nyns Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Hello all, I have owned a very good super-8 camera for a little while now and have been mostly shooting outside with whatever availble light there is. Now I want to learn more about lightning scenes and to start off in a very basic way by placing some lights in a room with an actor, both still and moving, and using available light mixed with tungsten lightning. I'll be using the the two available color reversal stocks, kodachrome and ektachrome and the two available reversal B/W stocks, Tri-x and plus-x. The camera I own does not have a very fast lens (F1.8) but it does have the ability to manual adjust exposure via aperture control, fps settings, etc. I would like some suggestions on whether this is a good way to start learning and what else I should be doing. I also want to invest in a basic lighting kit to start off that I can use indoors. In addition I would like to invest in a good light meter. Any suggestions on what I should buy in both cases? I live in manhattan and am going to make a trip down to B&H to look for a good lighting kit. Also browsing on ebay for good lighting kits. I think at some point David Mullen had a post on learning to do lighting this way but I can't find it. Wasn't sure if I should post this on the super 8 forum. Any thoughts or suggestions are most appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenolian Bell Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 For me I began my lighting journey with still photography. While in college I took still courses, and learned a great deal about lighting, exposure, shutter. For me it was a bit easier because you were only responsible for a stationary object. It becomes more complicated once you have to light for motion. In stills you can light in various ways (hard/soft) from various angles (top, side, bottom). You also get to light various objects with different textures (shiny/matte, smooth/rough) and different colors. It lent itself to a lot of experimentation, without a great deal of expectation, or cost. So I was free to make mistakes and learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Nash Posted January 11, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 11, 2005 You can learn how to light with any format, but stills are usually the easiest and cheapest. That's how I learned how to use my first light meter. Set up a scenario, take notes on light readings, take the still, change the setup, repeat. Then make a contact sheet of the whole negative roll so that you can compare exposures. Very cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Nash Posted January 11, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 11, 2005 I forgot to mention that these days you could use a digital still camera for the same purpose, and take an infinite number of pictures. The only downside is that a digital camera that has enough control over aperture, shutterspeed and focal length might set you back a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Pytlak RIP Posted January 11, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 11, 2005 I forgot to mention that these days you could use a digital still camera for the same purpose, and take an infinite number of pictures. The only downside is that a digital camera that has enough control over aperture, shutterspeed and focal length might set you back a bit. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Even the consumer-level Kodak DX6490 and DX7590 digital still cameras have manual aperture/shutter capability (PASM mode), and a 10:1 Schneider zoom lens, with a pretty low "street price": http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jht...pq-locale=en_US http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jht...pq-locale=en_US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Achterberg Posted January 12, 2005 Share Posted January 12, 2005 just go out there and do it. make it happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hayes Posted January 12, 2005 Share Posted January 12, 2005 When in film school as one of my first projects I took stills of a face with one light in coming from every angle I could think of. I shot about 40 stills of top light, side light, up light etc.. It was a great way to get into lighting face. John Alonso used to put a bare bulb on a stick and move it around his actress? faces to see the best angle to light them from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Salzmann Posted January 12, 2005 Share Posted January 12, 2005 I couldn't agree more that stills as described in the other posts is "the way" to start. It would be valuable to have a spot meter as a tool when doing these tests for more precisely targetted readings of light values in whatever setup you are photographing. After all, a director of photography is first of all a photographer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Greg Gross Posted January 13, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 13, 2005 Canon EOS Digital Rebel/300D B&H Photo,New York City With Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens- $869.95 Rebate- $100.00 Total- $769.95 I bought one last fall,it cost me more money then present offer. Very pleased with this camera. I'm going to order a Kino Flo ring light tomorrow from B&H Photo New York City. I plan on having a holder made at a machine shop which will hold the Kino over the lens with a "U" shaped holder,attached to each side of Kino. A straight piece of stock screwed on to bottom,horizontal of "U"(square U) will then attach at other end to camera bottom, at tripod hole. Will use lock washers and some type of wing nuts so that entire assembly can be broken down quickly. See "Off Topic"(forum) for post by director Mark Douglas. I have a great fascination for lighting with one light and will use this set up for experi- mentation. Also thinking about attaching to top of Bogen 13ft. light stand with a ball joint. I was curious to hear about Johm Alonso using light on stick, I've done that for years in still photography. Still photographers call it a modeling light. All my studio strobes have 100watt modeling light. Best regards to all. Greg Gross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted January 13, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 13, 2005 Hi, I quite like ring light, possibly because it got a glowing reception the first time I used it on a music promo, but it does require that your subejct has pretty good skin. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Greg Gross Posted January 14, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 14, 2005 Phil, Thanks for post about skin tone,exposure while using Kino Flo Ring. Point well taken and will keep in mind. Of course it may be possible to mount the light in numerous other ways. I prefer around the lens as it provides almost completely shadowless light, The way I want to use it is without shadows. Actually the bracket(holder) is very simple to make but requires too many words to describe it without sketch. I wish I had some type of CAD program, so that I could sketch and post here. Phil as always you give excellent advice, thank you. Going to make a bracket for PD-170 also. I used to have my own work shop and I fabricated many things for photographic use. Don't have it any- more, I miss it. Greg Gross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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