Keeping contrast ratio

[Melvin Harris]

I posted this at DVinfo also...

I am wondering how to create between 6:1 to 10:1 contrast ratio with 4000 watts of light, umbrellas, softboxes, and home depot clamp lights. Here are a few variables...

1. shooting with a GH1 with a canon 16 to 35mm 2.8L zoom on an adapter that doesn't allow me to control aperture. I know this is not ideal, but I need the wide angle and haven't found an FD option yet. I also have no Nikon options nor an adapter that makes it feasible.

2. have other lens options but want to keep the lens as open as I can to selectively focus. the lights can dim but that changes the color temp and creates a mismatch between other light sources and practicals.

3. the space is incredibly cramped. very tight shooting and absolutely cannot be helped or changed under any circumstances.

4. there is a lot of physical action that also cannot be helped or changed under any circumstance.

5. we have to accentuate the artwork on the walls, and the decor around, but also have to emphasize the characters and highly stylize the scene.

This is beyond my innate ability at this point, and I don't have hours to figure it out on set. There is no budget to hire somebody, no opportunity to ask for help, and nobody available to help the weekend of the shoot. There is no diagram because the room is small and we have a table and a couple of walls with artwork.

Any suggestions?

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I posted this at DVinfo also...

I am wondering how to create between 6:1 to 10:1 contrast ratio with 4000 watts of light, umbrellas, softboxes, and home depot clamp lights. Here are a few variables...

This is a 2-4 stop difference between the 'high' value, and the 'low' value. If the subject of this shoot is a 'fair' skinned person, the 'lit' side of their face would be fairly 'bright', and the shadow side would be fairly 'dark'. If this is a darker complexion person, then I'd also include some form of 'side/rim' lighting to maintain the dark complexion, but still give definition to the outline of the person.

That being said... putting 4000W into a 'small/cramped' space is going to be problematic due to light bouncing off of 'non-black' objects/walls, so that only the light you want will be filling the shadow side.

And then the people move... this is a moving picture project, right?

So, I'd say quite a lot of baffling/flagging will be required to control the light to where you want it, and not have stray light seep into water down your high contrast requirements.

Is that 4 1000W 8 500W lights, or one 'big giant'... ok giant for anything I'd think about...

For something like this I'd also highly recommend a spot meter to measure the high and low lighting accurately to get your desired ratio...

But the main strategy would be to set your desired f-stop, ISO value, etc. Then adjust your main light to give you the 'density' you want, and fill... if necessary, with additional light if the contrast is too high... But most likely you'll be wanting to drap anything with something black to eliminate stray light bounce...

Hopefully this isn't for tomorrow's shoot, and your just running out to pick up the lights now...

 

[thisisapocalypse]

You're going to struggle without being able to change your aperture, while of course you can use NDs, still....why not grab the m4/3 Olympus 17mm f/2.8 pancake - nearly as wide as 16 and you've got control that way. Regardless of lighting the Canon is not going to be delivering all it's possible contrast if you're shooting at f/2.8 - if you want to maximize contrast you want to hit f/4-5.6 - I'm sure the contrast on the Canon is still very good at f/2.8 but if you're trying to maximize...