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Ben Barrett

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About Ben Barrett

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    Student
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    Scotland, UK

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  1. Thanks David, I would have just clipped it to the barn doors. I'll try and shoot some tests when I can of a bounced 650 or 800 maybe, for diffuse shadows, and your half diffused direct sunlight look, perhaps with a 2k maybe. Thanks for the advice!
  2. Wow I had no idea about that rule, thanks. That's interesting because the first thing that I thought of for a 'light and bright' image would be a light background, rather than dark. The wall doesn't really seem to take any of the shadows though. What I also thought at first was to have a brighter light hitting the side of his face, looking as if it was coming from the window. I see I could maybe have used that with your idea of diffusing part of the light, the lower section in this case. As for the positioning, perhaps have the subject sitting far away from any wall and perhaps at an angle to a wall or walls for depth. Yeah the final shot I ended up using was tighter in, thanks for the pointer on that though. I'm not sure that putting it more frontal would help with the modeling of the face, wouldn't it just look flatter, and also my hope was to have it hitting one side of his face, surely I couldn't achieve that by moving the key near the front? I had a 2k blonde I could have used. I had thought to maybe put that outside in the garden and shine it through (about 6-7m away) but didn't bring it in the end. Would that have been preferable? Shooting on film - I wish! Unfortunately I have to use good ol' video. So I've reached this idea so far: Diffuse half the light if using a hard source, for realism, though I'm not sure if that would solve the shadow issue if one left the top half undiffused. Try moving the source further away or use a soft light/diffused hard light at an angle round about 90 degrees to create one brighter side on the subject's face. Of course in the orignal situation posted above I was bouncing an 800w so increasing the exposure to restore the original brightness of the key would create an overexposed couch. ND it perhaps. A darker background might have worked better here. Change the composition of the shot to include a sense of depth and it would have been advisable to stay away from the white wall as a backing. So the problem of the shadows seems to be solved by distance with a greater intensity beam (or lower ambient intensity with compensating F stop) or using a soft light quite angled to prevent it from looking flat. Is this about right? Also, it seems to me that in the stills posted there aren't any shadows because most subjects are far from the backgrounds or they're against dark backgrounds which would hide the shadows anyway. I'm still learning, please be paitent! Ben
  3. But since light has a fall-off rate of inverse log, by the time the light is far enough away from the subject to stop the shadows surely the key will no longer look as bright? (Sorry, you can tell I haven't had much experience at this)
  4. Thanks for your advice David. Yes I considered the table lamp but I thought that it looked a little more visually attractive turned on and I was reminded of programmes like "The OC" where for some reason they have lamps on inside all the time. But yes in retrospect it would look more realistic turned off. (I would have used a vase of flowers or something to add colour but couldn't find any there). I didn't consider only half covering the light of the key with diffuser but I put it on the whole thing and the light seemed to go pretty even over all the talent's face and body. In the still you posted you've obviously got the softer top half still creating a shadow on the camera left side of her face because the right side is brighter. How did you do that (with a diffuser I'm assuming) and manage to stop the light from going flat all over? How would you create a generally bright day? Surely you can still have a much brighter light coming in from one side but would you have to have it soft to stop distracting shadows like the ones above? Surely not? Thanks again! Ben
  5. I shot a quick interview a few days ago and I hate the shadows that the key light was creating. The set-up was: 1 bounced 800w redhead for ambient light (it was quite dingy); bouned off of the wall behind the camera. A 650w fresnel a couple of metres or so off to camera right. A 300w fresnel less than a metre off to camera right; backlight. A reflector about a metre to camera left. (Don't know what that lamp is but it's not doing very much). I wanted it to look like a bright day or morning and it doesn't seem too bad but I hate those shadows from his face that are cast onto this couch, you can see the talent's mouth move on the shadow as he speaks. So I tried repoitioning the key a little. In the second still below the shadow is longer but it's still there. So my question is this: how do you deal with shadows like this? Would using a soft light like a Kino Flo work? I tried using some Rosco Toughspun (#3006) on the key but it lost a lot of its brightness and the light became more flat. Thanks guys! Ben
  6. Hi guys, I'm quite new at lighting things and I wondered how Hype Williams' DP (or even himself?) lit the scenes in these videos which have burnt out spots in the centre and fade out into full colour at the edges. Where's the light? What sort of background is it? Indeed, is it a background at all or post work? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU13MRtSD7E (Kanye West - Gold Digger) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqY7j_e0Cac (LL Cool J - Control Myself) Thanks for your helps guys, it's always appreciated, Ben
  7. Ben Barrett

    ISOs for HD

    Thanks Adrian. I've been concerned about the light levels. I want to avoid electronic noise if possible, but the video still requires elements of darkness. I'm not sure how far the HVX-200 will let me go before it becomes too dark for it (or just plain bad lighting). The shot I'm thinking of is outdoors and we've got no geny or power source near by. My guess is that indoors one could hang black fabric to absorb the light and use a small fresnel on the talent with a reflector to give some fill (add background practicals as needed). I think I need some experience though, but thanks for your advice! Ben
  8. Ben Barrett

    ISOs for HD

    Hey guys, I have a Sekonic light meter but I wondered what I should set the ISO number to for the correct exposure on a given camera? I'm planning to shoot on the HVX-200, but how do you work it out, or know, what it should be? Many thanks for your help, Ben
  9. Thanks Michael. I had a matte box for the XL2 but didn't use it for this shot (duh!) I see now though. I should have angled the french flag to cut out stray light causing veiling glare. Admittedly though I never heard of thi stype of flare before. Thanks for your help, Ben
  10. Okay, so the white out on the wall is causing the veiling flare. Is it possible to have a whited out area from a strong light behind the subject while avoiding veiling flare? I noticed Barry Ackroyd did this in United 93 and The Wind That Shakes The Barley. How is that possible, surely problem can't be exclusive to video? Many thanks for your time, Ben
  11. Remove the quotation mark in the link: <a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2017055200">Video 1</a> <a href=http://"vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2018191145">Video 2</a>
  12. Okay, so this can also be controlled by opening the iris? Although wouldn't that cause the other colours there - such as the red in the background - to become overly bright? Hmm, I'm not really a fan of it - well certainly not here; there are probably some situations where reducing contrast can look good, although generally unless the mood of the scene permits it I prefer good colours in the pictures - just my opinion though. Ben
  13. Thanks, that makes sense now. So I should have used a top flag to block out any stray light and that would have removed the flare problem? Would a polarising filter have made any difference? The subject is being lit by reflected light only, would lighting them have reduced or removed the problem, or should I not try to compete with natural sun light? Thanks for your time, Ben
  14. This is probably a stupid question really, so my appologies in advance: Attached is a frame from a video shot with a Cannon XL2. The subject (and even the scene in general) is a bit grayer - not really darker, just grayer - than would you would normally expect for a well-light shot. There is a strong light coming in from behind him. Is this grayness caused by the camera balancing the shot to mid-gray (although the stong light isn't actually visible in the frame) or is there some other reason involving the light? Thanks for your time, Ben
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