Newb Lighting Questions

denzlite

denzlite

Active member
I've come across an affordable lighting kit - from the looks of things, it's a Lowel DV Creator 44 Kit - minus one light. I have everything shown here except the 500 w Omni Light:

http://www.lowel.com/kits/DVcreator44.html

Rifa eX 44 softlight, 750w broad throw Tota-light, 250w focusable Pro-light.

I'm somewhat familiar with the concept of 3point lighting - so where do these lights fit with the key, back, fill paradigm? Do I really need the big OMNI?

I've never used this tota-broad throw - what is it used for?

Now that I've got my HMC150, I'd like to try some nice lighting for some interviews I've got coming up. I'd like to somehow recreate this effect I've seen on network interviews where there's a nice soft light that fills in the immediate interview area and the background areas are very dark. When I try some experiments, I can't seem to achieve this effect - the lights seem to drift off into the background areas too much. Maybe setting them up higher and angling down more would do the trick?

I'd like to use these interviews to practice for a short film I'm going to do here in a month or so so any advice would be most appreciated!
 
Denzlite,
I don't have the kit in question and so my advice may not be based on how the kit actually works. But after looking at the specs, it seems to me that the soft box is made for the 500 watt omni. Not having the omni to use with the soft box is bad news for interview setups. If however, the softbox has a built in lamp, ignore the advice about bouncing the 750 and use the soft box in its place.

You can create soft light by bouncing instead of using a soft box. In fact the 750 bounced off of a large white wall, bounce or 48" foam core would achieve similar results as far as diffused light is concerned.

The other bit of bad news is that without a soft box (and more importantly, without egg crates on the soft box), you cannot control the spill from your key light. Controlling spill is essential if you want keep the background dark or completely black.

I would say bouncing the 750 off of foam core is your best bet for soft interview lighting with your setup. There are three ways to help you fake a dark background set up without a soft box and egg crate. 1) get your subject as far away from the background as possible, 2) move your key light to the side as far as possible and use a bounce to fill in the shadow side, 3) move your key light as close to the interviewee as possible.

Inverse square law will be on your side with points 1 and 3 creating a lower luminance level on the BG and higher luminance level on the subject (allowing you to stop down your camera more). Point 2 helps aim the spill away from the BG.

Lastly, you will need to make flags out of black duvatine, canvas or foam core and block as much spill as possible.

I would use the 250 as a back or hair light on a C-stand, probably scrimming it down 1/3 stop. If you are going for a well lit BG, than the 750 tota might work well if aimed through a home made cookaloris (foam core works well) for dappled shadows.

I almost never use a fill light, rather bounce the key on the fill side or place the key more frontally and add a kicker to highlight the key side.


Jason
 
Hey thanks Jason,
Before I read your reply more thoroughly - just for clarification here's what my softbox looks like:

http://www.ggvideo.com/low/low_rifalight_m.jpg

So not having any knowledge I would say that it does indeed have a built in lamp? The omni light I don't have/maybe don't need? looks like:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yKvMJzGHL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

Also can you explain a little bit more about scrimming down the 250? What does that mean? :) What are "egg crates on the soft box"?

Obviously half the battle is getting the language down.

Thanks again.
 
This is what Jason means by the eggcrate:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/251693-REG/Lowel_LC_44EC_50_50_Deg_Egg_Crate.html

This would be for the 44, but I agree with Ken, the 44 is basically a prolight with a softbox on it. It is great as a backlight and for popping in some light where you need a small fixture like that (can actually make a great backlight) but I never use it as a key. Its just not putting out enought light for that and you will loose a few stops when you put the egg crate on there as well.

Another option for you (if you have already decided on this kit) is to get a chimera (softbox) for the tota and put an eggcrate on that to use as your key for the dramatic interviews you are looking for. I have two of these and they have worked well for me. I have owned Rifa's though and they work well and are very easy to setup (although they do inevitably break after a few hundred uses :)

Andy
 
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