lighting a scene in rain

[Guest rajavel]

hi there

this is raj from india. i have just shot my first feature film in kerala...gods own country. we would be shooting the song sequences next month. i would like to know how to light sequences in rain.

1. lighting artists in rain

2. lighting for rain

3. wat is best for rain....will back lighting make rain an opaque sheet of water

4. any suggestions on shutter angle to capture rain better

cheers

raj

[Bob Hayes]

I don?t know if you are thinking night or day. Since you said lighting I think you mean night. I always back light the rain. I make sure I have rain towers deep in the distance. I found I can put the towers in the shot if they are black with out support ropes. The rain will hide the tower if lit right. You need an angled rain protection off the front of the lens shade to send the drops off to the side. If you don?t you get a rain gutter effect in the front.

[Guest rajavel]

thanks a lot Mr.Bob. sorry i should have mentioned whether it was day or night.

i have heard that if a rain is back lit...then the artist in rain might not be clearly visible.is it true. thanks.

raj

[L K Keerthi Basu]

thanks a lot Mr.Bob. sorry i should have mentioned whether it was day or night.

i have heard that if a rain is back lit...then the artist in rain might not be clearly visible.is it true. thanks.

raj

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Back light the rain so that the drops will sparkle. I think that when you specified it has a Song sequence so it is Day. Choose angular sun to shoot and add fill to artist with ARRIsun so that it can match your daylight even silver reflectors are enough I think. For back light use mirrors so that they can provide you a more specular reflection for the back light.

 

L.K.Keerthi basu

[David Mullen ASC]

thanks a lot Mr.Bob. sorry i should have mentioned whether it was day or night.

i have heard that if a rain is back lit...then the artist in rain might not be clearly visible.is it true. thanks.

raj

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, if you overlight the rain from behind, and don't light the actor, it could happen but you can SEE that right there on the set and make an adjustment, like reducing the intensity of the backlight. But the rain MUST be backlit to be seen -- it's invisible otherwise.

 

It's something like shooting in smoke; the more the backlight overshoots the actor and lights the foreground smoke or rain, the more it creates a veil in front of the actor, but how strong that is depends on the strength of the backlight and the heaviness of the smoke or rain. So aim the backlight more behind the actor to light the rain past him, and keep the rain and backlight less strong if you want a less heavy effect. But you HAVE to backlight the rain, if not cross-light it as well. It just goes black otherwise.

[Guest rajavel]

thanks David and Keerthi

[Guest fstop]

MAKE SURE your rain DOES NOT get close to the backlight in your frame, because then the source will bleed into the droplets it's illuminating- this is especially troublesome if you use lens diffusion because then the "hotter" rain (rain closest to the backlight) will bleed and smear and tell the audience it's backlit, plus it'll make the distribution of illuminated rain particles uneven, much like a shaft of smoked light that goes from burned out to fall off in a short space- MAKE SURE your backlight is SPREAD against the wall of foreground rain, much like lighting a silk. This may sound obvious but believe me when you are working away into the hours (particularly on night shoots) and your brain falls off into neutral during the exhaustion periods, it's highly likely autopilot will walk into the big mistake.

Edited May 26, 2005 by fstop

[Guest rajavel]

MAKE SURE your rain DOES NOT get close to the backlight in your frame, because then the source will bleed into the droplets it's illuminating- this is especially troublesome if you use lens diffusion because then the "hotter" rain (rain closest to the backlight) will bleed and smear and tell the audience it's backlit, plus it'll make the distribution of illuminated rain particles uneven, much like a shaft of smoked light that goes from burned out to fall off in a short space- MAKE SURE your backlight is SPREAD against the wall of foreground rain, much like lighting a silk. This may sound obvious but believe me when you are working away into the hours (particularly on night shoots) and your brain falls off into neutral during the exhaustion periods, it's highly likely autopilot will walk into the big mistake.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thanks Tim.

raj

[Guest rajavel]

i vaguely remember seeing an ad for Nike where michael jordon is seen running in rain...and there was an article about the same mentioning how they lit the background buildings separately....and they had two layers of considerable rain raining (onelayer between jordan and camera, onelayer between jordan and bg buildings.) so basicallly he was not really running in rain and he was lit separately and ofcourse rain lit separately. they had lit the rain from the top also....tried replicating the natural source of light (sky). ok. this was shot in night outside one of the famous newyork buildings. am just trying to think hard where i came across this info..if i get hold of it...i will tell exactly wat they did...if anyone knows...just tip it...thanks

raj