Lighting for night

S

Scott_Uhlfelder

Member
I just recently shot a bedroom scene and was trying to make it look like night. I used a lamp in the room as a single source for the light and a nother light with a dimmer to imatate a tv flicker. Then a smaller lamp for a fill. I was trying not to over light but it came out a little grainy. Any tips or pointers to prevent that but still amke it look night?
 
Re: Lighting for night

Lots of things come to mind.

What kind of lights? Standard crap home lights or practicals (photofloods)?

What shutter speed were you in?
What MODE?
Was the scene exposed properly?
 
Re: Lighting for night

Yeah it was regular house lights, so I guess photo floods would help and I was shooting in 24p mode. I was trying to expose the scene so the main light was not blown out so I think that was the issue.
 
Re: Lighting for night

trying to keep a light thats actually lighting the scene from overexposing is not the best way to go about getting proper exposure on your subject, or scene. worry about your exposure on the subject/scene first, and then worry about whether or not a light is overexposed. you can always reframe, or change angles to get the light out of the scene, and if you really want it to stay, then replace the bulb with a really weak bulb that will not be overexposing the area, then use a higher powered light out of the frame that will cast light from the same direction. so the light still comes from a realistic place, be carefull that the light isnt casting a shadow though. you dont want to see a lamp making its own shadow.(its not very real looking) so placing the other light higher generally helps. and again use selective angles to keep any shadows you cant get rid of from showing.
 
Re: Lighting for night

Yes...night=blue..Over time we have come to accept blue as night because....well we actually need to SEE what is going on. I just saw part of Jeepers Creepers last night for the first time, and really loved the way their night shots looked. Here's a little thing that I did with about five lights that turned out (it was okaaay) pretty well for a few hours work. http://www.kerbybrothers.com/Wizardsindie.mov

It was inspired by the short Sci Fi Channel promos. I shot it with a VX2000 before I had access to a DVX...curses!
 
Re: Lighting for night

night=HMI which is blue or white... moon light, thats the cheat. If you get grain, raise all the lighting up a few stops and then close down the iris to compensate.
 
Re: Lighting for night

i really like the white /silverish look for night scenes, because alot of times people take the blue look too far, and everything looks nice and smurfy. also the silverish look is just really classic. but for a breif period of time at dusk and dawn, the light actually has a very apparently blue hue to it. so somtimes it is more fitting pneding the time of "night " your trying to portray. i just cant stand it when someone is in an interior setting away from windows in low light and they make it blue. thats just silly.
 
Re: Lighting for night

thanks to daylight kinos almost everything is white/blue nowadays.
 
Re: Lighting for night

I've always held "Do The Right Thing" as my standard for night scenes (at least outdoor). I've never been able to buy the whole "day-for-night" thing--I shot it once, and I'll never do it again, because my psyche won't allow it. For me personally, I'd rather see a little grain than glowing blue. Of course, I have an astigmatism in both eyes, so I'm used to seeing artifacts at night anyhow :o
 
Re: Lighting for night

I find if you're really hard pressed to light night stuff without over exposing and getting a nice ambient light is to use a lot of bounce lighting... you can change the colour of the light too with gels to balance out stuff that looks too bright...

this is a pretty inexpensive way of lighting scenes when you don't want hot spots from conventional household lights...
 
Re: Lighting for night

I find if you're really hard pressed to light night stuff without over exposing and getting a nice ambient light is to use a lot of bounce lighting
Click to expand...
I would actually have to disagree, I find that hard sources end up looking better on video, while using the reflectors mainly for a subtle fill. When you use a lot of bounce lighting to be the main source, I find that the footage ends up looking too muddy, and a lot of detail is lost. If you shoot with a hard source (anything, be it a car's high beams even) and backlight the subject, then a minor bounce to give only a little fill to see the physical detail in the faces.
Having soft sources at night just makes the picture look darker usually, rather than being a *night shot*.
If you have a slightly overexposed backlight fringing the subject, merely accenting the details of the image while letting everything else roll off into blackness, the footage will end up looking better than a slightly brighter, evenly exposed, and yet underexposed, image.
 
Re: Lighting for night

Dude, your answer was practically monosyllabic compared to my usual answer!

Anyway, ditto: hard light at night!
 
Re: Lighting for night

Hahaha, thanks Barry, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who takes too many words to explain what he means, or rather says things in a long, drawn out sentence when in actual fact they could be said very quickly; this sort of thing normally bugs most people, but it's definitely good to know that you, me, and maybe a bunch of other people don't mind it. The way I see it, you gotta be precise when you speak, and sometimes using many words is the best way. That's what I think anyways, don't you? I know I do. Eh?




;)
 
Re: Lighting for night

[quote author=Barry_Green link=board=lighting;num=1074865034;start=0#17 date=02/12/04 at 15:36:49]Dude, your answer was practically monosyllabic compared to my usual answer!

Anyway, ditto: hard light at night!  [/quote]


Barry's typical response is:

The flux capcitors transistion rate is condusive of luminary ratios only in the event sanctioned microsistors and molecular discharge remain concurrent within finite subzones.

Surely I jest!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top