Lighting a Kitchen?

[Lee Tamer]

Hey, I'm using my kitchen as a set in an upcoming project and I was wondering what the best set up would be as far as lighting goes.

 

Here's the room Note: the ceiling isnt blue my camera phone is horrible

 

The only light sources are the Fluorescent light fixture hanging from the ceiling and the stove lights.

 

What would be the best way to balance out the lighting? Any tips?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

The first question is what are you shooting on and the second is how do you want it to look? It would be best to swap out the overhead floros for daylight balanced high CRI lights. you can but some Kino tubes and put them in there or spend enough time in a home depot and you can find some CRI 90+ tubes which are about 5000-5600K balanced. I don't have them in front of my right now but I was able to buy some of those 4' tubes and they work well enough. I believe they are 45W, so not quite as powerful as a Kino flo.

The other thing you'll probably want is some ND Gel or some nets for the windows to help control their exposure. As I am assuming you're working with daylight as a key, you'd want to look into photoflood bulbs for any practical lights which happen to be in the scene. Now, you could rent HMIs, but those are expensive, so assuming all you can get your hands are are a few tungsten instruments, you'll probably want some 1Ks and a 650 or two as well as some 150 units and were I you I'd go with 1/2 CTB on them in order to get them closer to the daylight balance without loosing as much stop as you do when you go full CTB (which is somewhere like a 2 stop loss).

Now, could you afford HMIs 1.2K PARs would be nice as would an assortment of 575s.

These smaller units should take care of you for the inside; but you'll have to really think about where the sun is going to be. The room looks pretty small, which is good, but if those windows are facing East or West you're going to have to make your own sun and probably pull out some bigger HMIs. The other option, as I've done before, is to cover the windows with 216 and just hit it with a light so it'll blow out to white and you can keep that pretty constant throughout the day by building a house 'round it out of foamcore.

 

Those sliding doors might pose a problem though....

[Lee Tamer]

The first question is what are you shooting on and the second is how do you want it to look? It would be best to swap out the overhead floros for daylight balanced high CRI lights. you can but some Kino tubes and put them in there or spend enough time in a home depot and you can find some CRI 90+ tubes which are about 5000-5600K balanced. I don't have them in front of my right now but I was able to buy some of those 4' tubes and they work well enough. I believe they are 45W, so not quite as powerful as a Kino flo.

The other thing you'll probably want is some ND Gel or some nets for the windows to help control their exposure. As I am assuming you're working with daylight as a key, you'd want to look into photoflood bulbs for any practical lights which happen to be in the scene. Now, you could rent HMIs, but those are expensive, so assuming all you can get your hands are are a few tungsten instruments, you'll probably want some 1Ks and a 650 or two as well as some 150 units and were I you I'd go with 1/2 CTB on them in order to get them closer to the daylight balance without loosing as much stop as you do when you go full CTB (which is somewhere like a 2 stop loss).

Now, could you afford HMIs 1.2K PARs would be nice as would an assortment of 575s.

These smaller units should take care of you for the inside; but you'll have to really think about where the sun is going to be. The room looks pretty small, which is good, but if those windows are facing East or West you're going to have to make your own sun and probably pull out some bigger HMIs. The other option, as I've done before, is to cover the windows with 216 and just hit it with a light so it'll blow out to white and you can keep that pretty constant throughout the day by building a house 'round it out of foamcore.

 

Those sliding doors might pose a problem though....

 

Thanks for your help, I'm doing a school project that has to be a narrative. I want the scene to have a similar feel to the TV show Dexter. The scene thats being shot in the kitchen is a man getting and eating his breakfast after he wakes up. The camera I'm using is my own Canon GL2. I should probably mention I have a very small budget for this. I was considering using shower curtains as diffusors for the sliding glass door. I know with my Canon GL2 I'm limited as to what filters/lenses I can use.

 

Im also concerned as to how to do this with a limited budget as i am in college.

[Brandon Whiteside]

Where are you at? I might be able to help you. I have a small lighting setup that could potentially work, as well as rolls and rolls of diffusion (The grips from West Wing gave me everything when the show was cancelled :P).

[Lee Tamer]

Where are you at? I might be able to help you. I have a small lighting setup that could potentially work, as well as rolls and rolls of diffusion (The grips from West Wing gave me everything when the show was cancelled :P).

 

I wish you could, Im in Baltimore MD though sadly