Lighting a tiny space

FiddlerMD

FiddlerMD

Well-known member
I need to light a small office conference room. This space is about 10x10. There are also 2 windows. The ceiling is standard 10' drop ceiling. Most of the time the lighting will be for 1 - 2 people standing by a small round table.

With that in mind, i'm thinking some sort of flourescent lights might be the best option since I don't have room for a softbox and i don't have the tolerance for a lot of heat in a small space. Can someone recommend a good way of setting up a tiny cube of a room?

What kind of fixtues would you recommend?
 
Kino Flo fixtures. They are versatile, quick, and you can use daylight bulbs in them so the windows can be open to add more light into the room. Also they aren't extremely heavy so you can get some scissor clamps and put them up in the drop ceiling.
 
how many fixtures would you say i'd need? 1 main/1fill? what kind of power? (kino has a lot of different fixtues, i'm guessing the smaller ones might be sufficient)
 
Bounce light

Bounce light

You could bounce the light off the walls if they are white(ish) which turns them into big soft lights. It depends on what look you want on your actors. This will give a flatter softer look with less hard shadows.
 
FiddlerMD said:
how many fixtures would you say i'd need? 1 main/1fill? what kind of power? (kino has a lot of different fixtues, i'm guessing the smaller ones might be sufficient)
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Tough to say. I don't know the area your shooting in, the scene, the mood, your budget, time it will take you to setup, what else is in the room. I would get yourself a gaffer and talk to him/her about what they think. I was just trying to help steer you in the right direction. Really your gaffer should have final say.
 
It really depends on the style you are wanting to shoot and the look you want. You could get an HMI and bounce it off the ceiling. I own a bunch of Cool Lights CFL fixtures, both 5600k & 3200K. I would try hanging one or two of those from the ceiling and seeing what look that creates. Depending on where the windows are, I might pick a time of day where the sun is your main key.
 
NextWaveG said:
It really depends on the style you are wanting to shoot and the look you want. You could get an HMI and bounce it off the ceiling. I own a bunch of Cool Lights CFL fixtures, both 5600k & 3200K. I would try hanging one or two of those from the ceiling and seeing what look that creates. Depending on where the windows are, I might pick a time of day where the sun is your main key.
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I definitely wouldn't use the sun as your main key. The big problem with that is you have to then "chase" the sun your entire shoot. Your losing all control which is really what it sounds like you need to do in this situation. You can certainly use the outside light as fill for the room. Even if you are shooting outside you should really only use the sun as a edge light. Though there are some excuses for using it in different ways but as a key inside is going to present bigger problems then you can imagine.
 
Brooksy said:
I definitely wouldn't use the sun as your main key. The big problem with that is you have to then "chase" the sun your entire shoot. Your losing all control which is really what it sounds like you need to do in this situation. You can certainly use the outside light as fill for the room. Even if you are shooting outside you should really only use the sun as a edge light. Though there are some excuses for using it in different ways but as a key inside is going to present bigger problems then you can imagine.
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Here's some ads I shot where daylight was a factor:



The first one, I was using the daylight as the main key light and a fluorescent light as the rim light.

The second, the daylight was fill.

The third, daylight was fill and somewhat backlight.

Fourth, no daylight.

Fifth, daylight fill.


Just some examples, but you can use daylight to your advantage if you are careful. Daylight can be tricky and you do have a time limit, but you can get great results.
 
Yeah you used daylight in some nice ways. You still never used the sun. I think we are talking about the same thing here just in different ways. And I would still try to stay away from using actual sun as a Key if I could help it.

On another note, NextWaveG, I would work a little more on lighting the background. The subject is nice but the backgrounds are kind of flat and boring. Maybe work on that a little. Not to shabby though.
 
using natural light is out since these videos revolve around the various employees schedules. The "actors" in this case are various management/marketing people who are talking about their product/service. The room already has a few fluorescent office lights - would it be a terrible idea to just replace the bulbs with daylight ones? (i'm guessing the ballasts are fairly terrible).
I'd love to get at least a little bit of modeling on the faces, but the other issue is that the speakers are going to be standing almost right in front of a wall so shadows will be an issue.


Here is a diagram of the place (as best as i could approximate)
officecams.gif
 
If you want to replace the lights, you'd have to replace the entire fixture, because, like you said, the ballast is terrible on basic office lights. I don't know enough about the daylight bulbs that go into kinos and if they can go into regular fixtures, maybe someone else can chime in. My gut feeling says no. Not to mention that regular light fixtures can flicker. Unless you're going for a cool horror slasher where flickering lights look cool, I'd try to avoid it.

From your diagram, first thing I'd suggest is to move the actors a bit away from the walls. First reason is to help avoid seeing any shadows, and second is so that you can have free reign with your lights, even get in a back light if you want one.

Can you describe the scene a bit, the mood, the blocking, etc.? What type of ratio are you going for with your lights?

As everyone said, cool lights or kinos are a great way to go, just have them high up and pointed downwards. Always want at least one key and one fill, and how strong they are is up to you. You can get two lights of equal strength, and use ND filters and just simple movement of the lights to determine it's strength. A dimmer would be useful as well, but if you dim too much you start to see a change in color temp.

Assuming it's some office scene with just two people talking, I would suggest two Kinos (or coollights), high up at either side. Make sure for the wide that one kino will act as the key for one subject and fill for the other. Distance helps for this. But try and keep them from the wall a bit so you can get in a nice soft backlight.
 
Yeah you can put kino bulbs into overhead office fixtures. We do it all the time. It is actually a smart idea but I figured that the shot wasn't going to be that wide so there was no need to change those lights out. Just turn them off. But really it's up to you. We can only do so much over the internet. You are going to have to start putting up lights and trying things out at this point.
 
Be very careful when placing Kino bulbs in commercial building fixtures. Some buildings to reduce there electric costs operate there ceiling fixture at 220V or even 440V.
 
i can't move the actors much cause there's at most 8 feet of space there so there's hardly room to place a camer and a light far enough away to fit them both into the shot.
 
Also, considering there's daylight that may or may not come in based on weather conditions, how powerful shoudl the lights be so that the window isnt overexposed all the time?
 
Probably can. Not too familiar with gelling windows though? how do you attach it? Also, what does a 4'x6' gel cost?
 
If you can get to the outside use tape. If not an old trick is a spray bottle with water and squegee. Spray the window with a light mist place the gell against the window and squegee it down. Roll gell is 4 feet by 25 feet.
 
Lighting in small space

Lighting in small space

Everything I've read sounds complicated. In lighting the best advice I've heard is "follow the source." In other words- on a wide establishing shot you show where the dominate light is coming from, e.g. expanse of windows, etc. then compose your shots, (mediums/ CU's )whether it be bounced/softbox,whatever brand/mode-- BUT your shot should reference the dominate light 'source.' I hope I made sense. If not-ignore and bounce.
 
daplight - not much i can do here in terms of "establishing" .. there will be 2 shots - the wide will be a medium at best since the space is so small. the close-up would be people's hands using a smartphone. I can really light from any direction, I just want it to look at least somewhat pleasant
 
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