lighting a small room

siddharth diwan · May 21, 2005

i have to shoot in a very small room and do a very low key lighting with a lot of shadows, totally dramatic. kind of one point lighting, where should i place the light and which light.

thanks a lot

David Mullen ASC · May 22, 2005

i have to shoot in a very small room and do a very low key lighting with a lot of shadows, totally dramatic. kind of one point lighting, where should i place the light and which light.
thanks a lot

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You should place the light where you want it to be placed to create the shadows you want. A fresnel light would be easiest to adjust and cut with flags or barndoors, maybe something like a 650 watt tweenie but I have no idea because you aren't giving us nearly enough information...

Stephen Press · May 22, 2005

I?d go with one or two Dedo lights. Pointable, spotable, dimmable without spill.

Dramatic covers a lot but of the top of my head go high to ?hood? the eyes and put the light so it lights the far side of the face from the camera so the near side of the face is in shadow

Josh Hill · May 22, 2005

But remember, to have shadows you need light to cast them. I've found in my experience with the XL1 (I read from another post that is what you're shooting in) that I prefer using MORE light rather than LESS light.

I tend to like to throw swaths of light around and stylize my light quite a bit (and I've worked mostly in small rooms). I also light lighting where my actors come in and out of darkness as they move around. You might want a couple of 650W fixtures, but I've found that using a couple of 200 or 300 watt lights works very well.

Set your Gain to -3 and control set a constant stop. Don't let the camera do any of the work for you. Light from there and use a well-adjusted monitor to make sure you're getting the look you want. And make sure you know what the blocking is in the small room, because it is much harder to hide fixtures.