Lighting a clinic room

[yiomo]

I need some help with lighting a clip for capturing with my a7s. The client has asked for a white/ clean clinical look. I usually film with available lighting and use just a small bolt led or reflector for talking heads. Now I am a bit stressed as this might lead to more videos and want a good result. 

The location is a small room around 15m2 and one side has a large window which luckily has a white curtain that will prevent hopefully any burns.

I will be shooting mainly medium shots of a model and techniques with tools applied to her and close ups.

I don’t own any lights and was thinking if either building a cheap china ball with cfl lamp, or renting an aputure 300 with soft box or some other soft LED light. Perhaps better to build the china balls as it will be useful in other projects too. As a last and more expensive option I am considering purchasing a set of softboxes that includes cfl bulbs. This can be purchased from amazon from 50 euros to 150 euros with different branding and cfl bulb power (from 85w to 150w). Actually to build the china ball and to purchase 2 cfl bulbs separately costs the same as a cheap set of two softboxes with tripods and bulbs. Another idea is to rent a 120cm kinoflo.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks

p.s. I asked the same question at dvxuser and for some unknown to me reason the moderators/administrators disabled my ability to post. What is wrong with that place?

[barefoot_dp]

If you're balancing with natural sunlight, using Daylight LED's will be easiest since you likely won't need any gels.

I've shot a bit in hospitals and we always use an Aputure C300d in combination with two LED panels; 300d to bounce light off a wall/roof and give the whole room some bright ambience, one 1x1 LED panel with a soft-box as a key light, and the other 1x1 LED as either a rim light or background accent as required.

Make sure you consider what their theatre lamps are balanced at (not the ceiling lights, but the one on the boom arm that the surgeons can move around), and what want them to look like in the scene (ie: either daylight/white like all the other lights, or tungsten to highlight the area) that will help you decide if you want to use them as a practical or augment them with your own lights (something like a Dedo does the trick).

Are you a regular poster at DVX user or was it your first post there? They have a new members section which you have to post in first before you get full posting priveliges. It's designed to weed out spam bots or people who don't basic read instructions.

[androidlad]

I believe it's for a plastic surgery clinic - NEVER have any lighting fixture directly aimed at the subject, even with softbox - it creates hot spots and reveals all the blemishes.

Use one or two spot light like Aputure C300D to bounce off the ceiling/wall for an even, relatively flat high key lighting.

Avoid CFL lamp as they don't usually have good colour balance.

[yiomo]

Thank you both. It seems that the aputure is very well regarded. I will try to rent this. Although we are shooting on a saturday and we'll have to pay for a weekend - more expensive- price.  So from your recommendations I take it I shouldn't rent any softbox to come with it. Just bounce of walls/ceiling. 

[HockeyFan12]

It's hard to know without seeing the location but bouncing soft light off the ceiling does seem like the best answer. @androidlad has a good point.

If you go in for close ups and are lighting with overhead bounce you might have heavy shadows under the eyes and might want to bring a small reflector, though.

If you have more money, a Joleko off the ceiling or a piece of bounce board is often useful but is more directional than bouncing off the whole ceiling. 

 

[yiomo]

I am afraid I haven't heard of Joleko.

Yes, I might need a reflector, although I'd rather fill any shadows with a small led. I have a Torchled Bolt.

The model is going to be lying on the bed and the practitioner working on her with some metal tools. It's for a physiotherapy clinic. Initially I thought that direct lighting through a softbox would be a good option but thanks @androidlad for your tip. I have seen several videos online where red skin is too much. 

The big downlside is that with the rental price of 3 days of Aputure I can purchase a set of 2 softboxes with tripods and CFL  bulbs.

 

[androidlad]

Again, don't use lights directly to fill shadow, it creates even more shadows!

Just use any high quality daylight balanced LEDs (panels or spot lights) to bounce off ceiling and walls for a wrap around soft light.

[BenEricson]

Don’t forget some fill under the chin can be nice too. It may happen naturally depending on the color of your floors. 

The wider you plan on shooting, the more lights you will most likely need. 

If you have budget, Canon cameras do such a good job in these types of settings. Even a C100 I would imagine would be better fit. 

[PannySVHS]

put a white board in the corner between ceiling and wall and bounce from that with a 200watts hmi, boucing back in 45 degrees. Styro board will do fantastically for bouncing. 

[yiomo]

Thank you all. I think I have enough info to get me started.

Alas, my camera is still the A7s. Currently no budget to rent. 

[yiomo]

9 hours ago, barefoot_dp said:

Are you a regular poster at DVX user or was it your first post there? They have a new members section which you have to post in first before you get full posting priveliges. It's designed to weed out spam bots or people who don't basic read instructions.

Well I am a member since 2009... I have posted few times. It is just weird, that I was allowed to create a new post and then not being permitted to follow up the conversation on my own thread! 

[kye]

Balancing with natural light is fine but if the natural light changes then it can really trip you up, like on a day where the sun goes in and out of clouds.  This may or may not be a concern (some places have blue skies 300+ days a year, so... ) 

For this situation I'd suggest renting a sound blanket (or whatever works) so that you can block out the natural light if it's being troublesome.  This would mean you need a powerful artificial light, especially if you're bouncing it instead of using it directly, which is good advice.  It would suck to start the shoot and not have a powerful enough light.

If it leads to more work then you'll have some kind of commitment to buy something and you'll have more experience knowing what was required, both in terms of power as well as other factors, so you can choose a light that will work well for you and how you like to operate.

[tupp]

19 hours ago, yiomo said:

The location is a small room around 15m2

15 meters x 15 meters is a small room?

[omega1978]

3 hours ago, tupp said:

15 meters x 15 meters is a small room?

15m2 are 5x3 m ca. ?

[tupp]

16 hours ago, omega1978 said:

15m2 are 5x3 m ca. ?

Yep!   That would be somewhat smaller than 15m x 15m!  ?