Vegas& Miami Neons

[Denair Isaac]

Hi,

I'm shooting this music video the first week of august. The director wants to shoot Macro shots of the neon lights so he can overlay them during the video. What he essentially wants, is the look of a neon light with a bad ballast that stobe.

 

We went location scouting and did some test shots with a 7D. We will be shooting with a 5D, and an adapted hpx-170. During the test shooting I was able to get some neon lights to flicker. I had to move the camera to get a kinda flicker that was some what more moire than a flicker, or the neon lights had to be moving. (VIDEO)

 

What I'm trying to do is pretty much the opposite of what i would normally do to get a computer screen or tv to not strobe .

I tried to use the fastest shutter, and I was able to use the cameras banding problem to get a sort of flicker look, but its still not what the director wants, plus its hard to get a proper exposure without the signal to noise ratio being to high. The slowest shutter setting however in video mode in the dslr's slowest shutter is 1/30 sec. For some reason i think if my shutter is wide open that it would kinda work. Would I be better to try and shoot the neon lights with the adapter with a 350 degree shutter?

 

Am I on the right track? Or whats the best way to get neon lights to strobe?

Thanks for you time

[JD Hartman]

I'd suggest a visit to a neon sign builder/installer. Explain the effect you are looking for. They should be able to create the effect of a failing neon sign in their workshop.

[timHealy]

well you could use a switch to turn it on and off. Or build some sort of relay that turns it on and off. that would be important if you needed it to be rythmic and repeatable.

 

best

 

Tim

[John Sprung]

Just shoot the neons as they are, constant, no strobe. Build your fades and flickers in post, where you can get exactly the rhythm you want.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.