Simulating lantern light in a dark cave

J

Joe Stas

Active member
Hi
I am going to be filming a scene in a cave on Saturday which involves a person walking with a flame lit lantern. I have attached a picture below to illustrate. This is a screen grab from today. I had to really pump my ISO settings to get it exposed and even now it's not too great. So, I wanted to ask advice on how to add extra light to this scene with what I have available.


ScreenShot2013-05-02at210306_zpsa86b526f.png



When I shoot I will have access to 3 Bi-Color LED panels and 2 Dedolights. And an assortment of gels for them. Any advice you can give me would be great. I'm new to the lighting aspect of productions so am still learning.

Thanks a lot for reading and for your time!
 
In the past I used a prop lantern as our "key" and then a china ball on a boom pole, dimmed down and gelled to match the color temp of the lantern. You can keep the china ball mobile to move with the character as they walk through the shot. Also if you get a couple battery belts and can attach a power inverter to them you have a self contained unit.
 
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Kill the live flame and put a hulk sized bulb in there throw in some clever wiring and voila
[EDIT]
That'll get you light but on second thought I'm doubt it'll look flame-y.
The china ball solution is probably the easiest one if you're not all that iffy about the lantern - I know some folks like their lanterns to be lanterns rather than simply props.
 
Shadows will be the potential shot killer - you need to position any secondary lighting so that its shadows appear right where lantern shadows appear. Not too hard for static shots, but potentially quite a hassle if the camera or lantern carrier are moving.
 
When faced with low light situations I often point a couple of 4 bank fluoros at the ceiling and/or opposite wall just to raise the ambient light level without casting shadows. Any light source on the subject will still perform the same, a hard source on the subject will still cast a shadow although a weak source may or may not be as contrasty. Never done it in a cave but can't see why it wouldn't work. It should result in your image looking pretty much the same as your sample but cleaner because you won't need to use as much gain. And the noise is the only problem I see with your sample.
 
A china ball on a pole is probably the best option. It gives you that added bit of ambient light and still keeps the effect of the lantern by only supplementing the amount of light. Just dim it down until you can't see the shadows it casts through the camera and have someone follow the actor with it holding it above their head out of shot.

Or if the talent isn't moving and you have the space, try doing what Egg Born Son said and bounce some ambient light off the ceiling or floor. Any sort of soft lighting should help to raise ambience without ruining the affect.
 
Screen Shot 2013-05-03 at 07.27.04.jpgScreen Shot 2013-05-03 at 07.27.13.jpg

I noticed in the beginning of The Raven, when the police kick in the door to apartment, one of them is holding a square lantern. During a single second you get a brief look at one of the opposing sides of the lantern and you can see they attached a Litepad or similar to the lantern. Pretty sweet move in my oppinion.

So if your direction offers the room to not show the lanterns backside, then you could get proper light on his face and the experiment with raising the ambience on the side.

Hey, if you could even avoid showing two sides of the lantern, then you could litepad two sides and get some natural spill on the walls.

Anyways... you could take a look at that opening scene. In general is pretty damn dark and might offer some clues to options. A lot is forgiven when dealing with night / dark shots.
 
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You are all awesome - thanks for the suggestions, very appreciative. I'll have a look at options today!
 
The new movie Oblivion, shot under natural light in one scene. It was very dark and barely noticeable under the one candle light. But it looked cool.
 
legrevedotcom said:
View attachment 70480View attachment 70479

I noticed in the beginning of The Raven, when the police kick in the door to apartment, one of them is holding a square lantern. During a single second you get a brief look at one of the opposing sides of the lantern and you can see they attached a Litepad or similar to the lantern. Pretty sweet move in my oppinion.

So if your direction offers the room to not show the lanterns backside, then you could get proper light on his face and the experiment with raising the ambience on the side.

Hey, if you could even avoid showing two sides of the lantern, then you could litepad two sides and get some natural spill on the walls.

Anyways... you could take a look at that opening scene. In general is pretty damn dark and might offer some clues to options. A lot is forgiven when dealing with night / dark shots.
Click to expand...

Good find. I think even a small led with some diffusion and CTO would work well too.
 
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