James Oldham

To a degree, yes you are making it harder, but it would still cast a soft shadow as the larger source would still be leaking through the flags (according to your chart). You'd have to create a hole in a fabric (acting as the flags) so small that it would be the same size relative to the subject and than the hard light source itself. But all you're doing is reducing the amount of light, so this wouldn't be very practical in an ordinary situation. You would just point the hard source at the subject lol If the sun was the hard light source and for some reason you wanted to put it through some large diffusion (creating a new soft source), then I guess theoretically if you created a black box and put a tiny hole in the box with an actor inside, you would have a hard light source again, but would end up with a lower exposure... Does that kind of make sense? That's how I would understand it anyway!

Great work Stephen. Very insightful and inspiring to read through and study. Bravo sir

At the end of the day, you will need to go with what feels best to you and your eye. Interesting idea from David to completely remove the lamp from the foreground, and place on a small table, which will provide a moody, silhouetted shot. If it's just for a montage scene showing the passage of time, then you can be a bit more creative with it, and experiment. If it were me, I would definitely be adding shape to the curtains. I like the dedo splash of light on the music sheets too. Maybe put less into your muslin, and have a really edgy, dynamic shot. As I've said to you before, good luck with it! And I hope the compositions for TV show go well for you. Best, James

I've had this same problem recently but only when shooting in RAW at 2.5k. at Prores I can't see the lines and have been shooting at 200ASA The lines are horizontal and very subtle but they mimic the effects of moire, as if the sensor has actually skipped a line of data every so often throughout the vertical measurement of the frame. I'm sure it would be a simple fix for blackmagic to solve, so think I will send in soon!

I would definitely stay either daylight or tungsten balanced. Mixing is a bad idea with white backgrounds. A good HMI equivalent to the Blondes would be a JokerBug 400 or 800, which put out a similar amount of light. With regards to the T4 HMI 1kw, the usual rule is that HMI's put out 4 to 5 times more light than their Tungsten equivalent, so without any calculations, I would speculate that yes they would put out a similar amount of light. Unless fall off isn't an issue for you, you can always place the light closer to your model for more light, and alternatively away for less drop off. Based upon your previous posts, it looks like you've got a pretty good grasp on what you're doing, so go ahead and try it, and let us know when we can see results. Best, James

Thanks for the responses. For me the metal blinds raise questions. For example, the beam of light being cut by the blind would cast venetian shadows on the subject, unless put through some medium diffusion or bounced from elsewhere? Phil, the LED strobe sounds interesting, would love to see picture of the working system!

Hi Folks, I would like some advice on what strobe/flash fixtures I could use to replicate lightning and what would be the best way to power this when shooting externally. Also has anyone found issues whilst shooting on Alexa with strobe lighting i.e lack of global shutter and what other approaches you could take to this problem. Thanks in advance

The only difference between a regular PAR fixture, and the new M18 heads is that the newer heads have the flexibility of flooding or spotting like a fresnel fixture would. Because of the new reflector technology the beam remains very sharp and crisp when either flooded or spotted.

From what I can gather, your question seems more relevant for the sfx dept. to answer. With regards to creating a sparkle with lights, if you're shooting upwards from underwater your best bet would be to position your fixture at a 45degree angle into the pool so as to backlight the water and your subject. Water shimmers or glistens because light from behind gets refracted as it passes through the water. You could try creating a shower of tiny bubbles rising up from behind your actor. Keep your aperture open and the light should sparkle in the bokeh in the background. Worth a try! James Oldham Cinematographer Manchester, UK

Thanks for all that juicy information Stuart. I've always thought that the Kinos complimented Arri's HMI line rather nicely. It would be interesting to hear from Kino on the thread...

Thanks for the suggestions. I am using the 3200k tubes. I actually wasn't aware that 2900k tubes were available. I will have to look into this as it sounds to be an interesting prospect. It is not often that I will use the 3200k tubes on the 4 bank, but when I do, I've always felt it to be lacking in some wavelengths of the colour spectrum. It would be interesting to see a spectral chart on the fixture. In fact, i just did a quick search on kino website with regards to this: http://www.kinoflo.com/Products%20Button/Lamps/True_Match/True_Match.html I don't notice anything on the chart that would suggest towards a magenta/pink shift in the 3200k. Although the 2900k tube looks interesting, with a slight spike just below 600nm (which is maybe why it looks more pleasing Satsuki?) Adrian, I think your technique makes sense, and I should try this sometime on a future project.