Lightning Effect

K

Kenneth Lau

Active member
Do you guys know how to make the lightning effect when I need to light a thunder/storm scene?

Are there some kind of Strobe light that does it?
 
The cheapest way to do it is to box the light through a wooden shutter, you can pick one up used for a few bucks at Habitat for Humanity. Then you just flicker the shutter open/closed like you're having a seizure, leave it a little bit more open towards the end of the lightning flash, and shut it. Hold the shutter with a mafer clamp on a c-stand, or just the grip head on a c-stand will work too.
 
David, what units are you using with the Magic Gadget that have a fast enough attack and particularly delay that simulate the speed of lightning? Also--that limits you to smaller units due to the amount of power you can run through the box, you must have the heads quite close to the action?

Obviously the gold standard is Lightning Strikes units, but those are expensive to rent and rare on low-budget sets. The Atomics are a good cost-cutting alternative. On this clip I used two 10K's with old-school metal shutters (manually operated). On a recent feature in New Orleans, I had a 25K Lightning Strikes plus a shutter on a 6K par and still needed a smaller area that wasn't reached by either light, so we actually brought in a local guy to tap weld in the back of the set--the effect was perfect (and cheaper than the Lightning Strikes)!
 
Charles, back before budgets dried up in this market we would rent Lightning Strikes. Now that nobody wants to spend money on appropriately sized sets and proper lighting gear I do the best I can with less than stellar budgets with what I carry on my van, which isn't always the look I'm after, but when you tell some of these producers what the rental cost would be to pull off the shot they almost always balk. And you are right, smaller units, smaller locations, not perfect, but it is what it is. I will run 3 2K lights off the Shadowmaker about 5' apart, then use a programable DMX controller and dimmer pack to run half a dozen 200w Mini Moles up closer. Again, small location, no budget. I'll have to remember the welder!

All the Best!

Dave
 
Well, definitely check out the Atomics that Ben linked to above. I only started using them this spring after being introduced to them by a gaffer; they have a lot of punch, are DMX'able and best of all are very inexpensive.
 
ZERO budget? A few years ago I tested some old-school flash bulbs and flash cubes. The old blue-colored ones (that look like they have a wad of steel wool inside) have a fairly long duration. You may have to amp it up in post a bit. They're still findable on ebay and you can trigger them with a 12 volt battery. You would have to re-rig after the shot, or make several boards of bulbs that could be plugged into some kind of switcher.

May be worth testing, I bought several old polaroid pack-film cameras for an artsy photo project and one came with a pack of bulbs.
 
Going to experiment with something even cheaper than the Atomics, being the frugal kind of guy I am. I'll see if I can get a few of these Low cost American DJ Mega Flash DMX strobes to simulate a lightning flash. Of course one of the issues which must be overcome with strobes is selecting a rate which looks ok with a CMOS camera's rolling shutter. In the cheapie method I used in the post above the light response is a little slower than some of the strobes which looks off to the naked eye on set. But looks better through the camera. The main idea to highlight the actors and cast shadows on set which can be supplemented with After Effects in post. I'll let you know once I get the lights in.

All the Best!

Dave
 
> selecting a rate which looks ok with a CMOS camera's rolling shutter.

Is that possible? I don't think it's a matter of frame rate but rather an issue with the way the image is read. Test it out and let us know if you can get it to work.
 
I will let you know that a guy over on one of my other forums was recently testing the Atomics with an Epic. No matter what frame rate or shutter speed they selected they could not get rid of the flash banding. We were joking around about genlocking the strobes to make it work. If someone could come up with a way to pull that off I'm sure they could corner the market on it. I don't know much of anything about camera sync so I don't know what it would take to pull that off.
 
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