Big Lamps

Justin Hayward · July 22, 2017

Sorry for the quality of this picture. I was watching this on TV and I couldn't find it anywhere online, so I took a picture with my phone. Any idea what kind of lamps you think it would take to light something like this? Big xenons? Seems like they have more spread than xenons even though the beams are angled in different directions. Whatever it is, it has to be pretty high up to get that sharp of shadows that far on the ground and walls.

Phil Rhodes · July 22, 2017

It's not clear to me that's more than one light; it's being broken up by the ceiling into multiple beams. It could be more than one, carefully aligned, but by my eyeball the angles aren't inconsistent with a single source.

The fact that the beams look like they're coming toward us is not formally distinguishable from the fact that they're diverging because the source is nearby, or at least nearer-by than the sun. Sure it's not sun?

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Justin Hayward · July 22, 2017

Sure it's not sun?

I'm not sure it's not the sun. I was wondering if someone would tell me it was. Only thing is the beams camera right are hitting the floor and the beams camera left are hitting those pillars and the separation between them doesn't seem far enough for that to happen. They look angled that way. But I most definitely could be wrong.

David Mullen ASC · July 22, 2017

I think it's the sun, an artificial source would have to be very high in the air to produce that effect and then it would not likely be bright enough to create that exposure. I could be wrong though.

Stuart Brereton · July 22, 2017

Looking at the way the beams converge, it seems like it's a lamp, a very big, bright lamp. I'll take a wild guess and say a 100k softsun on a huge condor.

Gregg MacPherson · July 22, 2017

Perspective is having an effect, the camera being low and the space being tall. The far column on the left, it's angle to the floor looks less than 90deg. The two shafts of shadow in the centre are off parrallel by about the same...

EDIT: Then again, the columns on the left are not converging with height, and the angle of the shafts of light on the upper left don't look like perspective.

Edited July 22, 2017 by Gregg MacPherson

Phil Rhodes · July 22, 2017

Much of this can be explained by wide-angle lenses - theoretically sunbeams are (near as who cares) parallel but then again so're the edges of the road as it perspectives off into infinity.

Justin Hayward · July 23, 2017

Much of this can be explained by wide-angle lenses - theoretically sunbeams are (near as who cares) parallel but then again so're the edges of the road as it perspectives off into infinity.

Sure, good point. To put it in context, this is Michael Bay's first "Transformers" and it's the only shot in the sequence that is lit this way. It's not consistent with the other rooms they shot in the scene, which may mean they grabbed it when the sun looked good.

But, ya know, it's "Transformers." I can't imagine they grab wide shots like this in the moment. Of course... maybe they do.