night lighting

N

noj_brla

Member
So since I just went ape **** about lighting and read like fifty threads on it I have a question that inevitably has been answered before, so sorry. But seriously if everyone just looked up old threads tehn no one would ever start anything new and we'd all be bored and that would suck, so here comes the no brainer.

Lighting at night..... obviously cooler lights are going to give a more "night" feel in certain situations, but what kind of setups have you used/are using? I just read the big thread about making soft boxes and stuff and I'm looking for practical technical stuff here. I'm gonna be shooting a peice at night and am trying to get ahead of schedule.

All advice is greatly appreciated.

Jon.
 
Re: night lighting

There's a real art to nightlighting that make it almost impossible to explain.

Some key points though, blue light does not necessarily mean night. You can use white lights just as well. With night lighting you want to keep your actors lit, but maintain blacks and darkness. Highlighting the outline of your actors will prevent them from disappearing into the blackness of night. Try to use practicals where ever you can and be aware of practicals around where you're shooting. If there's a streetlight, boost it with one of your own lights. If there's moonlight, boost that with your own lights. As long as your audience isn't thinking "where's that light coming from" you're free to light however you want.
 
Re: night lighting

And if it's on a street, most light comes from streetlights (like THiN said) meaning you should put your more powerful lights high, and then maybe use a 200w with a diffusion gel as a fill light. Just a thought.
 
Re: night lighting

Below is a link to a screenshot that I completed a few days ago for a night shot in the rain.

- Behind and to the left of the camera was a 500w 3200k light with 3stop nd filter as a key light for the actor.
- The blue back lighting was a 150watt 4300k HMI light approx 5 meters above the scene with a 1/2 ct blue gel and a 800watt 3200k light on the RHS of the scene with a 1 ct Blue gel.
- 100watt 3000k lamp in shot
- 20watt 3000k light and diffuser above the actor

The scene was shot on Tungsten, f2 and on cine mode.

The lighting took about 2 hours to setup for this shot and another 2 hours to get the rain effect set up(another story).

This is an example of using multicoloured lights in a night scene to achieve the effect that I was after.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~jaz/Reality3.htm

Hope this is of interest
 
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