of Venetian blinds.
Living room.
You might need two or three simple broads or focusable 400W-650W open-face lights with diffusion gels to raise the general light level in the room. Your key can be any of the three lights from the bedroom, or a simple broad or open-faced light with 10"X12" diffusion on it, aimed right at the talent. If the blocking has the actors move, set keys at the place or places where they will be stopped. If you want hard shadows, don't use diffusion, or try some opal. It's easy to get the Perry Mason look.
Fill with diffused light from whatever you didn't use as the key. Make the fill a stop or two less than the key unless you are going for real drama where you can use less or nada. Dimmers good.
Dining room.
China ball or balls above the table or translucent flexfill with a couple of 650W broads, flooded out fresnels or open-faced lights above it, aimed down. Skirt with Duvatyne.
Outside at night.
use all the light you've got for illuminating a building facade. Get plenty of light on your actors or good silhouettes. Aim a 1K fresnel at them placed off frame and 20' - 50' away. Sounds fakey, but looks good and your audience will accept it.
Use 250W Lowel Pros on backgrounds or to light specific objects on the set which for some reason you are calling attention to - a pretty flower arrangement, perhaps. Use a dimmer and diffusion if needed to get just the look you want.
Interviews.
You have the lights you need. Soft box or bounced light from flexfill as key, diffused light from one of the other lights as fill. A Lowel Pro high and behind aimed at the head for a rim light to separate the subject from the background, and a background light from a well-doored off Pro or similar through a cookie.
Now that we've mentioned a rim light, AKA hairlight, these are universally flattering in narrative fiction as well and can make a shot pop. Use them a lot and your actors will thank you for making them look good.
Use the flags, control the light. The art is less in getting enough light on your subject and more in controlling where it goes and what it does to faces especially, but anything you want textured in the scene.
Don't be afraid of shadows. Even lighting is flat, lifeless and dimensionless. Shadows give shape to your 2-D pictures. Ask your talent to be where they will be in the scene and walk up close and observe carefully the light and shadows you are creating. Unless in CU do not do this solely from the field monitor, and never from a little bitty one (8" or less.) Adjust the height, angle and intensity for the best look. Classically, you want the nose shadow to fall between the nose and lip and on the cheek off to the side of the nose, a little. At times you might have to suggest to your director that the actor would look best if they cheat how they hold their head a little bit so they look best on camera. All depends.
When you can, set your lights as though they were the light coming through the window, door, from an actual fixture, etc., - what "motivates" the light. But remember, no one knows if there is a window opposite the talent in a place they will never see, etc., so don't be afraid to set your lights to create your own reality.
Start by figuring out where to place the key or keys, then fill. After that get fancy with the background if you want. You can light a room very effectively with two lights and sometimes one. A forest of flags, stands and lights everywhere will more often than not create a confused image with low contrast and screwy shadows, where simplicity could have made an attractive, clean, believable one.
Buried in here is what you need in the way of lights. You must also have the requisite grip - stands, arms, grip heads, and expendables - gaffer tape, blackwrap, Duvatyne, gels.
Handle mixed 3200K and daylight sources by gelling your tungsten lights with 1/4 or 1/2 CTB (very rarely full CTB) to go well with the daylight. You can also get daylight NuVison CFLs for your China balls.
Can't believe I've typed so much and not covered the whole waterfront, but it's a start, Hope it's useful. Ask questions on specifics if you like.
Other DPs or lighting techs will have other ideas. That's kewl.
slondon
Join Date: Jun 2005
Okay, I'll give you some opinions. Remember, there is no right way to light a scene, there are many, and, there is no one way to achieve the lighting you want, there are many.
I'd go almost strictly tungsten. It's beautiful, continuous spectrum light that gives great skin tones, and its very affordable. I'll get to the one exception soon. Naturally, it also wastes a lot of power as heat. You can live with this. Don't mess around with work lights, home made barn doors, etc.; you can afford pro lights on your budget. Here are a few examples of what you commonly are going to light and how to do it. I'll make assumptions about mood and look. They won't always be valid for your picture. I'll also talk about how to use your kit.
The average bedroom.
Your actors are in or on the bed. It's night. There is a bedside night light in the frame that you want to carry (add light that looks like it's coming from the practical). You probably want soft light because it's flattering to the talent. You can get this in one of three ways. 1) Use a 400W - 650W fixture: old Colortran, Lowel Tota or Omni, etc. or 650W or so, fresnel. Bounce this from a 48" flexible reflector that's held on a gobo arm up on a light stand 2) An 18" China ball with four 100W equivalent CFLs. Get the 3500K NuVision ones with good CRI from Home Depot and use three Y-adapters so there are four sockets for your lamps. We're using CFLs because we might want a fair amount of light and we don't want to burn up the lantern. 3) A 24"X32" - 36"X48" softbox with eggcrate to control spill using any kind of light source - 500W - 1000W fresnel, Tota or fixture made specifically for your softbox.
