Lighting a gym

[Bejan Azi]

Hello!!

 

I'm new to this forum and I love it. There is some really good material to learn from on this site.

 

Anyway, I'm writing because I am going to be filming a spec in a gym/weight room with fluorescent lighting. I own only tungsten lights. I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on the best way to go about lighting this? I am shooting this for my reel and am trying to make it look as professional as possible (without spending to much $$$). Also, I will be shooting on an HVX200 if that helps.

 

Thanks a lot! Hopefully I will be able to contribute some knowledge to this forum eventually too!

 

-B

[Bejan Azi]

Hello!!

 

I'm new to this forum and I love it. There is some really good material to learn from on this site.

 

Anyway, I'm writing because I am going to be filming a spec in a gym/weight room with fluorescent lighting. I own only tungsten lights. I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on the best way to go about lighting this? I am shooting this for my reel and am trying to make it look as professional as possible (without spending to much $$$). Also, I will be shooting on an HVX200 if that helps.

 

Thanks a lot! Hopefully I will be able to contribute some knowledge to this forum eventually too!

 

-B

 

 

I forgot to mention! I am not going for any special look, just want it to look like a gym. Thanks!

[Kiarash Sadigh]

You didn't mention what type of tungsten lights you have...but this is based on an assumption that you have enough of them: Lights in gyms are usually soft and topy and in most gyms you have enough existing practical lights not to worry about lighting anything but filling shadows a.k.a cleaning up faces, and back light talent or accent-light machines and brands...and for all these (with your gear) you need to have two things, number one is a bounce board or any other way of turning you lights into big soft sources and number two, you need some color correction gells to match you tungs with existing flouros....meaning that you put those color correction gells on your tungstens untill they match to your flouros (use your eye) and then for every shot white balance on a spot where you read a little bit of your corrected tung and existing flouro.....I normally match tungsten to most fluros with 1/2 or full blue and 1/4 green now this depends on the color temp of the existing bulbs but it's not a bad idea to scout and test. Depending on your style you can bounce your corrected source into a 4by4 white board as a filler or even as a kicker (i'm a fan of big, soft kickers)...you can hang your corrected sources from the drop ceiling (use a scissors clamp or some end-jaw cardellinis) and back or hair light your talent....or some other ways of lighting as it has been described on this site only a few thousand times :P

[David Regan]

Lot of it depends on the space and your shot selection, the size of your lights, and of course the look you are going for. I.e. If you are lighting large wide shots, and you only have a couple 650/300w fresnels, and you want it too look bright and toplit, you're probably going to be best off using the existing fluorescent. Perhaps you could get away with hiding a small unit or two somewhere, and just use it to accent certain parts of the set that you wish to bring out. If you do so, be careful about the direction and quality of the light, nothing will give away the source like a big sidey shadow behind a weight bench, especially in a room we know is traditionally lit from above. Bring various grades of plus/minus green gels to even out inconsistant color temperature between fluorescent bulbs. Then when you move in for close ups/medium shots, you can use your tungsten lights, perhaps gelled to match, and use them to better control the look on your subjects.

 

I know you're not looking for any special look, but don't box yourself in against getting creative. I incidentally had a spec shoot in a weight room, also HVX, and we just turned off the existing flourescents, and lit it with a few small units from the floor. Doesn't look like a typical gym necessarily, but it worked for the effect we wanted. If I recall we just had a 1k Openface, a 650w Fresnel, and a 575 HMI. It was a situation where just those lights weren't going to illuminate the whole room in a way that worked for us, so we just got selective with our lighting/shots, and made something nice out of very little. You can see examples below.

 

 

Be creative and you can come up with some really nice results.

 

Good luck, let us know how it turns out!

[Daniel Porto]

Lot of it depends on the space and your shot selection, the size of your lights, and of course the look you are going for. I.e. If you are lighting large wide shots, and you only have a couple 650/300w fresnels, and you want it too look bright and toplit, you're probably going to be best off using the existing fluorescent. Perhaps you could get away with hiding a small unit or two somewhere, and just use it to accent certain parts of the set that you wish to bring out. If you do so, be careful about the direction and quality of the light, nothing will give away the source like a big sidey shadow behind a weight bench, especially in a room we know is traditionally lit from above. Bring various grades of plus/minus green gels to even out inconsistant color temperature between fluorescent bulbs. Then when you move in for close ups/medium shots, you can use your tungsten lights, perhaps gelled to match, and use them to better control the look on your subjects.

 

I know you're not looking for any special look, but don't box yourself in against getting creative. I incidentally had a spec shoot in a weight room, also HVX, and we just turned off the existing flourescents, and lit it with a few small units from the floor. Doesn't look like a typical gym necessarily, but it worked for the effect we wanted. If I recall we just had a 1k Openface, a 650w Fresnel, and a 575 HMI. It was a situation where just those lights weren't going to illuminate the whole room in a way that worked for us, so we just got selective with our lighting/shots, and made something nice out of very little. You can see examples below.

 

 

Be creative and you can come up with some really nice results.

 

Good luck, let us know how it turns out!

 

They did come out very nice.

 

Do you have any shots of someone standing in the same lighting, but with not sweat/water on their face. I just would like to see the difference in terms of reflectance.

 

DANIEL

[David Regan]

They did come out very nice.

 

Do you have any shots of someone standing in the same lighting, but with not sweat/water on their face. I just would like to see the difference in terms of reflectance.

 

DANIEL

 

In that particular setup, I'm afraid not. The link to the full spec. is here: http://www.vimeo.com/1060081 There are some similar lighting setups throughout, we used the same few lights, it was usually a combination of 575 with a couple small Tungsten units, so you can get a basic idea.

[Dominic Cochran]

When you say spec can I assume you mean commercial work?

 

If so, then

 

Step 1: Turn off the overheads

Step 2: Proceed

 

Narrative would be the same a little less than half the time.

[Bejan Azi]

Thanks for all the advice! I am going to put it into good use and will update you guys with the result!

 

David, great work! You've definitely inspired me!