Lighting Question

Oetam

Oetam

Active member
Hi,

I'm trying to light a quite large living room a bit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e-CQtsc_go

I want it to look like natural nighttime light coming trough the windows so it needs to have a blue tone.

It is going to be shot at night on a Panasonic GH1 (4/3 sensor) and a Canon f2.8 24mm (Effectively 48mm), 1/50th shutter speed and I don't want the ISO to go any higher than 400/640.

It is just like the example, a fight so I want it to be quite dark but light enough that you see what's going on.

I'm working on a shoestring budget so I'd prefer to use normal lamps I already have (maybe with blue cellophane paper?)

I know this are a bunch of requirements that don't combine well but it should be possible right?
 
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if you mean everyday lamps that you can buy at a hardware store then there is little you can do as they are not usually hard lights, meaning not at all punchy enough to throw there light very far and still give shape to your subjects. there are some methods you can use to get more out of everyday lights...

1) snoot it, which means that you make a long cylinder out of a reflective substance, like cardboard with alumminum foil on the inside, place it up to your lamp face and close off every light leak so that light only comes down the cylinder, this can throw the light a bit farther and makes it into more of a spotlight, effective word being "bit"

2) get some photoflood bulbs (in your case HMI balanced (daylight) bulbs, these are usually not that great but you can get up to 500w bulbs that should still run fine through your everyday fixtures.

3) a combo of the two and use many lamps, make sure to seperate the lights by distance from each other or by flagging off their sides or you will get many a bad double shadow, especially with cheaper lamps.

the issue is the gels, as even 1/2 ctb will take off 2/3 of a stop (im pretty sure on that but might be a bit off) and for cheaper lights that is a lot of light to lose, also, take into account the fall off of cheaper lights, the further you place your lights from your subject the less light will make it to them, to calculate this use the inverse square calculation to derive how close your lamps should be.

if you can at all swing it try to get at least a 1.2k HMI, not sure what your situation is but you can usually rent that and some cable for fairly cheap, here in toronto canada i can rent one for about 45 a day. with a fixture like this you would only need to put a half ctb to get the moonlight blue look.

samm
 
Earlier I was thinking that this is pretty hard to do with out any actual lights, but I think I've got something.

What you have to do is actually shoot it during the daytime. Get some foamcore or something with a side that is highly reflective and use that to bounce light into the room. Maybe you could break them up a bit with some sort of cookie or branchaloris in front of them. Then black out all the windows, except for the one you plan to shoot lights through.

Try and frame things around that window so that you don't see it and then maybe take the black off the other windows as they are not in that specific shot to add some fill in. You could also use some china balls behind you to use as fill. If you use normal incandescent globes they'll be white, which won't be such a terrible thing if you're just adding a little. You can also get daylight balanced CFL's, which could work nicely as well...As those would come out blue.

You could probably do it all for like...30 bucks tops. You can also play ping pong a bit...bouncing light into the room and off another board if you want to work something in for a closeup or something.

Also, if you did rent an HMI, normally people shoot with their white balance set to 3200, then use the 5600k HMI as a blue fixture. It's much easier also to make a blue fixture more orange, than an orange fixture more blue, just because CTO cuts less light than CTB.
 
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Before you begin putting up lights, take a breath and realize that you have 2 goals.
1 The scene to look natural
2. Get enough light for your camera.
The very first thing is to just use your eyes. Where is the natural room light coming from, is there one light brighter than others, where does the light fall and what kind of shadows are created. If you like the look of the room in it's natural form than great, just duplicate the lighting with stronger wattage bulbs.
If you want to make changes and add certain emphasis, now is the time to creat your lighting plan. Never start putting up fixtures until you know what you are looking for.
Everybody loves the different kind of lighting tools that exist and each has their favorites, but they are tools. It's the lighting design and plan that will ultimately make your scene what you want.
This also works for outdoor shots. Always use your eyes before your camera.
 
A lot of great suggestions here, I'm taking all of them into account so keep them coming!
 
Hey everyone,

I finally lit it with three construction lights, a few office lamps and blue gels.
I borrowed it all from a friend.

I'm quite happy with the result, and I got pretty close to the look I wanted.

I'll post the final film here when done editing.
 
Gary said:
Before you begin putting up lights, take a breath and realize that you have 2 goals.
1 The scene to look natural
2. Get enough light for your camera.
The very first thing is to just use your eyes. Where is the natural room light coming from, is there one light brighter than others, where does the light fall and what kind of shadows are created. If you like the look of the room in it's natural form than great, just duplicate the lighting with stronger wattage bulbs.
If you want to make changes and add certain emphasis, now is the time to creat your lighting plan. Never start putting up fixtures until you know what you are looking for.
Everybody loves the different kind of lighting tools that exist and each has their favorites, but they are tools. It's the lighting design and plan that will ultimately make your scene what you want.
This also works for outdoor shots. Always use your eyes before your camera.
Click to expand...

This is some of the best lighting advice you'll ever come across.
 
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