Interview Lighting

flimflamfilms

flimflamfilms

Well-known member
Good morning,

I conducted a second interview for my doc yesterday and kept in mind the advice I received here first time around. Here's a grab (normal quality jpeg) that is, once again, captured from the FCP Capture window so it is 'squeezed'.

I'd like to hear any thoughts or comments if you have a moment.

2553265235_0789dc8837_o.jpg


Cheers,

John
 
The lighting is okay. Looks like it was not really lit to be honest. What I believe is wrong with it is that your subject is too close to the background--which has very distracting objects on it. Get your subject further away from the background, move the camera back and then zoom to get the right field of view, open your iris up as much as possible (use ND!) and try to get in the 2.8f range.

Matthew
 
Matthew,

Yes, the only light comes from a window about 30 degrees to the subject.

I would have loved to get a little more (or less) DOF here, but unfortunately the room is a very small foyer so the camera was as far back as it could have been.

I do agree that the beer tap and the little white sign are distracting. Something to keep in mind for the next interview.

Thanks very much for your comments.

Cheers,

John
 
lighitng looks too flat to my eye. agreed about the background as well. Unless "beer" is applicable to the interview that sign is very distracting, it almost immediately takes your attention off the subject.
 
dlang,

Thanks for the comment. I wanted to use the natural light that was available. Is there anything I could do to still use the natural light, but make the scene less flat?

The doc is about the craft brewing industry here in BC.

Cheers,

John
 
I agree with what's been said so far. Even just putting your subject on the right side of the frame instead of left might keep things interesting, since you'd be using a far side key, and you'd be able to cover up the high-contrast ("BEER") areas of the BG. If you wanted to tweak this in post, you could add a primitive rotoscope and lens blur job in AE. I'm also not a fan of the reflections in the glass behind him. It wouldn't be bad if they were out of focus, but in lighting I'd try to eliminate or minimize them.

It's an improvement from your last post. It still feels like you need to buy some more lights. If the weather is nice, maybe you can take your subjects outside and put the establishment out of focus behind them. Use a bounce board and try to keep the sun behind the subject.
 
I agree, it's very flat. Bring your subject closer and use a fill light on the background if you want to give your background some life. Even a neon sign thats out of focus would look nice. Also, don't forget about back lighting your subject. Make the subject stand out in comparison to the bg.
 
On the plus side, there is plenty of light and you can see your subject clearly. This isn't always the case.

You say this is a doc, so I don't know to what extent you want to play with reality here -

BUT - you can play with it in post to make it more rich. Try crushing the blacks to give it some depth.

If the beer sign is distracting (and it is), try using a matte to disolve the background and highlight your subject. This could be tricky if he moves around a lot, but he looks like the kind of guy who's going to stand pretty still to me, so it might just work.

In FCP you can even go into the matte filter folder in your effects tab and play around with "soft edges" - apply the filter to the clip and let the right side of your image dissolve into black just enough to at least tone down the beer sign. It may not work, but it might! It's worth a try.

If your camera is static during the interview, you could also try applying a matte over the beer sign and get rid of it entirely. I would open your still in Photoshop, copy a section of the blackboard where the beer sign is not, then create a still that you can import into FCP and apply over the clip to obscure the sign. Be sure to feather the edges.

Again, if you're doing a straight-up doc, then you probably don't want to doctor reality. But if your ethics allow taking actions in post that you wish you had taken in life, then I say go for it.

It's always better to shoot it right to begin with - but sometimes you have to work with what you've got and you just have to be creative about how you work with it.
 
Thanks to all for the comments. Yes, this one is an improvement over the last primarily because of the generous comments from people like you who know what the heck you're doing. I sincerely appreciate your willingness to take the time. And I'm quite sure that my next interview setup will be even that much better.

Bus No. 8, here's a grab with the crushed blacks and a slight decrease in saturation It does look much richer. Next time I'll look to do this in camera.

2554832140_a7fb1506b6_o.jpg


Cheers,

John
 
Agree with others and -

You can use natural light so long as its reliable. A day with clouds passing through the sun every few seconds is not.

Easy way to do this is to buy some reflectors and stands. Position your talent for the key, then add reflector for fill and one for kicker. Then you can use some kind of flags etc to adjust the light that hits the wall. Sometimes this can work nicely, but of course lighting is far more reliable and controllable.
 
yeah i was going to say flag the b-ground -- i always have some black wrap/foil to help in that dept if there isn't room for C-stands etc...
 
Zander,

Thanks for the comment. Also, no need to be sorry; I'm here to learn.

I don't quite understand what you mean by 'his skin tones are blowing out'?

Cheers,

John
 
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Blowing out is the same as clipping... meaning pushing the brightness of something up to the point where detail is lost. Look at just the red channel of your still (you can use a program like photoshop or after effects for this). There is a big flat bright spot on his cheek. Color correcting by eye can be tough if you don't have a nice monitor.
 
ProfU,

Thanks very much. I see what you are saying. Yes, I only have the 15" screen of my Mac laptop. When I use the 'range check' in FCP all seems good according to the zebras.

Appreciate your help.

Cheers,

John
 
videoshark said:
yeah i was going to say flag the b-ground -- i always have some black wrap/foil to help in that dept if there isn't room for C-stands etc...
Click to expand...

agree fully...to get the correct seperation you will need to isolate the natural light to hit just the subject and flag off the light hitting the background. you can use anything to flag...if your in a pinch find a piece of cardboard (or something) and us it as a flag, then have someone hold it in the correct position. Definately move the subject further away from the background as said before, this will make isolating him much easier.
 
dlang,

Thanks. To 'flag off the light' means to block it right? The idea being to make the background a little darker than the subject, yes?

Cheers,

John
 
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