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Author
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Topic: crash course in lighting
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8ride
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posted 02-15-2001 10:33 PM
Can some just give me some quick tips on good lighting. I understand that its alot more than just aiming the lights at what your shooting. I'll be using work lights which the school has a huge supply of. I always hear about bouncing the light off of something white, what does this do? It seems everytime I tape something it ends up with way too much yellow. |
ADOM
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posted 02-15-2001 11:30 PM
Sounds like part of your problem is that your lights have the wrong color temp or you are not white balancing the camera correctly before each shot. Unless you have a camera with a white balance filter on the lense cap (Panasonic 455-456) you'll need a clean white surface to balance each time you change lighting or let the camera shut down (I'm assumiong video camcorders here). If you have a highger end camera with color balance more power to ya'.As for bouncing the light off of a white surface, this causes a good deal of light, but diffuses it first so it is not hard. I like using amber "gels" for daylight to smooth out skintones and and blue for moonlight. Hope this helps. ADOM |
Actor
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posted 02-15-2001 11:38 PM
Bouncing the light off a white surface "softens" the light. This means it scatters the light and gets rid of the effect of it coming from a point source (hard light). Hard light generates harsh, sharp edged shadows. Sometimes this can be a good effect. Kubrick used it a lot.Usually shooting with light that has a low color temp puts a reddish cast on film. I don't know about video. Video usually has automatic color correction built in, or maybe some manual control. I would suggest experimenting with filters. Try a blue 80A for starters. One thing about light, there is almost never too much. To get the most out of your lights plan your shots and set them up as close to your actors as you can get and still be out of camera range. This is a technique that Hollywood seldom uses because the lights have to be reset a lot between setups, which takes time. They are paying the actors and crew so much that it's cheaper to just buy a lot of big lights and set them up back out of the way.
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capt. video
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posted 02-16-2001 03:42 AM
Lighting is indeed much more than just pointing a light at you subject. What are you lighting for? An intervue, dramatic scene, a light comedy? Light is used as much to comvey the mood and emotion of a scene as to liuminate your actors faces and were you place your lights and the colors of gels you use as well as the intensity of the lights themselfs sould be used in concert with the mood and feel of the scene your trying to create. Basis 3 point lighting is the most common of techniques for lighting a simple scene. this consists of a key light and 2 fill lights, 4 point would inclued a back light. But good lighting takes practice and research to be effective. by changing the angle of the key light you can dramatically alter the mood of a scene. the same thing with the color gels you use. relectors can be used to reduce or eleminate unwanted shadows as well as creat fill light. you have several insterments (lights) availible so use them. do some research and find out what each one does and play with some combinations. in other words, there really is no crash course in lighting. it's an art that takes time to master but is well worth the effort. there is no other single element that will inhance your film more, except for possibly sound. |
