Shooting High Noon question

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Anthony_Gilmore

Well-known member
I'm shooting an interview at high noon with a bay window in the backdrop. This interview will be shot on the 30th floor of a luxury hotel. Downtown and large mountain as the backdrop. What lights are recommended...if any to balance the shadows?

Best Wishes
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

If you're shooting indoors and you want the window to not totally blow out, you'll need either some HMI's or some strong daylight-balanced fluorescents to bring the light level up to where it's competitive with how bright the outdoors will be.

Or, for the cheap solution, get a roll of 85ND gel and gel the window down, you'll probably want at least 2-stop ND or maybe 3-stop ND gel, #85 in color to convert the daylight color to tungsten to match the interior lights.
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

Thanks Barry...what do you recomend for the HMI, I can rent a 1.2K and 200W HMI also my rental house has Kinoflo's a 2 ft 4 bank and 2bank set. They also have a Joker daylight 200W. What do you recommend...also...how do i light it? Just one Key light? Thanks
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

Hmmm... a 1.2k is probably too strong, and a 200w is probably too weak. To quote Goldilocks, a 400 or 575 might be "just right" -- with a softbox. Be forewarned a 1200w HMI is a big light, big & heavy. Magnetic ballasts are about 75 pounds by themselves.

Is the entire background going to be the window? Or is there "office" around the window (furniture, wallpaper, etc?) Will you have to light up the background around the window?

Walking into a circumstance like that "blind", I'd want to have all those lights at my disposal. If there are white walls or a white ceiling, I might bounce the 1200w into the wall or ceiling, to get the overall light level up, then use the Kino's to shape the light on the subject. But that might be overkill too -- depends on if the sun is coming in the window or if it's just a window that opens onto the view. If the sun is shining actually into the room (such as a south-facing window here in the US) then that's one thing, but if the sun cannot shine into the window (such as a north-facing window in the US) then that's something entirely different.

A 2' 4-bank puts out an okay amount of light, probably not enough to compete with a window but up close it could make for a nice soft key. Then fill in to taste with the 2' 2-bank. If you need background lights to shape and model the background, the Joker might be good for that, although it may be a bit strong.

In "tungsten equivalency" the Kino 2' 4-bank delivers about 320 watts' worth of soft light. The 2' 2-bank does about 160 watts worth. The Joker 200 does about 600 watts worth, and the 1200w HMI does about 4,000 watts worth. (make sure the Kino's come with daylight tubes or they'll be worthless to you).

With the options you specified, I'm not sure how I'd proceed. I'd like to have two Kino Diva 400's and a couple Joker 200's, ideally... or maybe a kit with one Joker 400 and two Joker 200's. That 1200 seems like it's just going to overpower everything, and I don't know if the 2' Kino's will have enough punch to deliver the look you want.

You could probably get a pretty good look with the two Kino's, or maybe with one Kino and the Joker 200... it all depends on how strong that window is. With the Kino 4-bank set as a key off to one side, I'd either use the 2-bank as fill, or try to rig the Joker as a hairlight and use a bounce card to make the Joker do double duty: its main beam is a hairlight, but with a bounce card you could catch the light and use it as fill.

Practice before you get there, if at all possible, to get the right interview subject look. Then when you get on site, adjust to accomodate the window as necessary (move the lights closer in, turn on more bulbs in the Kino's, etc).
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

Listen to Barry. He knows what he's talking about. I might only add that you should try to avoid using ND+Full CTO on the windows if they are going to be a major player and in focus in the background. The reason being is if you have alot of windows to cover it can get somewhat pricey to cover them all and its both time consuming and a challenge to do it in a way that is clean and seemless. I always ask the director "what do you see as being your widest shot and who is going to be in it?". This will help you decide on which light(s) to choose from what you have there. When in doubt always go with the brighter light. You can always cut it down. Thats what scrims, ND's and (if your going soft) chimeras are for. Good luck.
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

Thanks for all the tips. We ended up with some HMI's and even pulled off a Rembrandt effect. It looks pretty good. We gelled the lights with blue to match the 5200K. However, it seems to emit a tint of orange on the faces and white walls. We white balanced...Why is that? We test shot it today...

Also, there is a large shadow under the eyes....i guess I can just fill that in right? The two lights for the rembrandt effect are at 180 degrees. The background is in focus...its beautiful with mountains and skyscrapers...downtown Seoul Korea. The shadows look like molding, but they are bit to hard. Will a fill take out the rembrandt effect if we keep it low?

Best Wishes
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

You put CTB on HMI lights?  Sorry, I'm lost.  That would put you at an effective double ctb for your lights, and with the daylight/skylight coming in from the windows...adding up all of those things equals BLUE.

You shouldn't have anything warm resulting from that equation.  Do you have practicals in the scene?  Are overhead lights (practicals) being left on?  The time is noon, is it not?

If you're using any tungstens that you forgot to mention, then perhaps the orange is coming from a bit of side spill, a half-gelled light, or an incorrect gel (say a 1/2 ctb instead of full).

If there aren't any tungstens in your scene, perhaps your white balance was still incorrect.  If you did blue your HMI's, and then balanced to that...then your daylight from the window might even appear unusually warm.

If all of your sources are daylight, then try just using the daylight setting on your camera and not white balancing.

I'd also suspect that you could probably bounce enough light into the eyes to get a little detail with a bit of card.

Post some frame grabs when you're done.  Good luck.
 
Re: Shooting High Noon question

harsh shadow came from harsh source. I would use the largest HMI you can run, which would probably be the 1200 then put it through a large piece of diffusion to make it very soft. In fact, i would have 2 1200 HMIs to give me enough exposure to offset the exterior and put them both through one heavy sheet of diffusion. a 6' X 6' (2 meter square) sheet of heavy diffusion would be my choice with 2 fresnel 1200 HMIs filling the sheet. Have extra diffusion to put on the lamps if needed to further soften. no need for CTB, in fact I might consider 1/4 CTO to slightly warm the HMIs.
Also, you might not need this much lighting intensity if the window is already tinted, which is common.
 
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