David Calson

twitter.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

The closer you put the light to the diffusion frame, the harder/softer the shadows become? I'm going to guess softer, because the light is getting bigger, maybe who knows...

I'm no lonely teenager but I do use facebook, I think it's great for keeping up with people without the silly looking layout as myspace. Twitter though is where I draw the line, I mean come on!

Oops, this topic seems more heated and controversial than I thought

Okay thanks for the input guys, the reason I'm so cautious is, unlike sk8terduude84 on youtube, I'd be using my real name for professional purposes, just don't want to be looked down upon.

Do I need permission to use copyrighted music to play on my demo reel? The reason I ask is I've seen some professionals on here with copyrighted music, just wondering if they were actually able to get the okay or if there's some fair use loophole.

Well it's been several months now, would be nice if he brought it back...

Very true David, I guess my struggle is trying to get out of the latter.

But I mean, I'm sure you've made mistakes and people not like your work, why hasn't that stopped you?

I'm going to be vulnerable for a moment...this goes out to all the veteran weather worn pros I'm an aspiring DP/videographer/producer with a thin skin, when I make a mistake it feels like the end of the world, it feels like nobody else could have made such a foolish mistake. When somebody thinks my work is garbage I'm almost tempted to believe them. So how do you deal with it? How do you deal with it not getting you down?

Hi, so what do these things do to exposure? increase it?

Thanks for the clarification David, I love this site, getting tutored from the best

I guess this is where inverse square law and a spot meter become your friend

Alright, one more clarification, you have two 250w lights, two subjects at different distances from the camera. Both lights are lighting the subjects at the same footcandle amount, though subject A is 5 feet from the camera and subject B is 20 feet from the camera. Because the light reflecting on subject B has farther to reach the camera than subject A does that mean subject B will appear dimmer?

No prob Tom, thanks for both of your advice, now to buy a light meter and start experimenting!

If I stick to 5/1 for a part of it, is it common practice to do that the whole film? Thanks

Very true, well I'm glad to know I'm finally getting it now, thanks for the tutoring, one more question, when people say the key/fill ratio, by fill do they mean just the less brighter light hitting the main subject or would they mean any light in the scene that's not the key light (with exceptions of a kicker or anything brighter than the key). Thanks again really!!

Alright now that I've learned so much from this thread, time to put the knowledge to the test... I'm shooting on a 500iso camera, 8 stops of latitude, pull out the meter *80FC* Okay, I set the lens to 5.6 Here's my range of visiblity right? 5fc 10fc 20fc 40fc *80fc* 160fc 320fc 640fc 1280fc

I see, so if the meter tells you an fstop and you know your film speed, you can also know the fc amount based on this or vise versa, it tells you a fc amount, you'll know what fstop you're at. So is there like a formula or equation to go with this so that you can say, oh I have 300 fc at 500iso, that's an f/????

Hey thanks for the reply guys, I'm pretty ADD so I will try and compute all that was said. Yeah with video you don't really need a meter, but I like knowing how to light without rechecking the monitor or wfm.

I own an HMC-150 camcorder, I think this has about 8 stops of latitude rated at 500 iso. So here's what I do, I set the meter to 500 iso, 1/50 shutter speed. I press the button and then............................???? The meter will give me an fstop? The meter will give me a footcandle amount? I'm really dense and I've read alot of stuff but I still get very confused, the one article that did help get things a little clearer is here, http://www.cineobscure.com/dynamic-range-a...hting-for-film/ His explanation using footcandles seems clearer to me, I like things being explained in footcandles... Let say this, I have a key pointed at subject, I meter the light and it says I've got 400 candles at 5.6, okay I set the camera to 5.6. So 400 fc is my midpoint, my highest point without clipping is 6400 fc, my lowest point 25 fc? I guess the part I'm confused most about is what happens when I press the meter button, will it give an f/stop a fc amount or both...

Let's say a light is giving me 800 footcandles, I slap on a ND gel that dims the light 1 stop, how many footcandles would I have then? Is there a formula to help calculate this? Thanks!

I see, get what you pay for...

I'd say within 5 feet. Yes, definitely will be using my head.

Newb DP looking for some good cheap muslin, saw this on amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Fabric-com-108-Unble...d=26A0RFBSYNR2O Think I could aim a 250-500w light at this pretty close?