The hair/backlight's struggle to survive

My experience is different. . .every DP on every shoot I'm on uses one. Maybe not the old school hair light PER SE, but an edge light (i.e. something that lights the side of the face/head/body, as opposed to the top) at least. Many times both. Soft sources like Divas etc. very popular for this even in the corporate video world now, from what I've seen. I do NOT see much of the cookie pattern on the background wall these days, usually done with a single splash of light or series of lights highlighting different things instead.
 
She has a backlight. The hard, high key light, lack of fill and broad lighting pattern isn't doing her any favours, but she has a backlight.
 
Umm..Talking about the interviewer, folks. Considering they did alright with her..maybe ran out of instruments? Dunno...but I hope approaches to separating from background don't end up being relegated to "old school". The right approach for a given situation, to my mind...and here Gion is wearing the wall as a hat...in distracting contrast to the subject. Maybe Gion is given the crappy lighting due to his "dark" side yet to be revealed to the general public ;)
 
Yeah, I was just about to add, what I described above, is exactly what they did. I would have maybe made it a tinge hotter and walked it around more behind her so there was a dark area on that side of her face between where the key falls off and edge/back light begins, but it IS there.
 
Joni Looks good, but I agree their decision on the interviewer is a little baffling.

If this was a Sith Lord interviewing Darth Maul then it would be cool, but I found the "buried in the dark" look of the interviewer to simply be weird and distracting.
 
Yeah, not only lack of lighting but lack of technique--interviewer is keyed from the on camera side which is weird for this type of setup, especially since Joni is keyed from the off camera side (they should both be keyed from off cam side, in my opinion). Although, this could be due to lack of instruments and they didn't want him totally black on his fill side, hence the "dumb side" keying.
 
Jian is a pretty messed up guy so maybe his dark soul sucked up any backlight. It also would not surprise me if Jian asked for it to be like that because he fancies himself dark and mysterious.


On a related note I hope he ends up in jail.
 
Yes..perhaps a case of "negative fill".....

But putting yourself in a similar situation..assuming the airline ate the rest of lighting kit, what would you do here beyond moving light to other side?
I'm thinking:
-try to find something to reflect part of key as edge, fill or onto background. Regular tin foil, maybe crinkled? Pot or pan, lid? Bathroom mirror? Place on chair using books etc to raise it into position, angling "reflector" via chair seat and back?
-scrounge up a practical to place out of frame with hopefully a way to match enough color temp-wise. Or place in frame, orienting spill to light background enough to separate from dark hair.
-Look for lighter/white material(s) or object to place in defocused background behind head

And/Or.....
 
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A small pool of light on the wall behind his head would be enough to create some separation between the two. A little Dedo or LED panel would do just fine for that.
 
I think the blacks are crushed for some reason on this clip, but overall, I think these are some unfortunate choices for lighting.
 
agreed. But let's turn it into an excercise in guerilla lighting techniques. Disregarding choices on Joni, you are out of lights and the interviewer still has zero separation from background. What do you do?
 
repurpose one of the lights already being used--better that both look "just ok" then one look pretty good and one look like ass.
 
Josh Bass said:
repurpose one of the lights already being used--better that both look "just ok" then one look pretty good and one look like ass.
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This.

Or a quick shot of silver spray paint on the interviewer's hair. That should make it stand out a wee bit.
 
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