scared of tomorrow

[Arnaud M. St Martin de Veyran]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm scared about a shoot the i'm doing tomorrow.

 

I'll be shooting on a tiny studio with the DVX100 and for only lighting equipement 3x 650W open face with chimera usually made for photographic work :o

 

I'm wondering if i'm gonna have enough power to get a correct exposure.

 

By the way, it's just close up of a bench of singers in front of the camera with a colored background.

 

Please, tell me that's gonna be ok

[Sam Wells]

I shot a two person interview /oral history on a DVX100 camera with a 100 bulb in a China ball plus existing ambient light no problem.

 

Gaffed an Indie short same camera - 2, 3 people in living room hallways with 2 small kino banks; I think I had a 575 HMI bounced for fill somewhere, but did closer shots w/ the Kinos alone.

 

I lit interviews for a PBS doc last fall with a single Lowel Rifa and some tiny Lowel, what is it - iLight - to kick with.

 

The first commercial job I ever shot I had three 650 Watt Colortrans, I lit a *black* Porsche with them - I couldn't do that now that I know you can't light a black car with 3 650W lights ! ..but fortunately I was youung an innocent so it worked fine :D

 

-Sam

 

 

 

 

 

Fear is good, it gives you your Edge B)

 

-Sam

 

P.S. Seriously the challenge here is to keep it from looking overlit & flatwith these soft sources. You might end up using two or even one as key, pull the Chimera from one or two and use it to model directionally.

 

NB I have used Softlights (in the "pre-Chimera days") at angles, even 90 deg. to the subject with success

 

-Sam

 

should read "close to" 90 degrees

 

-Sam

 

(why is this skin compounding my replies ?...)

[Stephen Williams]

(why is this skin compounding my replies ?...)

 

Sam,

 

Because no one else added anything to the thread, and not much time past!

 

Stephen

[David Mullen ASC]

You should have enough light.

[Hans Kellner]

I'll be shooting on a tiny studio with the DVX100 and for only lighting equipement 3x 650W open face with chimera usually made for photographic work :o

 

I'm wondering if i'm gonna have enough power to get a correct exposure.

That should plenty of light for what you describe. I've used less light in darker setups with my DVX and had fine results.

 

Also, if possible, be sure the bench and singers are not too close to the background to help avoid shadows and add some depth.

[olan]

Hi,

3x 650w is more than enough for what you have to do. Anyway if you think it will not be enough power, try not to shoot too wide. The closer you are from the subject the less light you need to have a good exposure. Don?t forget to expose for the highlights and not for the shadows. When you shoot in video, it?s always better to be underexpose than overexpose.

good luck

 

Olan

the black sheep

creative film video & photography

www.theblacksheep.be

[Arnaud M. St Martin de Veyran]

Thank you all !

 

After evrything you all have said, i think i'm gonna be more than ok.

 

Now the only question that remains is color temperature and quality of lighting...tha's why i'm paid for ;-)

 

Hav a good night or a nice day !

[olan]

Hello again,

Mr Mullen, correct me if I?m wrong.

Maybe it will be too late for this job but it?s good to know it anyway. When you shoot in video it?s better to have a cold white balance, this give you a more ?clean? image whit more information. Why? Because the red channel of video is the most sensible to compression artefacts. If you have a warm WB it means you will have more information in the red channel and by definition more risk to have compression artefacts (if you have artefacts you have no information to work on?). If your image is too blue it?s easy to warm it up by adding some red in post-production. I don?t remember what kind of setting you can have with the DVX 100 but there are two tricks that works with all kind of video camera when you want to have a cold WB:

- When shooting in daylight, you can set your WB on tungsten preset. If it?s too blue?

- You can make a manual WB by using an orange card. The more orange is the card the colder will be the WB? If you want to be more precise you can use white diffusion gels on the card. For example a ¼ dif or a ½ dif. More diffusion = less orange = less cold WB?

I don?t know what are your knowledge in video so if you have more questions feel free to ask, I don?t have that much experience since I?m not that old but I have some experience anyway and will be happy to share it.

Have a nice day,

Olan

+------------------------------------------+

The black sheep

Creative film video & photography

0032 477 82 72 20

www.theblacksheep.be

+------------------------------------------+

[David Mullen ASC]

I've heard that, that the chips are more naturally balanced towards a slightly cool look, plus you get less red noise, but with compressed recording formats, it's probably better to just get the white balance closest to the final look you want. The question of the red neon is partially a logic issue -- i.e. if the shot is supposedly lit by a red neon in the frame, then the light needs to be red because you can't use white light and make it red in post, not if the sign or other sources are in the shot. But I would resist using red lighting for anything other than a backlight.

[Arnaud M. St Martin de Veyran]

Guys,

 

Thank you again for all your responses.

 

Know that everything was fine and that with 3x 650w Photographic Bulb i could get a T2,8 sometimes T3,4 with the DVX100.

 

If i got a chance to post the video in few weeks, i will...