Lighting rain without lighting subject

S

SightfulProd

Meet a girl who gets you
For an upcoming shoot I have the subject being showered by a water mesh rig above here. I want to 3/4 backlight the rain to make it visible for the camera but this may catch the subject and reveal the light. My thought is just to raise the light as to make the light beam above her. I haven't had the time to test this as the rig isn't ready yet, what are your thoughts?

~ Sightfulprod
 
3/4 backlight is good for rain. Suggest lighting rain in the foreground, too. Also try for a dark background.
 
I think you answered your own question - "test"

If you haven't done it before, your first go-round will be filled with problems. Probably your second one as well.

Do like kennedymax says, but test it ahead of time to get all the quirks out of the way.
 
Flag off the part of the light that's hitting your subject. If I understand you correctly, you want to light the area above the subject... but isn't that kind of pointless, since we're not going to be looking above the subject, we're going to be looking AT the subject? So you want to light the area in FRONT of the subject, from behind... use a flag.

And yes, test.
 
We're going to be shooting two shots of her, one wide and another Close up. And yes the background is black curtains in the studio so the contrast should help make the rain visible. I know, test, test! The rig will only be up the day before so will try to test it then. I will flag the backlight and maybe try to bounce it back to the subjects front, just an idea I had. The safe thing I will do is to also light the foreground to light the remaining areas of the rain and subject.

Another gaffer recommended to use TWO 3/4 backlights if I want it to really sparkle so will see how that goes too.
 
j said:
I think you answered your own question - "test"

If you haven't done it before, your first go-round will be filled with problems. Probably your second one as well.

Do like kennedymax says, but test it ahead of time to get all the quirks out of the way.
Click to expand...

This man, knows his ****.
 
Phew! I ended up lighting the rain scene with two 2k Blondes @ normal stand height position titlted up towards the rain. Each positioned at the left and right edges of frame, 3/4 backlit. It worked marvelously! The size of the water drops where the biggest determinator of the look of the rain. There were also small drizzles of rain that came out of the water mesh, but the juicy blobby droplets looked more like rain. A 2k Castor was also used from camera right 3/4 spotted which lit what remained to give shape to the droplets/subject. Lastly bounce fill used from the front left using the amazing 650w Arrilight. Don't think I want to use redheads anymore after using the Arri :).

Great success, wish I could post some photos but production wont allow :S
 
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