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Lighting Tips and Techniques
Lighting Tips and Techniques
· Books about Lighting· On the Use of Flourescents· On Exterior, Night Lighting· Shooting a Music Video with Timecode. Shooting an Interrogation Scene· Filming People of Color· Cheap Halogen Lighting
Books about Lighting
"Film Lighting" by Malkiewicz is a wonderful collection of commentary by cinematographers, organized by subject.
I don't know why, maybe because cinematography is a visual medium combined with extensive physical logistics, but hearing James Wong Howe and other DPs discuss lighting and camera placement -- supplemented by trying things yourself -- really helps in understanding the process.
I also recommend Nestor Almendros' book "A Man with a Camera", which discusses a lot of philosophical and aesthetic issues regarding the use of natural light.
This and Ross Lowells "Matters of Light and Depth" have probably had the most influence on people I've talked with.
Another fine source of inspiration is photography books. Cinematography is an extension of still photography with a moving camera -- making it more difficult to light since you have the potential multiple camera angles during the same take. Study the lighting techniques of still photographers and then study the works of cinematographers and experiment.
Study the various master painters, as well. They replicate on canvas the qualities of light and shadows the same as photographers.
It is not well known that Freddie Young wrote a book on being a DP, including lighting. It's out of print, and I forget the name, but it's Focal Press. Rumors are it might have been reprinted.
Learning to recreate natural light is mostly a matter of personal observation and study; the technical means to achieve it are quite easy to learn - but one can spend an entire life studying the qualities of natural light in all its variations.
Video magazines are good sources for tips and techniques -- Videomaker has a regular column called "Light Source" and the September 1998 and April 1999 issue of DV Magazine cover lighting issues, providing tips which are invaluable.
On the Use of Flourescents
If you are running sync, the flicker from common ballasts is unnoticeable. The expensive Kinoflos and others use a high-frequency ballast designed not to flicker on camera unless using a very high shutter speed.
To prevent color temperature problems, lay your mitts on some Optima 32s by Duro-Test Lighting (see next paragraph). These suckers are as close to tungsten balanced as I've ever seen from a non-specialty tube (like a Kinoflo). Some have like 1/8 to 1/4 green to them, but that's pretty minor, even negligible in the low budget universe. Here's the best part: Optima 32s go for about $10 a tube. I've read where one person lit half a movie with $100 worth of tubes. This smacks the hell out of a Lowell kit any day price-wise (purchase or rental).
Optima32s are manufactured by Duro-Test Lighting. Unfortunately, they don't sell to private individuals so you have to request a local distributor. You can do this by filling out their contact form or calling them at (800) 289-3876.
Just in case someone thinks I'm some Duro-Test flack, nothing can be further from the truth. I simply heart cheap film gear.
As for fixtures, you can get away with the white shop fixtures from building supply stores although they're quite bulky. For location lighting, I've been told that you can buy the Kinoflo fixtures but I imagine they will want some outrageous money for them. Another source for fixtures are Magnary International but I don't have any prices on them. They are built for shop environments so they may be heavy and pricey.
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On Exterior, Night Lighting
You're really talking about big power stuff (10K) if your scene is at all wide. This means a fairly large generator, which of course, will have to be mega-muffled if you are recording sound (and we always record sound, don't we?). You would also need something like a blonde to use as a key/fill, although you might get away with reflectors off the 10K.
If your shot is not too wide you might get away using just a blonde and reflectors. This means you could get away with a portable generator, but these are generally not well muffled.
The idea is to use the large light as a huge, wide backlight, giving your subjects a strong rim. The justification for this light might be that it's the moon. If possible, douse the area with water (particularly road surfaces and building walls), as this creates bright reflections which give texture to these areas. Careful use of a reflector bouncing light back from this large light will give you fill on the camera side of your subject. This won't be easy if your shots are at all wide.
Newcomers to night lighting often think that a mere absence of light represents night. This is not so. Standard three point lighting applies for night shooting as well. Essentially you light just as in a studio, but the viewer accepts that this is night because the scene moves to black where our light doesn't fall.
If your budget is tiny you may choose to shoot "day for night". Let the sun be a backlight, bounce in a little fill if needed, fool the color balance, by balancing through an orange gel or other method, so everything looks bluish, increase the contrast in post. Outdoor lighting is much too expensive for a lot of people. A generator big enough to run a 10K plus some other stuff is going to be expensive and probably too loud, even if blimped, to shoot on a deserted road. You would most likely need to replace the audio like the big guys do. That 10K would most likely want to be rigged very high, perhaps hanging off a crane, very expensive. Day for night might be better if your budget for the shot is under $4,000 USD.
