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Street lamp advice


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So i'm lighting an ext. night scene soon and it takes place under a street lamp. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to light this?

 

The lamp will be on, and I only have 3 lights.

 

im thinking about using a high (aiming down) soft CTB light as moon effect, then another, slightly harder, high (aiming down) CTO light to add to the street lamp. i'm also considering adding a low (aiming up) soft white light as a back light. The camera we're shooting on is a DVX 100b.

 

any suggestions?

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You tend not to get moonlight having an impact under street lighting, you really need to justify the source and colour of your lights, otherwise it can look fake.

 

There are a number of gels available to give the same colour effects as street. http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=49223&st=0&p=338506&hl=sodium&fromsearch=1entry338506

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Brian's right. Use that unit instead to paint the BG if you can. Rake it across a fence, building, whatever. use it to add layers. Probably not strong enough to really light the street but frame creatively.

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I think it might be out of place if you had a "moonlight" lamp set to go along with the street lamp. This is just my opinion, but I think you should try to stay away from the moonlight idea as much as possible when lighting (in general). If a script specifically calls for absolutely no lights to be on in a scene then you will probably have to go there but I personally think it looks fake and almost always pulls me out of a film if it's a big part of the way the scene's lit.

 

For the scene you're describing, if it's an absolute must for you to be under a sodium vapor lamp, either just use the lamp itself and adjust the blocking accordingly to get the angle you want from the light or if you don't like the likely shadows over the eyes you're going to get, throw a butterfly over your subject's head to soften the lamp, then use one of your lights with the sodium vapor gel to light their face how you want.

 

But yeah, simpler is indeed always better!

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in australia the majority of street lighting has been replaced with lamps that have their own individual daylight sensor to switch them off when the sun rises.

this is handy for film makers because you can bash a 150 dedo onto the underside of the lamp and it switches off.

have used this trick a few times to get rid of the sodium vapour orange colour temp.

i then put up my own lamp to replicate the light but at a colour temp i choose.

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in australia the majority of street lighting has been replaced with lamps that have their own individual daylight sensor to switch them off when the sun rises.

this is handy for film makers because you can bash a 150 dedo onto the underside of the lamp and it switches off.

have used this trick a few times to get rid of the sodium vapour orange colour temp.

i then put up my own lamp to replicate the light but at a colour temp i choose.

 

 

or if you got a tradie's key you can switch the breaker off at the base ;-)...where abouts are you based, mate?

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