Lighting suggestions?

R

Rob McKaughan

New member
I've got a short web spot to do at a gym (gym owner showing off equipment). Any suggestions on how to light it (& make it doable as a 1 man job)?

The room has windows all along one side with mirrors opposite, and compact flourescents lighting the interior. Ceilings are at about 15' (unfinished industrial; ducts, conduit, etc). Since the owner isn't shutting down the business (we're shooting at a slow time), and we don't have him forever, I ideally would like to light it so that we have as few lighting resets as possible as we move from machine to machine.

As I see it, the main problems are 1) color temp, and 2) reducing resets to as few as possible - e.g. either something small or easy to reset, or make available light "close enought".

Ideas?

Random thoughts I had: replace all those interior lights with something more daylight balanced (can you gel CF bulbs and get a decent spectrum?), and maybe have a kino for fill that I'd drag behind me (the only thing that resets).
 
A couple of things come to mind. for doing individual pieces of equipment.

Turn the lights in the room off and bring a couple of your own lights.

Back light and add a fill light to the opposite side.

So if it's a shinny weight bench... Put one light to the back right if your facing it and another to the front left or to the left of the camera. This will get you started with a bowflex type lighting setup. You basically want to control the light or it will look very blown out.

Andrew
 
Andrew's getting a little overzelous on his setup. Remember what this is for you -- a ONE man job. You're going to run into headaches if you make it a bigger production than it actually is. Don't turn off the lights in the gym -- Just add to it. You're not going to be able to get a bunch of lights into a gym and run stingers, move a bunch of sand bags for the c-stands for the lights that are going to be hot, with people running around, in a location that you can't control. Remember that bowflex was shot in a controlled private space with professional lighting (gaffers,grips, etc.). I shot a segment for Bally's and the producer wanted to control everything and we ended up shooting in a enclosed room, but unfortunately the equipment and everything else was out in the public area, so I ended up coming back and just shooting with the natural lights, white balancing at each equipment setup and using gain. Good Luck.
 
if you can, choose a slow time with the most light coming in the room. With all those windows and mirrors, you should have enough light for ambiance. I would then get one powerful light, full CTB (if tungsten) to use as a singular back-light. One light that will bump up the production value a lot IMO.
 
It would help if that "slow time" has soft light coming in the windows. If not, and it's direct sunlight, that might cause you the most grief. You might consider putting some kind of diffusion on the windows, 216, Opal, bed sheet, walmart shower curtain...

Then use a daylight balanced backlight, something quick and easy. Remember (as described above) one man show...
 
Hi.

I've shot a couple of gyms and I have to agree with dcdirector "shooting with the natural lights, white balancing at each equipment setup and using gain". If you pick the right time of day, with all the widows and reflected light you should be able to get some good shots. Also the fact that it's a gym you are shooting and not just gym equipment (well, I think that's what you said) adding a bit of a grungy feel fits in nicely with the aesthetic of training etc...

Thanks.
 
Thanks Peter. Remember that the lights you bring in will have to be constantly adjusted for every equipment and that the extension cords are going to have to be taped down and someone's going to have to man the lights -- just in case somebody accidentally runs into it, so there goes half your day of shooting. As for putting diffusion of the windows -- it's very expensive and time consuming. If you just can't get enough light, well then consider using a shiny board (bounce card with silver) to reflect some of the light coming in through the window as fill. Finally, like I said before, I guarantee that if you white balance and tweak your chroma settings, you will get a good enough video for your size of production.
 
Great feedback everyone! Thanks! It sounds like trying to work with what's there is the best bet.

Do you have any detailed suggestions for tweaking the white balance and chroma to get it as best as possible in camera? Every time I've tried to WB in a mixed lighting room, I get something that looks like it was shot in a disco. I'm shooting on a DVX100b.

(I also have DV Rack which seems like it'd be handy in this, but I haven't used it much and am still learning to read a vectorscope).

Thanks!
 
In mixed lighting, it helps to turn the chroma down (-7 in DVX100).

-j
 
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