Lighting for miniatures
- Thread starter marco0782
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Tom Plapper
Active member
Dedo lights but they are expensive.
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This sounds interesting. Will you be blowing it up? (haha--just kidding). Anyway, it all depends upon how you want it to look. Do you want it to look realistic, is this for some kind of dramatic thing or is this a corporate video showing some architectural model for a proposed project. Realistic looking lighting would go back to the concept of what is the sun? Its a point light source really. A relatively small (870,000 miles diameter is relatively small right?) source of light against the huge black backdrop of space. Oh but wait, we have some diffusion that varies from time to time (our atmosphere and sometimes clouds too). So a chinese lantern may indeed be a good way to do it--depending upon the look again and what kind of diffusion you want.
What will you put in the chinese lantern though?
The nylon 36" ones I have say that you shouldn't put more than a 200w bulb in them. You could use an actual wattage 200w fluorescent bulb (which is very cool -- you can almost touch them because the heat is spread out on such a large surface area) or some kind of 200w photo flood (if they're available--not sure about that and I definitely wouldn't touch one of those).
To go above that 200w rating might work, but you're on your own (no one is going to sanction that in a public forum).
Other options depend upon your budget, when this needs to be done, how long you have to acquire the equipment, etc.
What will you put in the chinese lantern though?
The nylon 36" ones I have say that you shouldn't put more than a 200w bulb in them. You could use an actual wattage 200w fluorescent bulb (which is very cool -- you can almost touch them because the heat is spread out on such a large surface area) or some kind of 200w photo flood (if they're available--not sure about that and I definitely wouldn't touch one of those).
To go above that 200w rating might work, but you're on your own (no one is going to sanction that in a public forum).
Other options depend upon your budget, when this needs to be done, how long you have to acquire the equipment, etc.
cardmaverick
Well-known member
What kind of camera are you using? If your shooting digitally and you can't do long exposures, then you need to seriously look at the footcandles your fixtures are putting out on the set. The big thing that makes a mineature seem real is depth. This is achieved by shooting with aperatures as small f/64. Traditional film shoots of models usually involved long exposures to cut down on the need for such intense lighting, but on digital films like Star Wars (the mineatures of which had to be shot at 24fps at the time...), they had no other option but to blast the set with tons of light.
Another factor is haze. You should put a light bit of smoke in the background to create a realistic haze in the sky.
As for directional lights, you could just put snoots on some high power fresnels. If you don't have snoots, just make some out of black wrap, and if you don't have black wrap, just get some heavy duty aluminum foil :grin:.
Good luck!
Another factor is haze. You should put a light bit of smoke in the background to create a realistic haze in the sky.
As for directional lights, you could just put snoots on some high power fresnels. If you don't have snoots, just make some out of black wrap, and if you don't have black wrap, just get some heavy duty aluminum foil :grin:.
Good luck!
ilauzirika
Boring Senior Member
the haze helps to bring up some depth that wouldnt be achieved by lighting itself. I've never tried them but i've heard something about haze in a can that could be useful.
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Do we get to blow it all up yet?
HorseFilms
Look ma no hands
Yeah, if you're going to blow it up... I wanna see it.:beer:
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HorseFilms said:
That's the best part. Let's film it in high speed too. Better get it right the first time though. Someone probably spent a long time getting it ready.
marco0782
Well-known member
The miniatures are fantastic, but I'm not going to blow them up. They're going to be shot with an HVX. The haze idea is great, but I need haze that won't move a lot. In other words, I can't just use a fog machine, unless you recommend just completely filling the room with fog.
Shooting with a small f-stop is a good idea, I was planning on trying that.
Thanks for the advice guys.
Shooting with a small f-stop is a good idea, I was planning on trying that.
Thanks for the advice guys.