Thoughts on my lighting, simple interview 3pt. Would love feedback.

[James Carpenter]

Shot my first piece using "proper" lights (kino's) last week.

I had three daytime balanced kino's, two on the subject and one to light the background. In hindsight, I think a 4th to act as a hair light would have been better, but we were on a budget.
Shot on a C100 and GH4.

Any criticisms are greatly appreciated. Thanks!


C100


GH4

 

[Stephen Mick]

My opinion… The lighting is a bit flat, and needs some more contrast to really be effective. It looks like you had a Kino on each side, equidistant from talent, giving you pretty much a 1:1 contrast ratio on the face. Perhaps if you had turned off two of the bulbs on one side you'd get a slightly more dramatic effect, and more visual interest.

The GH4 shot also suffers from having your background essentially match your skintone color, so the talent "disappears" a bit into the background. On this shot, you might have used something smaller to throw some light on the statue (assuming it's important to the subject, as it's in the shot), but keep much of the background itself a bit darker.

Again, just this guy's opinion.

 

[James Carpenter]

Great feedback Stephen, yes I agree its flat.
As mentioned, it's really my first time using lighting in this kinda of situation but I'm here to learn so thanks so much!

 

[AndreeOnline]

Depending on what you were going for, I think it's a bit flat. Even if you're looking for a high key result, you want to give some dimensionality to the face.

I think it's a good rule to only try to light from one main direction—here I feel you are doing key and fill, but they are competing.

I don't know how much light was in the room, but I would probably rather have used the light on the wall as a rim/hair light to: further give shape to the subject, let the background go a bit darker (will still get some light from the key).

This image is from a 2 light setup. I think the feel of light direction adds something nice:

EDIT: I see that Stephen beat me to it, while I was posting...

 

[Liam Hall]

My advice: start with one light and a reflector. Master that, then move forward.

 

[James Carpenter]

Thanks all.

 

[Michael Carter]

Another vote for "flat" - you may be falling into the "3 point" trap. It's become some weird assumption for people - in some rooms, you only need one light. A back light/hair light can look pretty fake if it isn't motivated by something (or very subtle).

I've been giving more thought lately to skin that gets lost in the background; thinking I'll try using very thin CTB or CTO to get more differentiation when it's needed.

This shot was a quick turn but still kind of bugged me - subject was very pale and I white balanced through an 82A to warm things up. The back wall was actually light blue and I wish I'd held that a bit better or gone a little cooler on her face. I also hit her with a dimmed tungsten fresnel to pop the edge of her face - not really coming from the same place as the warm table lamp but still seems motivated - but then it also added to the warmth that flattens this out too much for me.

It's all about dialing it in...

 

[cyclone]

Gordon Willis had a great approach to lighting:
The fewer lights, the better; simple is better - and don't light everything. Don't be afraid of dark areas (we all know that Conrad Hall called him "the Prince of Darkness"). Hit key areas, slashing lights in the b.g are nice. Having said that, I know you are asking specifically about the face lighting. I know that you agree that it is flat. This is a place a light meter might come in handy (it does for me). You might want to start with a 2:1 Key-to-Fill ratio and then tweak it to your taste. I have to go back to Willis when someone asked how he decided on how to light a scene. Hs answer: I light it the way I like it.

 

[Michael Carter]

...You might want to start with a 2:1 Key-to-Fill ratio and then tweak it to your taste. I have to go back to Willis when someone asked how he decided on how to light a scene. Hs answer: I light it the way I like it.

These days I only use my meter for setting up the key and getting a sense of the space (used the hell out of it in the film days though, and a ton of polaroid). When I get to the camera I know the ISO for the stop I have in mind and I'm usually close with the whole scene.

"The way I like" usually doesn't relate to some thought-out fill ratio though - get the key up and see what the space is doing to the rest of the scene. Decide how much shadow you want and if you want the key fairly full-face or off axis. It's wonderful these days to color balance your camera to whatever you don't want to gel the most and move on. Think of all the corporate gigs in offices with big windows where you come in with the cartload and find you just need one reflector and warm up the temp a bit. (though, seriously, if it's a corporate client that's been cranky about the budget, I'll stick a 150 or something in the scene that doesn't read at all in those cases - "you sold us on all this lighting and setup and then you just setup a camera!??!". Psychology I guess…)

Worst part is one-man stuff - I turn my monitor around 180 and setup with me in the hot spot, then roll a few seconds and run, sit down, face the interviewer chair, etc., rinse and repeat. And then the subject comes in and you're like "well, that looked great on me, but…" Or the guy is nine feet tall and nobody mentioned that...