Two-shot next to a window - indoor and outdoor scene

[m lasarte]

Hello all,

 

I'm shooting a scene next week where two women are speaking in a living room, near a large window, while another situation takes place outside in the garden. I need to light the indoor scene at a level so that both scenarios are properly exposed. The women indoors will be at about 2 meters (6 feet) from the window. It'll be sunny outside.

 

I've shot scenes like this many times, but to be honest I never really like the results. It always looks lit to me.

 

How do you guys go about lighting scenarios like this?

 

*** Note that this is a laundry detergent commercial, so high key and beautiful is what is being asked of me. If it where fiction, it'd be another story.

 

Cheers

[Satsuki Murashige]

I would check out a YouTube channel called 'Meet the Gaffer', created by my friend and colleague Luke Seerveld:

 

Here's a lighting breakdown he did for a recent high-key house interior commercial shoot:

 

Luke shows and explains tricks like how quickly to slow down windows in shot, his go-to lighting units for small to medium-sized shoots like this that can run on house power, using large diffusion and negative fill to control contrast in a large white room, etc.

[Brenton Lee]

Man that was awesome Satsuki, thanks for posting that!

[Akos Baranya]

That channel is amazing, I stumbled upon it a while ago and it's a wonderful learning resource.

[m lasarte]

Great link Satsuki! Thanks so much!