lighter illuminating face

Phillip George · December 5, 2004

now, how best to put this in words... well, okay - you guys know the effect when in a dark place an actor lights up a cigarette and the lighter suddenly illuminates his face?

how is that done? surely it can't be just the lighter illuminating his face!?

soon i will be shooting something so i have been thinking on how to create this effect. i am a relative beginner, so the simpler the explanations the better.

thanks.

December 5, 2004

If a candle can light a face, who says a lighter can't? See the candlelight for 16mm thread.

Rich Steel · December 5, 2004

Swing in a small chinese lantern on a dimmer.

Greg Gross · December 5, 2004

Use a real lighter,have your actor activate the lighter. Draw out on paper

the complete details for the scene. You'll need somebody standing by close

with a fire extinguisher just in case! Two things come to my mind maybe you'll

have street lights, you haven't said. If not you can use side light from each side

as it will give texture in just the right intensity,not underlit and not overlit. How

about trying new Vision 250D film, its supposed to be able to handle mixed light-

sources well. Just some quick creative thinking. Use reflectors if needed.

Greg

Edited December 5, 2004 by pd170user

DavidSloan · December 6, 2004

Done this shot too many times...twice this weekend. All you need is an inkie with a snoot aimed at his face, on a dimmer. Just rehease to get the person on the dimmer and the actor in sync and that's all it is.

John Pytlak RIP · December 6, 2004

A lighter flame will look very orange on a daylight balanced film.

Most fluid-based lighters can extend the wick to get a larger (brighter) flame. Too long, and you will get a smoky flame. Do keep safety in mind.

Phillip George · December 7, 2004

thanks guys.

well, i don't want to clutter the board with topics for each of my beginner questions, so i'll just ask them here, if you don't mind:

-first, i will probably be shooting in black and white and so here goes probably another silly question - if i'm shooting b&w i don't have to worry about the whole natural / artificial light film stock and the mixture of those? or have i got it all wrong? i mean is there one kind of b&w film for all light source kinds or not?

-second, i heard that b&w film is more expensive to buy and process, so does it pay more to shoot colour film and then in post desaturate or not? [bear in mind that this will remain on video and dvd - no cinema]. is there any difference in quality? are there any things that i should do if i want to do that? things like over / under expose and stuff? also because i will have some portions of it outside with just available light - is the b&w film faster or colour?

-third, does anyone know where you can get those police/ambulance kind of lights? the ones that flash or to be more precise spin around? is it possible to get that kind of thing at all? i am from london so if anyone knows any place here it would be great to point me in right direction?

-fourth, what is an 'inkie with a snoot'?

phew... sorry about this bombardment with silly questions...

well, even if nobody answers, for me this forum has been pure gold, so once again: i thank you all very very very much.

phillip

December 7, 2004

Black and white is black and white, period. However, just as colour filters can affect the shades of black and white (yellow filters outside in december will bring out skies), so can differing colour temperatures of light. Check out any book on basic b/w still photography.

"inkie with a snoot" is a small incandescent lamp with a cylindrical black tube in front of it, giving the light a circular direction so it only appears in one small circular area and doesn't spill anywhere else.

You can pick those police lights up from Toys R Us, last I looked- if not, try any disco/DJ suppliers.

To get really good contrast on b/w(black blacks, white whites) it's best to overexpose a stop or two and print down or else your medium grey neutral readings will be just that: grey.

Michael Nash · December 7, 2004

Real police lights or worse yet toy lights usually don't have much output. It may show up on film, but not be as effective as you might want. Instead there's a movie rig called a "whirlygig" that has a PAR64 bulb (1K) and a spinning mirror with adjustable speed. The whole thing is encased in box with gel frames on the side, which you can gel up with red and blue. You usually want two of them.

With fast film and a large flame from the lighter you can get an exposure off the actual lighter (the flame is close to the face). Whether that's enough for you depends on the film you're using and how bright you want the effect to look.

John Pytlak RIP · December 7, 2004

You often see a slight EI difference specified for a panchromatic B&W film used for tungsten vs. daylight illumination. For example, EASTMAN PLUS-X Negative Film 5231 has an EI of 80 for daylight, and 64 for tungsten. This is because most panchromatic films have a bit more sensitivity to the shorter wavelengths in the spectrum, and so daylight has slightly more exposure efficiency. For mixed lighting, it's best to base your exposure on the predominant lighting for the scene.

Phillip George · December 8, 2004

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...

well, here are two questions that popped up when i was reading the replies:

-so i'm guessing 'inkie' is the acutal light and 'snoot' is just the cylinder tube, right? because also i might be be doing this shot [interior] where an object or a person will be hit by a spotlight, kinda like they have in the circus, so if i wanted to get that circular shape could i use just a bigger version of that 'snoot' thingy, or are there are other lights that do that kind of job?

-does 'whirlygig' look like those siren lights? because i want to have this thing in the shot. i mean what i really need is not like police lights, it is just like a single, usually yellow, light that has that sort of effect. damn, i don't know how to explain it properly, but basically you see it in movies all the time, mostly when there is an alarm going off in the scene.

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...

Michael Nash · December 8, 2004

A snoot is indeed a tube that fits in front of a fixture to create a round pool of light. In the case of a circus or theater spotlight though, you might use a larger "ellipsoidal" spotlight that contains a lens to create the same focused spotlight effect. In practice theater-scale events will use an ellipsoidal spotlight such as a xenon "supertrooper." On a smaller scale (shorter throw distances), you can use Source 4 units for a similar effect.

A whirlygig doesn't look anything like a practical police light though; it's a tall box about 3' high that fits on top of a stand. If you want to see the flashing light in frame then you should use the practical "gumball" light on camera and have the whirlygig out of frame backing it up.