As always, the sun provides a very nice, inexpensive light source. Any exterior shot can be expensive to light or inexpensive, depending upon how resourceful you are. The shadows that buildings, trees and bridges cast can provide wonderful soft light during the day and the "golden hour" just after sunset is a beautiful (if short) time to shoot. Early morning just before sunrise is another time that affords inexpensive, soft natural light.
Shooting a Music Video with Timecode
A big advantage to video on any set, especially a music video, is playback on the set. A big disadvantage is not being able to feed timecode into miniDV cameras -- and using a timecode slate is a big, expensive pain in the ass. Here is a simple method to get timecode on your scenes:
Get the studio master of the song from the artist or label and dub the song onto a mini-DV tape. Just record audio with no video. Then use this to playback in the field or do a timecode burn of this new "master" onto another format. The song now is "striped" with 30NDF timecode.
Play back with timecode visible onto a monitor in the field. This rig becomes bulky but clever de facto timecode slate. Make sure you roll a good three to five seconds of timecode before you start shooting the performance.
When you are done shooting digitize your "new timecode master" as a reference clip. Make sure you digitize the timecode burn. All of your takes now have the same head timecode as your reference clip. To get perfect sync, just line the visible timecode on your reference clip with the timecode you shot in the field off of your monitor. This works well if your artist can maintain sync.
As director, you have the right to give your talent (artist) direction. Make them practice lip-syncing. Have them do it over and over into a mirror until they have it down well. They must sing! They cannot just move their lips to the song. It will not work. Tell your artist that playback will be loud and they need to sing-sync loud enough to hear themselves over playback. This WORKS!!!! The result is a more natural, look in the finished piece.
Other thoughts not pertaining to timecode:
· Use the frame movie mode only.
· To give a letterbox look, shoot in 16:9
· Light according to the mood you want
· Make sure your subject is lit properly, but experiment.
· Have fun!
Shooting an Interrogation Scene
Most of these scenes either simulate or actually use a China Hat - an inverted bowl fixture with a bare bulb. The spill is often controlled by raising or lowering the light or by adding a skirt of black cloth if the light is off-camera. You can get these units at a store and then figure out how to mount it -- a wall-spreader if you have some real grip equipment.
You can also use a Chinese Lantern off-camera and above the table, skirted on all sides with black cloth or newspaper spray-painted black. But since it's a soft source, it won't give you that hard delineation between light and shadow.
You essentially need a single hard source from above and pointing at the center of the table, mounted in a fixture that will cut the light on the sides. A China Hat or a large reflector dish with a bare bulb (a clear glass bulb will give you even harder shadows) can be used - check out your local hardware store.
If you're using an overhead light source such as a China Hat, you might consider painting the surface of the table a light gray, or white, to bounce some of the light onto the actors' faces. This really helps since video tends to get contrast pretty easily.
Even if you are going for a hard-edge look, a little fill can bring out detail in a face. Just make sure it's not too much, or it could be difficult if you need the peripheral actors to be in complete or partial blackness.
With more time and effort, the best way to do it (or the only way, if you must have a dark-colored tabletop) is to use white foamcore bounce cards and have them out of frame, or hidden. It can get tricky to match in wider shots, though.
If you have, say, 12 feet or more of vertical clearance, here is an ideal solution. Rent or borrow a wide-angle (say 40 degree) ellipsoidal spot (Leko) from a theatre lighting house or local theatre company. You want one with an iris in it; this will allow you to adjust the beam very precisely, and will give you the very hot very hard light you want. And be sure to use a 3200K tungsten source.
One person wrote, "The scene I shot was an interrogation room, with 2 men at a table, and one cop at the wall standing behind. I wanted that 'raw look' so I just took one redhead (800W openface) and replaced the practical that was already hanging there. For the close ups, I threw in a couple of white papers on the table underneath the actors to bounce some light onto their faces."
If you want some light on the background, use some foamcore as mentioned above. For a little more "X-Files" look, turn on your haze/smoke machine. It's very much up to the media you are using. If it's video, then think about the poor contrast-curve and lower your fill-ratio.
Some interrogation scenes use glow to emphasize the light that's pouring onto the subject. The subject is usually wearing a (messed up) white shirt so they appear to be awash in light. A double-fog or white mist lens filter is used for this or a glow filter applied in post.
Another crazy idea I read about involves a hula hoop. Fasten black duveteen to the hoop so it hangs like a cylinder, about a yard long. Center a 1K open face in the circle at the top edge of the duveteen. Suspend this apparatus directly above the subject's head. You may need some diffusion on the broad to make this look good. For exposure on the face, a wild look in the eyes, and shadow fill, use a bounce card below the subject's face (in his lap or thereabouts).
