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Lighting question


mercer
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I am shooting a short in the middle of the woods with some tracking shots in and out of pockets of sun and curtains of shade. I'm looking for a tiny... I mean as small as possible... Smaller than the cheap LED panels, to eliminate the under eye shadows, add some eye sparkle and just add a little more even exposure to my actor's face as I follow him in and out of the shade. Any suggestions?

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a light as small as that will give you very unnatural breakup of shadows or even some undesired ones. your best bet is to bounce the light...have someone carry the bounce on the close shots or use a flood light from a distance with a difusion for wide shots. 

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My thought would be you want something soft, so you'd be wanting something a lot bigger, but with a much lower output - maybe a larger panel on a very small output level, or something bounced - whether it's an actual light or just the sunlight. My preference is generally for something bouncy.

A small light is going to be a harder light by definition, so you're probably going to end up softening it hugely, in effect making it larger anyway

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8 hours ago, mercer said:

I am shooting a short in the middle of the woods with some tracking shots in and out of pockets of sun and curtains of shade. I'm looking for a tiny... I mean as small as possible... Smaller than the cheap LED panels, to eliminate the under eye shadows, add some eye sparkle and just add a little more even exposure to my actor's face as I follow him in and out of the shade. Any suggestions?

I am Not Sure something "too tiny" will be adequate for daytime. Especially with the Sun in pockets beteeen trees and all. The Aputure, M9 won't really have enough throw. It is ok for something within a foot at best. Like practicals in a restaurant shot type of lighting, and not for lighting faces. 

Use a daylight balanced Strong LED with something to soften the glare.

Maybe something like this:

 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1114779-REG/aputure_amaran_al_198_198_on_camra_daylight.html

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On July 28, 2016 at 7:25 PM, sanveer said:

I am Not Sure something "too tiny" will be adequate for daytime. Especially with the Sun in pockets beteeen trees and all. The Aputure, M9 won't really have enough throw. It is ok for something within a foot at best. Like practicals in a restaurant shot type of lighting, and not for lighting faces. 

Use a daylight balanced Strong LED with something to soften the glare.

Maybe something like this:

 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1114779-REG/aputure_amaran_al_198_198_on_camra_daylight.html

I don't want to completely drown out the shade, I just want to brighten his face a touch. I'll be tracking him from 5 to 10' away. 

I have a couple small LED panels, I'll give them a go first, but I'm really looking for something similar to what...

@Michael Coffee posted... A mini fresnel. 

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I have posted this the other day but its relevent here on this thread and some of you may have missed it so here it is again:

 

I use Fresnels most of the time Arri originals and recently I bought a whole bunch of Chinese Arri copy fresnels off ebay for the feature film I just did , I needed to light 3 sets simultaniously and leave the lighting  up for weeks at a time (I had 25 fresnels up at once on 3 sets) ,I like Fresnels as you can use them as a hard light or add some f1 Diffussion and use them as a soft light, you cant do that with Kino Flos they are soft all the time , so for me Fresnels are the way I light most of the time , the exception is lighting Women .. where a soft light is more beautiful , so sometimes if I need a very soft look , I use Kinos then or LED tube lights I have made - basically LED Kinos not tube Kinos ,

The Chinese Fresnels are just as good as the real Arri ones I was amazed , once you have a good globe/bulb in them like Osram - there is nothing in it ,

I bought 150s 300s 650s and 1K Pups and they are all superb , they worked 40 days for 12 hrs a day no issues .

so check these out they are great

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fresnel-Tungsten-Spotlight-150W-Lighting-Studio-camera-Video-/331687239451?hash=item4d3a199f1b:g:x8AAAOSw-zxWoXQS

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-1000W-Movie-Fresnel-Tungsten-SpotLight-Studio-Camera-Video-/252322910892?hash=item3abf9e12ac:g:lP8AAOSwAuNW6hii

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/On-Sales-UK-Fresnel-Tungsten-Spotlight-300W-Lighting-Studio-camera-Video-/252134887278?hash=item3ab4690f6e:g:0k0AAOSwqYBWp0Dk

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pro-Studio-650W-Tungsten-Spot-light-Dimmer-globe-Compatible-arri-bulb-/231722293457?hash=item35f3b998d1:g:0nUAAOSwKtlWp0A4

 

they are all amazing prices , I do recomend these lamps .

300w Fresnels in action on the movie Pandora with diffusion and gels on the front - standard stuff for me

IMG_6467.JPG

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Thanks @andy lee I really need to start picking up some lights. As of now I have a mix of small LED panels, some Home Depot clamp lights and some practical lights I put some photo floods in. I also try to stage my scenes around the practicals and available window light. 

In the short I'm working on now. I have a scene in a tent. I think I'm gonna light the outside with flood lights to try and mimick moonlight shining through the tent. Some shots in the scene will be POV through a camcorder, so an on camera light should work well as a key and hopefully the floods outside will provide the fill and backlight. I will also have a lantern hanging from the top of the tent, so I may try and hide a small China ball lantern with a photo flood at the very top of the tent... Or if I have to, I'll cut some of the roof off and hang it above it outside.

Anyway, thanks for the links, I'll definitely be checking these out. 

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On July 28, 2016 at 10:48 AM, mercer said:

add some eye sparkle and just add a little more even exposure to my actor's face as I follow him in and out of the shade. Any suggestions?

If all you're trying to do is add eye/face fill during daytime shooting, want it to be easy to use, and are shooting with a shorter lens so the camera is close to your subject, wouldn't a dim-able ring light be an option to consider?

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Yeah, I am just looking for a little fill to help brighten his facial features. I briefly thought about a ring light, but wasn't sure how good they were, and never really heard of anyone using them. Do they throw enough light?

It would definitely help to keep my rig small and handheld... Which is really the most important thing to me.

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