Maggie Twomey Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Hi All, Just want to know when shooting interviews, how to make your subject matter appear younger looking (especially when you have to shoot close-ups)? I have used 2 bounced light source and tried to soften the light as much as I can, however it didn't help as much I thought. Eventually I had to digitally enhance them in post-production -- anybody has a better idea? Maybe a china ball? thanks M.T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chad Stockfleth Posted June 17, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 17, 2008 Makeup. Lighting only gets you so far. Good Luck, Ponce de Leon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 You should read this month's article in the AC mag about "Sex and the City". He gives some tips. It's mainly a lot of diffusion, more frontal key lighting and plenty of fill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Walter Graff Posted June 18, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 18, 2008 Read my article on how I like my women soft. I was taught by the old school hollywood gaffers who taught me that the trick to women is to light them soft (and sometimes hard with a spot head on) and from the front with little to no shadow unless you are using hte shadow to divert the viewer. That, eye lights, soft filtration and back light makes women look wonderful at any age. http://www.bluesky-web.com/soft.html BTW Sex and th City (the movie) used electronic painting after the fact to soften many of the closeups of the 40+ actors and horse who had to look like they were still in thei thirties for the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Twomey Posted June 18, 2008 Author Share Posted June 18, 2008 http://www.bluesky-web.com/soft.html BTW Sex and th City (the movie) used electronic painting after the fact to soften many of the closeups of the 40+ actors and horse who had to look like they were still in thei thirties for the film. Hi, I read the article and it's helping a lot. just wondering, instead of placing a flex fill on the floor and use the bounce light, what if I get a kino flow and place it low (pointing at her from a lower angle)? would that work? or is it still too strong? Also, will a soft filter work? thanks! M.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boy yniguez Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 instead of placing a flex fill on the floor and use the bounce light, what if I get a kino flow and place it low (pointing at her from a lower angle)? would that work? or is it still too strong? Also, will a soft filter work? thanks! M.T. the flexfill would still give a broader therefore softer source than a kino. the strength of the underlight would be varied depending on how much eyebags and bone structure the talent has! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Walter Graff Posted June 20, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 20, 2008 Sure, why not. I am not a fan of kino flos in most situations so would not use it. But that doesn't mean you could not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 (edited) ...of the 40+ actors and horse... "horse"? Edited June 21, 2008 by Jonathan Bowerbank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chris Larue Posted June 23, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 23, 2008 Soft F/X filter is your new friend ! This is an amazing filter, and with a front soft light, this is an less expensive way of become younger for actresses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dzyak Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 For younger actresses, I place my Chimera just to the side of the lens and maybe about a foot higher. For older actresses with wrinkles, the stand goes in the same place, but I drop the height to just over the lens. Backlight accordingly. I like the look of a Black ProMist, but never anything heavier than a 1 at most or else it gets a little obvious. 1/4 or 1/2 works fine. And of course a brilliant Makeup Artist always helps. The thing to remember is that no matter what you do, an older "talent" is older. We can do a certain number of things to help them look better, but they'll never look 15 again no matter what we do or how much their Personal Publicists complain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted June 23, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 23, 2008 the strength of the underlight would be varied depending on how much eyebags and bone structure the talent has! Be careful with that light from below -- you don't want the Dracula look. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Holland Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 "horse"? Just read this thread "Horse" Jessica Sarah Parker must be that what it means she makes ugly mules look good . Yuk . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Paul Bruening Posted June 23, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 23, 2008 An Obie is an old school trick. There's a trick I like for this: I take an 8' X 4' sheet of 1" single sided styro and mount the 8' dimension horizontally, white side toward subject. I cut a square hole in the middle big enough for my lens and shade to poke through. Then I set up 4 1KPars to bounce off both sides, top and bottom. The barn doors keep some of the light off of the lens and camera but it still gets pretty damn hot. But, the light is fantastic and the subject is soft, soft, and lovely. The set up is a pain and clumsy to move. I use it mostly for CUs and head shots but it will hold up even with medium body shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rakoczy Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 An Obie is an old school trick. There's a trick I like for this: I take an 8' X 4' sheet of 1" single sided styro and mount the 8' dimension horizontally, white side toward subject. I cut a square hole in the middle big enough for my lens and shade to poke through. Then I set up 4 1KPars to bounce off both sides, top and bottom. The barn doors keep some of the light off of the lens and camera but it still gets pretty damn hot. But, the light is fantastic and the subject is soft, soft, and lovely. The set up is a pain and clumsy to move. I use it mostly for CUs and head shots but it will hold up even with medium body shots. I like that Paul! It is like a Ring-Lite but with a much much larger Source.... very cool.. gonna try that. I also use Softlites (Zips) under lens on the older Folks when they need some smoothing out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Shepardson Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Hi All, Just want to know when shooting interviews, how to make your subject matter appear younger looking (especially when you have to shoot close-ups)? I have used 2 bounced light source and tried to soften the light as much as I can, however it didn't help as much I thought. Eventually I had to digitally enhance them in post-production -- anybody has a better idea? Maybe a china ball? thanks M.T What are you using to bounce the light? I assume you're probably using bead board or something similar. If you're using a more specular bounce, like silver, then try bead board instead. Also, try bouncing from different angles. I find that bouncing some light from below the subject can soften the face tremendously. As for the camera, what are you shooting on? If it's digital, you could try taking down the detail level of the camera a bit. Or, you could try using a softening filter. I ran into a similar problem a few months ago. A woman had very "detailed" skin. Make up came in to fix the problem. Unfortunately, they were inexperienced and actually made the problem worse by putting on this nasty blush which only made the problem worse! I was able to rectify the situation by taking down the detail a bit helped out alot. Of course, keep in mind how busy your background will be and how this might effect the rest of the image. Also, you might want to try using a softening filter on the lens-a very light pro mist or something. Again, consider how this will effect the rest of the image and if the look will be consistant with the rest of the footage. Good luck and tell us how it turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boy yniguez Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 An Obie is an old school trick. There's a trick I like for this: I take an 8' X 4' sheet of 1" single sided styro and mount the 8' dimension horizontally, white side toward subject. I cut a square hole in the middle big enough for my lens and shade to poke through. Then I set up 4 1KPars to bounce off both sides, top and bottom. The barn doors keep some of the light off of the lens and camera but it still gets pretty damn hot. But, the light is fantastic and the subject is soft, soft, and lovely. The set up is a pain and clumsy to move. I use it mostly for CUs and head shots but it will hold up even with medium body shots. yup, the ring light is the ultimate erase-all-the wrinkles solution. similar to paul's contraption i usually use a 4x4 styro with with a hole in the middle but use 4x1 tube or 4x2tubes of kino 40 taken out of their housing and assembled into a 4x4 square light on the styro. just gives an alien-look catchlight on the talent's eyes though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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