Outdoors lighting

J

janmi

Member
I'm going to shoot a short film with the new D300s, and I'm considering options on how to add some extra light to outdoor scenes with a 50-200$ budget. I am a photographer, so I have these items at my hand already: white umbrella, white shoot-trough umbrella, white umbrella-softbox.

I was considering on buying a 100-led flashlight and mount it on a tripod with an umbrella. The light from the leds will probably be a tad cold (even for balancing with daylight), so wouldn't a golden umbrella make the light white (or at least a bit warmer)? The golden umbrella will eat some of the light efficiency, but these lights are for closeups during a dialogue.



OR

Should I consider something else? The setup i was talking about would cost under 100$ and is higly portable.
 
For a $200 budget, your best bet is a reflector or a shiny board using the sun as a source. LED flashlight will not even show up on the shot, especially if you're trying to bounce light. The rule of thumb is that as a minimum you need about 5kw worth of light in order to make any kind of difference, and way more if it's a bright sunny day.
 
Obviously I'm going to shoot in the shade. But still, are there any other options than using a reflector? Reflector light isn't very modifiable and is somewhat dependent of the placing.

Say I wan't to shoot at dusk or dawn, are there any alternatives to my primary idea?
 
janmi said:
Say I wan't to shoot at dusk or dawn, are there any alternatives to my primary idea?
Click to expand...

None at all, give it a try if you don't believe me. Even in the shade you're talking HMI fixtures in order to make any kind of difference.
 
Ok, it does sound kinda true.

But if anyone else knows a way how to light a scene in the shade with my gear, please feel free to comment. The lighting needs to only apply to the upper body of a sitting person, from belly to head. :)
 
BOUNCE!! huv vu gave you really your only option. go out side play with it you would be surprise what bounce can give you with the power of the sun and plenty bounce board you could light a decent area and make it look good. FOAM CORE at home depot or lowes is really cheap and would fit your budget and to give you options you can use tinfoil and put it on the bounce board to give you harder light if needed or you can go find gold reflectors like the kinds used for people car windows and such they work great!!

Ken Keeler
 
Yeah, I know how to use a reflector, I am a professional photographer afterall. I actually have a couple of them from Lumisoft. But the light from them can be a bit harsh and you can't always direct the light from the direction you'd like it to come from.
 
i wasn't trying to say you didn't know how to use bounce. sorry if it came off that way i was just giving you options. hope they were of help to you
 
If your bounced light is too harsh, either get a larger bounce board to soften it or fill with another bounce so the contrast isnt as great. I'm sure you knew that, but I'm just covering all the bases, haha.

Also, if you need to bounce from a particular location that doesnt have enough light to do so, you can use a large-ish mirror or two (or seven) to direct the sun at your reflector, simulating a direct bounce without losing too much light.
 
If I bounce light from a white umbrella, how many lumens would you estimate I need to make a difference during late afternoon shade (conditions will of course vary)? 2000? 4000? 6000? 8000? The umbrella will be about 2 metres away from the person.
 
You would need a 4k hmi that would melt your umbrella. Your only option is to get a 4k or bigger HMI or bounce sunlight. Period.

MAYBE if you had like 4 or 5 (or more) of these or these and the area was heavily shaded and the background was all shaded too it could work.
 
A 1.2K HMI would do fine for fill or soft backlight in this situation, as long as he is in the shade and not dealing with direct sunlight.

Of course, if you were shooting film... ;)
 
Indywannabe said:
You don't need a 4-5k hmi if you are in the shade and if you place the smaller fixtures closer to the subject.
Click to expand...

I second that. Even a 650 fresnel with full CTB will provide fill for a subject in the shade. An open face 1k, full CTB and a soft box will provide adequate fill for the shot you've outlined- a belly to head shot. You certainly don't need a 5K or even a 1200w HMI.

Augment with some bounce or vica versa and you are good to go.
 
hotchkiss said:
I second that. Even a 650 fresnel with full CTB will provide fill for a subject in the shade. An open face 1k, full CTB and a soft box will provide adequate fill for the shot you've outlined- a belly to head shot. You certainly don't need a 5K or even a 1200w HMI.

Augment with some bounce or vica versa and you are good to go.
Click to expand...

Sure, if theres absoutely no direct sunlight in the scene. If there's any direct sunlight it will completely blow out. If it was on the shaded side of a building with the shaded part of the building in the background, go for it.
 
The 100-LED flashlight idea isn't so bad at 2 meters (6 feet), but once you put it through an umbrella, very little light will reach the subject to make any difference. That's what Huy was trying to say... which is why he opted to increase the light power with a reflector. Sometimes I also have put a reflector into a silk to soften it a bit. The best advice here : Experiment before the shoot.
 
hotchkiss said:
I second that. Even a 650 fresnel with full CTB will provide fill for a subject in the shade. An open face 1k, full CTB and a soft box will provide adequate fill for the shot you've outlined- a belly to head shot. You certainly don't need a 5K or even a 1200w HMI.
Click to expand...

That has not been my experience. I did a shoot last year where we put a 1k about 2 ft from the actor as a backlight and it barely registered on the camera. We were under the shade of a big building on a cloudy day, no effect.
 
Huy Vu said:
That has not been my experience. I did a shoot last year where we put a 1k about 2 ft from the actor as a backlight and it barely registered on the camera. We were under the shade of a big building on a cloudy day, no effect.
Click to expand...


I agee with Huy... the low efficiency of tungsten units coupled with the loss of light from CTB makes tungstens very ineffective, even in the shade.

At the very least you should get one of those 575w HMI jokers.
 
I lit an outdoor daytime shot with 4 600w tungsten PAR 64s 4 feet from the subject with no gels/diffusion and achieved a pretty cool two-sun effect. It took three of them just to get me to a 1:1 ratio. It never would have worked if I had to cut two stops for CTB.

You should be using whatever Sean has in his picture!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top