not valid Posted April 27, 2005 Share Posted April 27, 2005 I have a project coming up that is actually an aboriginal health commercial but we are comparing and contrasting between a cacausion girl and an aboriginal girl. The whole ad untill the final shot is in black and white and mimics the styles of a hair commercial. My question is how should i approach lighting the hair using the lighting setup that is available to me? 4 Parcans spot 4 Parcans flood 3 redheads 2 KinoFlos (daylight or tungsten bulbs) and of course the Wonderful burning ball of gas in the sky the sun. Will be putting the pressure on my teacher to get some blondies soon maybe some other lighting equip too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Laurent Andrieux Posted April 27, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) Not to refer to another thread ( :rolleyes: ) but I would use Fresnel sources better than open faces or parcans... but, I think you can make it with what you've got, if you consider the key to your problem is contrast and sources directions. A very used trick about hair is to light it backlight... Mind that the setting is very carefull, and depends a lot on the talent hair : black, blonde... Edited April 27, 2005 by laurent.a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted April 28, 2005 Author Share Posted April 28, 2005 Yeah my main issue is that one girl is aboriginal ie. Dark Black hair and the other is almost arean (is that how it is spelt) anyway blonde hair. I was planing on backlighting it how would i go about hiding the lights from shot? have it slightly off cente long lens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Laurent Andrieux Posted April 28, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted April 28, 2005 (edited) Just as long as it's not in the frame, it's fine. You may have to protect the lens from the source with a flag as to kill eventual flare. The first thing is to have your talent far from an eventual wall as to have room to put your backlight sources, and not too high... It depends a lot on the fact wheter they have to move or not. Anyway, you should set one for each of them so that you can be stronger on the black hair than on the blonde one, but let the dark hair look dark... These back lights can be redheads or a blondie for the dark hair, don't have to put any diffusion on them. set them with teh flood/spot setting, if they don't move, it will be fine. Then you can have other open faces bounced on a board for key light and kinoflo for the fill, as a starting point, since I donno how wide the shot or shots are supposed to be, are they framed the 2 of them in teh same shot, or is it different shots of each of them, how large is the room, what camera or stock is it etc... By the way, I figure out your not english native, either, where you from Jake ? Regards, Laurent Edited April 28, 2005 by laurent.a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted April 29, 2005 Author Share Posted April 29, 2005 Not as such im Australian so their may be an eliment of slang involved. Also im incredibly bad with spelling definetly not my strong point. Both girls are in different shots for the first two sequences in the third sequence they are in the same shot. Everything will be shot behind the grils so their faces wont be shown and i am planing to contrast their clothing and the set to the colour of their skin. Ie white girl wearing black dress and has a black satin set, and black girl has a white dress and has a white satin set. The shot is say a fairly wide medium CU down to just above her bum and maybe a handspace above here head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR Posted April 29, 2005 Share Posted April 29, 2005 If you are shooting from behind someone it's usually best to have them face a little to the side. Have the girl face away from camera but to the right a bit. Then set your back/side-light on the left or vice-versa the whole setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted May 1, 2005 Author Share Posted May 1, 2005 Ok ill atempt to draw a picture of the setup and show you what im doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted May 1, 2005 Author Share Posted May 1, 2005 ok well it is not letting me upload the picture So basically what the setup looks like is their is a backdrop of satin heaped together that is white for the dark haired girl and the oppisite for the blonde girl ie black back drop. The shot is a medium close up for both girls. SO do you suggest that i put lights on the edge of the backdrop at the same height as the girls head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted May 4, 2005 Author Share Posted May 4, 2005 Ok heres an update on what i did for the shoot. The backdrop of satin i lit from below with a kinoflow with daylight globes gave a very nice shic hollywood curtain feel. For the hair i had 1 redhead choked then diffused with spun web just beside the satin to backlight the hair. I used a redhead on the opposite side flooded into a reflector board covered in aluminium foil to fill the hair with silver. i used a redhead reflected off a reflector board on the ceiling to fill the hair from above. i used 2 fairly weak parcans one used from below the actress to fill her hair from below then i used the other shooting head hieght to fill her hair in the center. And finally used another kino flow placed as close to the actor as possible without getting in shot to key her hair it was a nice choice because i used tungsten globes and the hair kind of reflected each globe in the kino. Ill see if i can get some pictures and post them to get some comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 Post some pics if you can. A lot of time it's just a matter of moving lights around the set to get them to give the hair a sheen just where you want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not valid Posted May 5, 2005 Author Share Posted May 5, 2005 Yeah i will try to post some pics if i can find a way of transfering them from the macs we are using to my PC at home. For the actors comfort we did not take any stills only motion footage so i will have to go pick out some decent frames to export. Anyway the shoot is finished and i was happy with the end result concidering the limited amount of lights and equipment i had and also the fact it was my first atempt at lighting hair. but ill tell you one thing F*&$ me lighting hair takes alot of light. hehehe :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 Anyway the shoot is finished and i was happy with the end result concidering the limited amount of lights and equipment i had and also the fact it was my first atempt at lighting hair. but ill tell you one thing F*&$ me lighting hair takes alot of light. hehehe :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ahh but that's the crux of the problem! Does it take a lot of light to light hair or did it just take that much because of the way you lit it? Of course the answer is, it can be done either way. It's up to your knowledge and skill as a DP to pick which is appropriate. Then you have to be able to execute your plan proficiently. Personally I love the challenge of lighting no matter if it is something I've done many times before or using a technique I never have. That's how you learn and grow as a DP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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