Lighting on front of a huuuge aquarium

Dominik Muench · February 12, 2005

hi,

this is a problem that came up for me because i want to do a themed photo shoot in front of a huge aquarium at seaworld, basically a model standing infront of a huge aquarium that fills out the whole frame background, my question is now, what would be the best way to light that person without loosing any detail of the aquarium and the fish in it ?

Chris Keth · February 12, 2005

hi,

this is a problem that came up for me because i want to do a themed photo shoot in front of a huge aquarium at seaworld, basically a model standing infront of a huge aquarium that fills out the whole frame background, my question is now, what would be the best way to light that person without loosing any detail of the aquarium and the fish in it ?

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This might be skirting the subject and there's probably a better way I don't know of but you could always 1. Dull spray the fishtank so it's a matte surface. or 2. Shoot the actors in front of a green screen and do it that way. Maybe test and see if the dull spray would work.

Bob Hayes · February 12, 2005

Shoot at a slight angle to the tank and place your lights on the side of the camera that won?t show a reflection. Light from above. Light from the sides and flag the reflections off of the actors.

Dominik Muench · February 12, 2005

dulling is not an option, were talking here about a glass window 10 meters x 6 meters or so.

also, the aquarium is open so the light coming in and shining through the class in the viewing room is daylight, so i would be best of with daylight balanced soft lights ?

oh i just saw for some reason im not in the lighting forum, sorry for that, maybe one of the admins can change that ?

Kevin Zanit · February 12, 2005

Well, you will want daylight balanced units.

To hold detail in the water, simply balance your foreground actors to the water.

There are a few ways to approach this:

Light from a side-y angle, to throw any glare away from where you would likely see.

The problem is this may not be the look you want.

If you light form a top-y angle (as was suggested) you will throw some potential problem areas out of the frame as well.

The problem with both these ideas is that you may require some sort of fill.

Generally I like to fill from a camera position, in this case, that may not be an option. You can try and fill from the shadow side if you go for a strong side key.

If you fill from the camera, you will have a reflection in the glass, you can?t help this.

You could try a POLA if you have that kind of stop, and then play with your lighting position. The problem with the POLA is that it can make the skin look a little odd if the angle is right.

So let?s just assume that the reflection is an unavoidable fact. In this case, you want to make the reflection as "graceful" as you can. You want a large soft source rather that a point source, which would just yield a hot spot. Think car commercial.

If I were in your shoes, I would try all of the above, starting with the simple solutions, and making my way towards the more complicated as they fail.

Kevin Zanit

Dominik Muench · February 12, 2005

great thank you, ill deff try those methods, i have a variety of different lights which i can use so i just experiment with those.

Dan Salzmann · February 12, 2005

Dulling spray is definitely not the answer as it will just obscure the aquarium.

Low level, daylight balanced soft fill lighting is the go here.

Maybe warm up the fill a bit to accentuate the colour contrast between the subject and the aquarium.

Have some large pieces of duvatyne handy.

Maybe even consider shooting through a hole in the duvatyne.

Adam Frisch FSF · February 12, 2005

Rim-light thru the aquarium.

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · February 12, 2005

You said "Photo shoot" so I guess it's a still shoot. If it were motion picture it's a good place to engineer a cheat when you move in close.

Dominik Muench · February 12, 2005

yes its for a photo shoot with permanent film lights, but that gave me the idea of how to light a situation like this for motion picture. what do you mean with a cheat ? :blink:

Mike Hall · February 13, 2005

What about putting polarizing gel on the light sources? The Gel is relatively expensive, and you have to make sure the polarization is all the same way, and, there is the polarizer on the camera/skin thing, but you will be able to dial the lamp reflections out (and probably make the fish look better), and the rest you can get with floppies or a couple of 12x12 solids.

Rosco makes one brand of the gel, and there is also a 3M product that is in wide (as wide as 5') sheets. I think the rosco product comes in 20" sq. sheets. Works better with HMI fresnels than pars, as I remember, and obviously you want the pola gel to be on the outside of any diffusion or color on the light.

Anyway, something to think about.

Mike Hall

AZ

Edited February 13, 2005 by Mike Hall

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · February 13, 2005

yes its for a photo shoot with permanent film lights, but that gave me the idea of how to light a situation like this for motion picture. what do you mean with a cheat ? :blink:

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Well cheating in this situation could be like not using frontal fill in the wide shot but then using it in a closeup because it would be easier to exclude the reflection of the source on the tank from the frame.

Kevin Zanit · February 13, 2005

I was going to recommend the POLA gel, but the thing is that the light loss from not only a POLA filter on the camera, but also on the lights would most likely not be practical.

Kevin Zanit

Dominik Muench · February 13, 2005

thanks all for the tips, i guess i just give it a shot sometime and see how it turns out :)

Glenn Hanns · February 14, 2005

Hi Dmuench,

Heres a "happy snap" from the Manly aquarium my wife took with a run of the mill digi cam, straight flash no extra lights. I was surprised that there was no reflection at all.

Are you doing this infront of the aquarium with the projector screen? It will be hard to move lights around in such a small space with all those seats in the way. Maybe some flathead 80 kinos might give you enough punch.

G.

Dominik Muench · February 14, 2005

Hi Dmuench,
Heres a "happy snap" from the Manly aquarium my wife took with a run of the mill digi cam, straight flash no extra lights. I was surprised that there was no reflection at all.

Are you doing this infront of the aquarium with the projector screen? It will be hard to move lights around in such a small space with all those seats in the way. Maybe some flathead 80 kinos might give you enough punch.

G.

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hehe is that sydney aquarium ? actually idlove to do it at seaworld in surfers paradise queensland if possible.