Open Flame Lighting - 7D

Joshua Yates · December 22, 2011

I have a friend interested in shooting the climax of his short film (a comedy turned horror) alongside a bonfire, and with that being the only source of light. We would shoot with a 7D using a L-Series lens and the Technicolor Profile.

Has anyone here shot on the 7D with fire as the only light source, and have advice to share? I don't know if we'll have the opportunity to make a test bonfire beforehand, or else I would just shoot test footage myself. At 24fps, 1/50th shutter and probably 640 ISO, how do you think the overall level of noise would be?

Thanks, any comments are greatly appreciated.

Robert Houllahan · December 22, 2011

A bonfire is allot of light and you can get great exposure from it's light, however if you have the bonfire in the shot it will either be totally clipped or if you stop down enough to get detail in the flame you will lose your lit subjects. Even with the profile the 7D in video mode does not have anywhere near enough latitude to get that kind of range in the shot. Open fire tends to go a bit red too if you are looking for "normal" skintone.

-Rob-

Joshua Yates · December 23, 2011

So essentially it's possible, but I would have to shoot with the edit in mind and never have subject(s) and flame in the same composition? Makes sense, thanks for your explanation. I might be able to cheat some instances of this and get some interesting silhouettes.

Adrian Sierkowski · December 23, 2011

You can also light your actors....to get them close to the same stop as the bon-fire... And honestly, no one will notice that the light isn't flickering if the fire is in the shot.