Lighting a studio for atmosphere

T

themagichoof

Active member
I understand that you usually need a lighting kit for lighting the subject, lighting the background/room etc. I'll leave that for a separate topic since I want to ask about something a little bit different. I was in a restaurant recently and the lighting was excellent - it looked really cozy and romantic. Here is a small example of that:

Hakkasan-London-UK-Interior-Decor.jpg




These aren't 'exactly' like I'm trying to describe, but the lights are in the ceiling. With quite a few of these, it gives you somewhat the look you see in the photo.

Which kind of lights are these, and how much would it cost to light a room about 15X18? A problem I may run into is that this room is a living room in a home converted into a music recording area, so I can't really install the lights in the ceiling without making tons of holes. I hope I can mount them somehow without doing that.

My last question is this: would using a setup like this take well to filming? I hope that doing this will give me that cozy romantic look as mentioned. I'm also going to guess that along with these lights to light the area and make it look cozy and dimly-lit, I'll also need a standard lighting setup to light the subject, no?
 
It probably looks "cozy and romantic" because all the light is coming from straight overhead and falls mostly on the tables. The people are mainly in the dark and to the small extent they are lit at all, it is only because of light reflecting up from the tabletops and dishes, or when (like the waiter in the distance on the right side) they step directly into the vertical beams of light. You could duplicate this in the home studio using the recessed can fixtures that mount into the ceiling, or possibly track lights (which are more adjustable and require drilling fewer, and smaller, holes). These would probably use PAR20 or PAR30 halogen spots. I've also seen some systems that use low-voltage halogen spots very much like slide or movie projector lamps, with a transformer to power them. Taken to the extreme seen in the restaurant, I think this might be a little annoying for a recording studio because that is, to some extent, a workspace where the performers need to see their instruments, sheet music or scripts. A lot will depend on the colors used on the walls, floor and ceilings. The restaurant is very dark so little fill light reflects off the walls, but in a room painted in a lighter color you would effectively get more diffuse fill all over (to the detriment of the "romantic" look, but it might be more practical).

Since there's very little light on the people, and what there is comes from underneath and hits their chins mostly, this lighting wouldn't work very well for photography at all; you'd still need some level of key/fill/backlight if you wanted to see the characters in the scene.

- Greg
 
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I really just want to set the atmosphere like that, and I'll have to worry about lighting the subject separately. Your post helps a lot though, I'll look into the lights that you said. Let me give you a bit of a better idea:


This video looks really good - he's lit well and most of the stuff in the back is dimly lit. So combine the atmosphere from the first photo with how this guy is lit, and you've got what I'm looking for. The studio area is much bigger than this, so I think you're getting the idea. Imagine the area/room/background of that video being somewhat like in the first photo combined with the well-lit guy and you've got what I need.

PS: this is a personal recording studio and the idea is to film just a single subject. There isn't any other musician that needs to look at sheet music, this is for giving tutorials, etc.
 
I like the pools of light in the restaurant too. There are track lighting systems that use small PARs you could use for the overhead lights. They put a lot fewer holes in the ceiling and they are just little ones for screws, not big ones to put a can in to house the PAR. The little PARs come in spots and floods. You can point the lights any direction you want and gel them with diffusion. You should be able to key, fill and backlight your subject with just these alone. I've used them like that.
 
Will that look decent when filming? I was thinking of getting just these for the atmosphere and was going to light the subject with a standard interview lighting kit, but... maybe I can get away with doing it like you said. My next step is to find a good track lighting kit with smaller PARs that won't break the bank. I'm thinking $500 or so is my limit, but maybe I'll take the el cheapo route ($100) just to test first. Where should I look to get a setup for a decent price?
 
You can try to flag your lighting from the walls, snoot in or box your key lights to control the spill.
It would be a blessing if the walls were dark and not white or tan.
You can also plant small fixtures in the studio to add atmosphere, like rice paper lanterns, etc.
Small 1K dimmers will be very helpful.
 
Do you happen to know where I could get some decent quality lights like this? Like I mentioned this is really just for the atmosphere, setting the mood, decoration etc. I'll worry about lighting the subject in another thread. I imagine these won't be TOO much since it doesn't have to be professional or anything. I'm not sure where to look for lights like these but I'd like to get about 10 of them or so.
 
themagichoof said:
Do you happen to know where I could get some decent quality lights like this? Like I mentioned this is really just for the atmosphere, setting the mood, decoration etc. I'll worry about lighting the subject in another thread. I imagine these won't be TOO much since it doesn't have to be professional or anything. I'm not sure where to look for lights like these but I'd like to get about 10 of them or so.
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Try Lowes and Home Depot.
 
Actually, it does look like I can get all this done with just home depot and lowes. Not as expensive as I thought. They have these 'can'-type lights that aren't the recessed kind and that's what I think I need. You can see that here:

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The only thing I'll have to figure out are the small details like the type of bulbs and the wattage. I think I can get away with some fairly low watt bulbs/lights since it won't take much power to light what I need to. I'm still confused on the differences of halogen/tungsten/fluorescent and where each one applies and would be better for different applications but I'm learning.
 
As for lights, I went to American DJ and bought some Par 38s. They have smaller ones and you can get spot type lamps for them as well. The Pars are used to light objects in the background all the time.
 
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Here's what I meant by flagging your lights off the walls and snooting in your lights.


Rodney Franklin.jpg butterscotch.jpg

And one last example:

Brit and Kimberly.jpg
 
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slondon said:
Hey, I like that Lowel Bigfoot. Very useful. I'm always screwing a baby plate on a pancake for that job. (Yah, I know what it's called, just being politically correct <grin>)
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Yeah, that'd sound pretty sick if you didn't include the, "plate" in there. LOL!
 
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