To control the amount of light, besides moving the lights in or out, use a dimmer on the tungsten fixtures or screw in or out the CFLs in the lantern to use from 1 - 4 of them as needed. Don't worry about the color shift to warmer as you dim the tungstens. You can white balance it away and you might find you like it when using the camera's 3200K preset, anyway.
You will need to control the light from the reflector. Use the barn doors and blackwrap on the light, but principally, use flags made from flat black foamcore boards with little slots in one end that a grip head can slide into and fit on a light stand or gobo arm on a light stand. You can set these as toppers, siders, whatever. Generally, you are trying to keep the light off the ceiling and walls. For the China ball clothes pin on some Duvatyne or similar around the top and un-needed sides of the light as a skirt. The numerous "little barndoors" of the eggrate on the softbox will make this soft source the one with the least spill. That's good because it generally works poorly to set flags with softboxes as they do not cast clean shadows.
If you need some light in the room as though the room lights were off and you have moonlight or a street light coming through the window, set a 1K fresnel with 1/2 or full CTB gel on it outside the window and blast it in but use a dimmer to tweak. (Blue is the much accepted Hollywood cliche for night light and it just looks right on film even if not natural.) If you don't get some good-looking shadows from the windows and blinds, use a cucaloris with a normal irregular pattern or one with slits so you can create the look of Venetian blinds.
Living room.
You might need two or three simple broads or focusable 400W-650W open-face lights with diffusion gels to raise the general light level in the room. Your key can be any of the three lights from the bedroom, or a simple broad or open-faced light with 10"X12" diffusion on it, aimed right at the talent. If the blocking has the actors move, set keys at the place or places where they will be stopped. If you want hard shadows, don't use diffusion, or try some opal. It's easy to get the Perry Mason look.
Fill with diffused light from whatever you didn't use as the key. Make the fill a stop or two less than the key unless you are going for real drama where you can use less or nada. Dimmers good.
Dining room.
China ball or balls above the table or translucent flexfill with a couple of 650W broads, flooded out fresnels or open-faced lights above it, aimed down. Skirt with Duvatyne.
Outside at night.
use all the light you've got for illuminating a building facade. Get plenty of light on your actors or good silhouettes. Aim a 1K fresnel at them placed off frame and 20' - 50' away. Sounds fakey, but looks good and your audience will accept it.
Use 250W Lowel Pros on backgrounds or to light specific objects on the set which for some reason you are calling attention to - a pretty flower arrangement, perhaps. Use a dimmer and diffusion if needed to get just the look you want.
Interviews.
You have the lights you need. Soft box or bounced light from flexfill as key, diffused light from one of the other lights as fill. A Lowel Pro high and behind aimed at the head for a rim light to separate the subject from the background, and a background light from a well-doored off Pro or similar through a cookie.
Now that we've mentioned a rim light, AKA hairlight, these are universally flattering in narrative fiction as well and can make a shot pop. Use them a lot and your actors will thank you for making them look good.
Use the flags, control the light. The art is less in getting enough light on your subject and more in controlling where it goes and what it does to faces especially, but anything you want textured in the scene.
Don't be afraid of shadows. Even lighting is flat, lifeless and dimensionless. Shadows give shape to your 2-D pictures. Ask your talent to be where they will be in the scene and walk up close and observe carefully the light and shadows you are creating. Unless in CU do not do this solely from the field monitor, and never from a little bitty one (8" or less.) Adjust the height, angle and intensity for the best look. Classically, you want the nose shadow to fall between the nose and lip and on the cheek off to the side of the nose, a little. At times you might have to suggest to your director that the actor would look best if they cheat how they hold their head a little bit so they look best on camera. All depends.
When you can, set your lights as though they were the light coming through the window, door, from an actual fixture, etc., - what "motivates" the light. But remember, no one knows if there is a window opposite the talent in a place they will never see, etc., so don't be afraid to set your lights to create your own reality.
Start by figuring out where to place the key or keys, then fill. After that get fancy with the background if you want. You can light a room very effectively with two lights and sometimes one. A forest of flags, stands and lights everywhere will more often than not create a confused image with low contrast and screwy shadows, where simplicity could have made an attractive, clean, believable one.
Buried in here is what you need in the way of lights. You must also have the requisite grip - stands, arms, grip heads, and expendables - gaffer tape, blackwrap, Duvatyne, gels.
Handle mixed 3200K and daylight sources by gelling your tungsten lights with 1/4 or 1/2 CTB (very rarely full CTB) to go well with the daylight. You can also get daylight NuVison CFLs for your China balls.
Can't believe I've typed so much and not covered the whole waterfront, but it's a start, Hope it's useful. Ask questions on specifics if you like.
Other DPs or lighting techs will have other ideas. That's kewl.
