I've been noticing more and more during the course of shooting, how much the lighting changes in relation to shot(length, angle, lens, ect.). The thing that I find myself having trouble with is re-lighting for a new shot to match the lighting from either my master shot or the rest of the scene, without losing the look of the set.. I also find it challenging to light a scene to make it seem like the room is lighting itself. Any advice that may help me with these problems????
Lighting continuity
- Thread starter Tokarsky
- Start date
Generally, as long as the light is coming from the same direction, is of the same quality and the contrast ratio doesn't change much you are fine for continuity. You can get actually away with a lot.
Learning to light a scene takes a while to get down. The only thing I am tell you is look at natural lighting in your everyday life and try to imagine how you would achieve it on set with higher wattage instruments. Try to match angles and quality as best you can with what is actually in the room. Motivated light makes a huge difference, have the production designer help you out. Make the grip department work, shadow is just as important as light.
Learning to light a scene takes a while to get down. The only thing I am tell you is look at natural lighting in your everyday life and try to imagine how you would achieve it on set with higher wattage instruments. Try to match angles and quality as best you can with what is actually in the room. Motivated light makes a huge difference, have the production designer help you out. Make the grip department work, shadow is just as important as light.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
The real key is to simply keep continuity in MOOD.
You would be mind-f#$ked to know how much a DP can get away with so long as the mood of the scene is kept in tact. For instance day exteriors that have two suns. Don't be afraid to change things during a take. It's a fine line to walk on, but it's almost a must for successful photography.
You would be mind-f#$ked to know how much a DP can get away with so long as the mood of the scene is kept in tact. For instance day exteriors that have two suns. Don't be afraid to change things during a take. It's a fine line to walk on, but it's almost a must for successful photography.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
Wasn't that the thing that gave occasion for Christian Bale to go balistic on last year during the Terminator shooting. The DP was 'adjusting/walking/reviewing/fiddling/whatevering' during the take?
Or are you referring to inbetween takes?
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
What I found difficult is determining how much light, in watts, I needed. When I tried this a year ago or so with the HMC150, I had difficulty figuring out what the minimum light level I needed to have the camera not give 'noisy' dark areas, yet not require that I just over rent, even if I had a number of independent circuits for the lights at all.
While at the shoot one can look at the monitors, if the camera has them, or if they are available as independent items, but in the planning stages, it would be nice to have better estimates.
Paul Hudson
Vacuum Tube Member
Get a good meter. You must not think in terms of watts but foot candles.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
A meter means you have the lights in place. The question is how much light do you rent, standing at the counter at the rental house (or in my case, Home Depot... and yes I know they may not be right temperature Kelvin... but heck, I'm thinking I'm only going to present in full blazing Black and White for a while...)
The amount of light incident on the subject (or wherever) is dependent on the watts, as well as the configuration of the lens/mirror/housing, etc...
Most lights are spec'ed in Watts, and one has to work to find what their capable of in terms of footcandles delivered in the direction where you want to have light.
RyanT
Veteran
Not necessarily true. If you try and judge any sort of flourescent lamp with watts in mind, chances are you'll come out with an incorrect answer.
You can take the diva and the parabeam for example. Both of them use the same exact tubes, same wattages, but their housings are slightly different. The parabeam throws light much much further than the diva ever will, but with the same amount of wattage.
Footcandles really are the best thing to use. You just need to look for photometric charts that tell you what the output of a certain lamp is.
Here's a few for example...
For the Diva...
http://www.kokusai-shomei.com/kinoflo/diva/diva_photometrics.gif
For a nine light maxibrute...
http://extranet.mole.com/store/images/backpage/5771-L.gif
Those are just examples. You can find the output for many different number of lights and then just find out what the minimum number of footcandles is necessary for exposure for your camera. If you're using things like worklamps though...I don't know, good luck. Just gotta know what a similar tungsten sized lamp would do.
You can take the diva and the parabeam for example. Both of them use the same exact tubes, same wattages, but their housings are slightly different. The parabeam throws light much much further than the diva ever will, but with the same amount of wattage.
Footcandles really are the best thing to use. You just need to look for photometric charts that tell you what the output of a certain lamp is.
Here's a few for example...
For the Diva...
http://www.kokusai-shomei.com/kinoflo/diva/diva_photometrics.gif
For a nine light maxibrute...
http://extranet.mole.com/store/images/backpage/5771-L.gif
Those are just examples. You can find the output for many different number of lights and then just find out what the minimum number of footcandles is necessary for exposure for your camera. If you're using things like worklamps though...I don't know, good luck. Just gotta know what a similar tungsten sized lamp would do.
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
ugh... i meant a scene. During a take is not good. I don't know what Shane Hulburt was doing on that set, but I meant scene. Like from wide to cu, reverses, etc.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
Since this is probably more of a 'lighting' category topic... I'll just say the 'minimum' manufacturer's idea bout the fc rating of the camera, as if that was straight off easy to find for some of the lower end cameras, and what the 'real' minimum is for getting a clean image... are not identical...
As for the footcandles delivered by a light. Sure, the wattage output is into a mythical sphere, an object receives some umptyumpth of that... reflectors/housings, etc modify that basic physical fact.