Video vs Film lighting. How to adjust?

Tim Joy

Tim Joy

Veteran
I'm curious who has any tips for great lighting on video, given its reduced dynamic range/ latitude. Are there any general rules? Should there be more contrast? Less contrast? Color differences? Softer, harder light?

I drool over lighting I see from the "big boys" and I would like to emulate that as much as possible on my dvx.
 
Proper exposure is really important with video because you have pretty little play in latitude, but from a lighting stand point its pretty much the same. With video you can't get away with having over exposed areas because you will completely lose info in those areas, so you need to be careful with high lighting ratios because you can lose alot of detail in the video.
 
video in general is has more contrast because it has less range, so you want to have slightly lower contrast ratio's than you would if you were shooting on stock.

so for example, if you lit a scene for film and you are going for a 9:1 contrast ratio, try adjusting the video to 8:1 or 7:1.
 
Just less contrast. I don't think everything else is sort of the same...Well, that and don't do any big red washes of light. Gotta be careful of the color compression with digital.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top