lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

C

c.g._eads

Veteran
I am shooting a scene that takes place in a diner during daytime, in front of a big window, that looks out onto a forest (never mind that I don't have this location yet -- can anybody in LA recommend a place?).

The idea here is to light both the principles, but still get the vibrant color of those green trees out the window. How do I do this? I'm aware that video isn't very good at this, but there must be someone on this list who can help.

thanks, c.g.
 
Re: lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

The object is to balance the light levels of the outdoor scene with the interior lighting. So, typically, you'd add a scrim or neutral density gel to the windows and have strong interior lighting to balance the exterior light levels. This is never easy with video, but it's got to be easier than finding a diner in a forest in LA. ;D
 
Re: lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

you have two issues, color temperature and exposure. outdoors is cooler than indoors in terms of color temp. So lighting these folks means balancing the color temperatures. That means using color temp gels that cool your indoor lights temperature to match the outside. And you could also use your indoor lights the way they are and use color temperature gels on the window to bring the outdoor colors closer to your lights. This usually makes warmer colors than gelling the lights and simply using the next step.

Next is exposure. Watch any TV show with windows and you are seeing gels to bring the exposure level down stuck to those windows. So in your case you have to by a roll of Neutral density. It comes in three levels of density .3 .6 and .9. Get a Lee cinematographers swatch-book to see the differences. If you want to gel and change color temperatures at the same time you can use color temperature orange with Nd built in.
 
Re: lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

you know somebody had a timelapse video inside an office that had good exposure both indoors and outdoors. I'll do a search but whoever it was come forward please and give forth thou details of thy shoot.
 
Re: lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

Buy a roll of 85N9 if it will be bright daylight outside. Placing the nd gel is always tricky. you need to tape it down very cleanly on every pane on the outside so you won't see the tape. If it's very windy you'll see the gel flap especially if it's a large expanse. use quality grip tape to get a good bite but also to not peal the paint off. Takes 2 or 3 people to do this well and efficiently.
The 85 designation in the gel is to correct the daylight to tungsten so you can use tungsten balanced lighting.
 
Re: lighting for indoor and outdoor at once

We don't tape our gel, rather we use a spray bottle of water with a little Johnsons baby shampoo and a squeegee to put it up. Once the water dries, it stays there. We also put it inside not outside. Standard industry practice. you can also build frames bigger than the window and hang them outside with diffusion stretched and stapled.
 
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