Lightning Flash

A

Auk14HP

Member
Yo,

I'm looking to simulate the flash resulting from a lightning strike. To better understand, here's the set-up.

The power is out in the house. The protagonist, in the dark, is exploring the cause when a lightning strike outside lights up the room, casting the antagonist's shadow onto the wall next to the protagonist.

What would be the best way to produce this effect? Practically, with lights while on set? Or in post, playing with the levels of the entire shot and using masks? Or is there a 3rd, much easier way that I'm overlooking here?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

-Auk
 
My feeling is always "nothing looks as real as reality" (IE, usually the best method is practical where applicable..)

Lightning flashes in post may not give you realistic shadows and highlights... I'd test this two ways:

Try a camera flash (you can gel them to give you the color temp you want). Even a cheap one with a manual trigger (or trigger it from a still camera if the shutter noise will be masked in post, from, say, thunder).

The duration of the camera flash may be too short (like, 1 frame sometimes). (Your eyes take forever to adjust to a camera flash and thus it seems the flash "fades" out... same with lightning. But most photography flashes have durations in the hundredths of seconds). Plus, you need the viewer to visually "process" that shadow that's key to your scene.

If the flash duration is too short for your needs, you might try a really intense light quickly switched on & off; however, the buildup may be too slow. In fact, you may need to trigger a flash at the same time you flash a light source, to get the intense burst with a bit of fade-out.

Also, lighting is often several flashes, bunched close together, with one being noticeably brighter... think about what "Style" of lightning you want. If you need a couple flashes in a row, cheap flashes will need to recycle, so you'll need a couple. (Or line up all the still camera with built-in flashes you can find...)

If you know any pro photographers, they may have pack & head flash systems, where the power pack & controls are in a box, and the actual flash unit is a cabled lamp that can go on any light stand, be aimed, & modified with barndoors, grids, etc. These will also have "modeling lamps"; a light bulb in the head unit that shows exactly where the flash goes, how hard the light is, etc. This could be the way to go to figure precisely where that important shadow ends up. In fact, the triggering the flash while giving a burst of the modeling lamp may be just the thing (pro units usually have 200-250 watt modeling lamps that are 3200k, modeling lamp switches, and remote flash triggers). Sorry for the length, hope that helps!
 
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