lighting water

[Olivier Egli]

I have an upcoming shot of water dripping into a pomd shot in highspeed in fron of a black background.

I plan to light it with backlight and add a little bit of fill from the side and top to help the texture.

Is this alright that way, other suggestions.

Also, how can I use my meter in this case? I have no real key except for the backlight that will shine through the translucent waterdrops, but how do I determinate exposure? do I need to take a incidental reading of the bakclight and assume that the waterdrops will cut it down 1 stop?

or should I measure myhand in the light path and open up a bit for the water?

[David Mullen ASC]

That's tricky -- it also depends on how hard or soft the backlight is because a hard backlight will look brighter at the right kick angle. I'd probably use an incident meter as if I were lighting something sitting up in the water and then overexpose the backlight a little. In some ways, there's no right or wrong answer -- all you have are reflections of the lights so it just depends on how hot those should get, but it might look similar within a range of f-stops.

[gamal shehab]

( i think that u expose on a point between the backlight and the filler

 

so tha back light still have its shiny like to make the backlight over 1stop and

 

and the filler under 0.5stop so u have the nice texture of the water and not so

 

shiny because the water has a highly reflector and shiny surface so its better

 

to be under from 0.5stop 0r 0.75stop to dont bee too shiny and losses its textur

 

and also for the backlight it is better to dont be be so high for the texture of

 

the water

[Olivier Egli]

uuuh, I think I will most likely use soft backlight and make an incident reading towards the backlight treating it as a key light. the filler will then be 1 stop under and this should give me a decent exposure within the range, right? backlight read 160 fc, fill light coming from other side 100 fc... F4 with ASA200 (rated ASA160 for one third stop overexposure).

[Manu Anand]

I would actually first decide whether i want a sparkling effect or a more of a softer luminescent effect.

 

If i really wanted the water droplets to sparkle i would choose a harder smaller source to catch the sparkle off the droplets.

But if i just wanted the drops to have nice big highlights i'd use a bigger softer source.

 

 

The amount of fill would be dependant basically on the effect im looking for.

 

Manipulating the shape of the object you use as a fill you could get an interesting reflection of the opposite side as well, if you want.

Try with different shapes and see one gets very interesting reflections of the convex surface.

 

Manu Anand

New Delhi