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Extreme Low light Conditions 16mm


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Im shooting a scene where my lights are going to be a zippo lighter(held by the character, some candles in the background and a lantern on the side.

 

The scene will be lifted by a bounced small sourced HMI from the window.

 

I will be shooting on 16mm 500T Vision 3 stock.

 

Any Does n Don'ts?

It's my first time lighting for 16mm under these lighting conditions.

 

Thank you,

Regards,

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Im shooting a scene where my lights are going to be a zippo lighter

 

I am guessing the zippo is your "key"? If so, it may not be enough, depending on how fast your lens is. You may want to augment the zippo with a lamp on a flicker box. Since the actor is holding it they may be moving, so you can always handhold a low wattage bulb and move with them. I am sure you are using the hmi as moonlight cause of the color difference? I like to overexpose by at least half a stop, depending on the mood you are going for, this may give you more detail in your shadows etc.

 

Nick

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Use a little halogen bulb for the flame. In the old days, we used the FEV's (200 Watt) from inkies. The flicker box is just an ordinary triac dimmer with a push button switch in parallel. Any good hardware store will have the parts. One hand runs the dimmer up and down a little, with the other you tap the shunt switch to make flickers of full brightness.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

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The coolest and so most natural looking lighting and augmenting a candle was shown in the American Cinematographer in issue December 2010. On Shutter Island Bob Richardson´s gaffer is holding a gas powered round pipe with a couple of holes burning about 1.5 ft. away from DiCaprio who is igniting a match to enhance the flame. On film this looks amazingly good.

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Im shooting a scene where my lights are going to be a zippo lighter(held by the character, some candles in the background and a lantern on the side.

 

The scene will be lifted by a bounced small sourced HMI from the window.

 

I will be shooting on 16mm 500T Vision 3 stock.

 

Any Does n Don'ts?

It's my first time lighting for 16mm under these lighting conditions.

 

Thank you,

Regards,

 

 

i wouldn't shoot a film like this without doing a test to make sure what you want to do will work and the results will be acceptable to shoot the whole film.

 

i often would not like to use very fast 16mm film simply because i was shooting low light. i preferred to shoot 200 and slower stock to make sure the image looked good and not too grainy. unless grain was something i wanted and contributed to the story.

 

sometimes some people think they need low or no light to make something look dark. something can look dark with 25 asa and the right lighting.

 

one issue that one always has to look out for when shooting wide open (which i assume you will be working at) is shooting wide open on a wide angle lens. it can be very hard to judge focus.

 

best

 

Tim

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