Lighting this situation









What do you think?
Today i shoot this with all of the actors, so please comment!

We shot this with a contruction were the table light was hanging above the table (videolight) exposed the camera for the brighest light and we used 1 other light to fill up the black parts a bit, and a little table lamp for decoration.

ASPECT RATION IS SQUEESED 16:9, BUT PREMIERE MAKES 16:9 EXPORT FRAMES 4:3 (PIXEL ASPECT RATIO PROBLEM I THINK)
 
Jerryv,

I would try putting a sheet of diffusion in the bottom part of the lamp, that will help spread out the light more evenly so there isn't a spot. I'd just cut it out in a circle and set it in there. I'd also use as high a watt bulb as I could get away with, because that will cut down on light a little.

As to the grain, consumer televisions have an auto gain function, they sense dark images and raise the brightness to compensate. A trick that TV DPs use is to always have a bright object in the frame to "let the tv know" what 100% IRE should be. It doesn't have to be very big, it could just be a poarch light in the distance, just something to set the white levels. Check any X-files, that's a "dark" show, but they also used that technique.

Good luck on your shoot!
 
Thank you,

Iam going off now, to shoot.
I dont have a diffusion filter :(
I do have a ND filter, but that is only cutting the light,

well, i just going to shoot it now!

Be back later,
Thanks!

Jerry
 
Your first and third shot add character to the actor. The second shot is a definite no unless you bounce some light from angle...no definition..looks plain. The last shot..needs to have a fill light for the face and some diffusion on the top light because it is too hot.Try to have the actor move back into the chair a little so more light will enhance his face because the top of his head is blocking the bounce of the table. Good to see that the white shirt is now replaced as in your previous pix. Also note that on the third pix you can see the chandelier in the background and the first pix has your lighting reflected in the window glass. If you want that shot..just drop the blind to coverup the stand. If no diffusion then turn down the iris a bit or raise the light a little higher.
 
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Hello!

Yesterday night i shot this little movie, it worked out well, expect for a few shots were someone is laughing and is not supossed to do so :(

But i think it will be fine.

I did not have diffusion filters so i did not alter much about the lighting, the only thing i did was to make sure that i did not turn the exposure to much down.

For some reason, the lighting looks different, and not for the best.
I liked the lighting i posted here a bit more.

What is the best way to darken the footage? just turn the brightnest down in Premiere? Or is there a better way?

Second quistion, can (yes, of course i can...) i use magic bullet 'filmlooks?'
Or is this messing up the Cinelike D 'filmlook?'

Thanks!

Oh, and ofcourse i will shown the footage here when its done :dankk2:

Jerry
 
Hello!

The shoot went okey, but not all acting performance are the way i wanted them to be (not real actors) so, that a BIG drawback.

The lighting went good, but i did not change much.
The reason is i did not have diffusion filters and not enough lights to use the 3 point setup (i have 3 lights, 2 of them are used in the room, 1 is in the lamp, the otherone is bounched to the ceiling for the overall light levels) and 1 is outside for a shot.

I did not use only prackticals, because there is a videolight in the lamp above the table, hang there on a construction. And i kept lowering the exposure untill the table did not overexposed. Thefore the room was becoming darker, and the gain was kicking in (while the gain was 0db..) so i still find it strange.

But someone here mention that tv's has a autogain function, so that may be the reason, on the PC screen it all looks fine. But on 2 different tv's not.

Here is the construction:

Here are a few frames from the video, NOTE: Aspect ratio is wrong. I even loaded into Photoshop and copy/paste it in a 16:9 preset, but after saving, the aspect ratio is not displayed. Iam sorry! It looks a lot different this way... :(
Hope you can see truw the pixel aspect ratio thing... looks cheesy all those long heads...









(any suggestions how i can make this darker? i must still see the girl, the main subjects, but its a bit to light for my taste, consider the other frames.






Suggestions about making the shots look the same -some are a bit brighter than the other- are welcome. And do you think i must do some kind of Color Corretion to it? iam not so good at that (i just use brightnes and contrast..)
But maybe it will look even better with CC.

And finely, i hope to hear some reactions about this raw images.

Thanks :dankk2:

Jerry
 
Now that it is in can...the real fun begins..If your editing program has a plugin for broadcast color correction..it will cut out the extreme highs and lows and maybe that will do it. Color correction is very time consuming so many people (including myself) have purchased DVrack to figure out any problems during the shoot. Did you see your light in the reflection in the window? You should have some type of diffusion plugin in your editing program to lower the gain..Some people use Magic bullet..but the rendering speeds is something else to be desired but maybe it can help you out. Check with your Premiere's help file for info. Or go to the premiere's forum and ask what to do.
 
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jerry where did you post the very first shot???where the guy commented "he looks mad"...because the difference between that one and what's here now is great. shows you took everybody's advice and ran with it. good job.

my comments on the first 4 above...don't really want to repeat too much since you've already shot, but for future reference...

first all four in regards to the actor/subject are on par...it's the background. you need to light your set somewhat to provide depth. so...

shot 1...the windows are too dark. put a light out there. even if it's one tree show there's something out there or close the blinds.
shot 2...no need to really brighten the background, but throw a soft light even gelled just to create atmosphere. either lose the TV or turn it on. if you turn it on however it might provide the light you could use to light the back :)
shot 3...my fave out of the 4, but to repeat the window...
shot 4...see shot 3 :)

now the following "actual" shots look pretty good...just my window peeve. as for the ratio if you're exporting stills out of your NLE then make your frame size 720x405 or 848x480 and that will give your pictures the 16:9 aspect.
 
Thank you! Great to hear!

And yes, i have taken all advice/tips/suggestions into account and used some of them, and some of them not (most of them because the lack of equipment etc..)

But this was my first try with light, normaly i just point the camera and shoot, and only change the lighting when there is not enough to avoid grain, but lighting is so supportive to the whole feeling etc..

To tell you the truth, i want to becoma a director.
So maybe its just waisting time to learn lighting and to give energy to that...
But for a story, its very important to have good lighting too...

Again, thanks for all the advice :dankk2:
 
director...ooooooohhhhhhh.....:)

then you're on the right track because i'd say the director should know every detail of the production because they are the ones getting the stroy from paper to visual medium. so you should know lighting, sound, cinematography, acting, everything :thumbsup:
 
I would use 100watt builb for the fixture, and then splash some difused light in the background with your 1ks. A 500 watt light in the background against the wall might even work for very subtle look.
 
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