With this hula hoop apparatus, use the highest wattage bulb the fixture will take. Then bounce 500 - 1K lights off the ceiling if white or tape white cards to the ceiling if it's not white. That should give you the effect you want.
Filming People of Color
Subjects with dark skin tone create a high contrast ratio which can be hard to handle. Keep the background on the neutral side -- avoid white or bright colors. Put plenty of light on the subject and keep it even. On a light-skinned face, contrasty lighting often adds modeling and character. On a dark-skinned face the shadows don't seem as flattering.
As in black and white photography, use a key light to highlight hair and shoulders and separate the person from the neutral background. Ask the talent not to wear white or red if possible. Make sure you have a good color monitor on the shoot and set it up before hand so you know what it is showing. And don't underexpose. Worry about the face and let the background go into over exposure if necessary.
The camera may make a difference too. I have found that my new Sony DSR-300 really does a better job with this situation than my old JVC X2. Apparently all the fancy digital processing like the dynamic contrast handling stuff really works.
Like most video situations it's really not that big a problem once you are aware of it and can control lighting and such. I've read of one person who had to shoot a clinic dedication inside a big white tent on a bright sun afternoon. The background behind the podium was the white translucent tent -- basically a huge lightbox behind the speakers. He opened up the iris as far as it would go and the subjects looked pretty good. The background all but disappeared!
This is a film solution, not video, and the color issue might be different, but for a medium-dark skin tone that isn't too warm, (lets call it "Milk Chocolate"), a gold reflector keylight works very well.
This didn't work as well on darker skin tones ("Bittersweet Chocolate") Here I used regular "white" light all around but made sure it was VERY SOFT and that I had a very hot backlight (which you can run blue for aesthetics).
One person wrote that large sources are the way to go. Budget for a couple Chimeras and go with that. On the backdrop issue, find a material darker than the talent's skin tone, and suggest similar tonal range for the subject's attire.Don't go to straight black, though, keep some visibility in it. Rim light is also very important here, and the management of it. Perhaps a larger, lower power Chimera? One of the worst situations he can imagine is seeing a dark complexion person in a white shirt with no jacket against a white wall being blasted by enough light to roast them.
If your subject has a bright shirt, you may need to flag light off the shirt. Put a flag or reflector between your frontal lighting so that less light hits the shirt. This is less than ideal but will work if you are forced to light in such a situation.
Very important: The reason for the large sources is that what you need is more even lighting, not more light. Think of lighting an inanimate object of the same characteristics - dark, slightly reflective, sort of specular. You need to have large, even light and open shadow areas, so fill and key ratio might be a bit closer than normal.
The first point to remember is that you are not trying to raise their skin tone to %70-80%. Some people do this, they just keep pumping and pumping in front light. Watch some movies or TV shows (dramatic, not sitcom) with close-ups of really dark actors. You'll notice that what you're really seeing, what is actually giving shape and detail to the face, is glare and highlights. The tones and shadows of the face remain dark.
What does this mean? Well you want to light dark complexioned faces in a way very similar to black jewelry or obsidian stones. You use reflections and glare rather than fighting it. In fact, you want a little shininess on the face, the exact opposite of pale faces, where you use makeup to dampen the shine.
So Side Lighting and Rim Lighting. Large sources work better than point sources. Bouncing a 1K into a curved white card for a side light can create a very nice glare off the skin along the neck. Side lights can work off the cheeks. Try some warm gels on one side, and cool gels on the other.
For the eyes you want a nice broad softlight, to create a sparkle in the eye, and fill in the sockets a little.
This is a challenge if you haven't lit very dark skin before, but its worth the effort, as the results can be incredibly rich and gorgeous.
Cheap Halogen Lighting
The common halogen shop lights you find at Sears and Wal-mart are great for video work, but they don't provide any control (no barndoors or other attachments). But they are dirt cheap which goes a long way for producers on low budgets. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes from ones that have their own stands to ones that have their own grip attachments for ladders, walls, shelves, etc.
For controlling the brightness, you can rig up a standard 600W dimmer in a box. Just don't turn them down too far or you change the color of the light a lot. although this can produce a warm color which might be desirable in certain situations. You can also color correct to some extent in post production, provided you don't have a lot of various light sources of differing color temperature. Of course, if you're shooting in black and white, then you don't have to worry too much about this.
Word of warning, the average dimmer isn't rated for more than about 400 watts. They will get hot if you run more than one light. You can find some 600W dimmers but even so, watch how much power you are drawing from it. Of course, it's better to individually control your lights by having only one light per dimmer.
Copyright © 2003 Mopac Media of Austin, Texas
Hosted by Mopac Media Networks -- please send any feedback regarding this site to our web@mopacmedia.com -- thanks!
Mopac Media Networks
Article Added: Jan 25, 2006
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