Ryan Emanuel

I don't know if theres really a solid answer to that question. It really depends on your story, some stories warrant skintones at 30%, some need 20%, some need 60% and everything in between. There wont really be an exposure that works for ever night interior. Its a creative decision in addition to technical. If you like his style for your story then use similar levels. Also this looks low light, but there was probably an nd 6 in the camera.

Personally speaking, I think the issue with the sony look is not about color hues or color saturation, as much as its about color luminance. At least from what I have read, over 75% of the code values assigned to reproducing colors are above middle grey. Sony really wants to produce clean images so it maps colors to be brighter to get a higher bit depth for colors. Darker colors feel richer and more filmic, but with digital cameras they usually producer a noisier image since those bottom stops have the least amount of code values. And you will hear a larger uproar about noise than color, so sony didn't map the colors lower. Total speculation, but when I drop the luminance of the colors with a YUV color space node, the sony look starts to fade.

It depends on how much room you have between the source and the edge of frame. Egg crates can work and would be easiest, but know that your output will reduced. Also make sure the degree of the eggcrate will create the desired effect. An alternative would be if you have the room for a 12x8 or even better a 16x8 sider of black that will probably the trick as long as that doesn't enter frame. Common misconception that a sider of the same size as the diffusion will be able to fully control the spill. It all depends on the angle, some times you need a sider twice as big as the diff frame to control it.

It shouldn't really matter whether it was a 12k or 2ks hitting the bounce, the only thing that really matters for softness is how evenly lit the 12x12 is from edge to edge. Changing the 6x6 to a 8x8 would probably have more of an effect for evenly illuminating the 12x12.

Now I'm confused. I thought the order of brightness from darker to brighter was open face, fresnel, then par. I thought when you open the fresnel lens the fixture basically becomes an open face and its definitely a stop darker. And I thought a par was a stop brighter than a fresnel. And the new arrilite plus has the same par reflector as the M series, so does that make it a par?

Its simple to trouble shoot this, but chances are 800 ISO on the camera is not 800 ISO. Camera manufacturers definitely lie about ISO so they can say clean 2000! when your really looking at 800 on other camera. Get a second meter if you want to be sure and take incidents and spot readings together to see if yours is off but I doubt it. Check the camera next, expose with the camera first. Get your f stop with the waveform and grey card to match 34% and compare the f stop the meter, adjust the iso on the meter until it matches the camera f stop. It might end up being 400 or 500 iso, if it is to get the exposure your are after you have to rate the camera lower on your meter. Usually the camera manufacturers' suggestions are super low for log middle grey to promote high light retention specs, but the darks will be muddy. I wouldn't trust that either. Any time you have to lift digital your not in the best place. For cinema a lot of cinematographers like white skintones at 45-55. If you like it higher and you have to lift your image to get there from 34% grey, and you're loosing some fidelity. You might need to aim for 43% for middle grey in that case. Trust none of the specs of the camera, trust only the sekonic as a bench mark, you might find that 200 iso is the look your going for. Best of luck.

c Hey Guy, this is awesome, thanks so much for your articles and contributions they have made a big difference for me and my understanding of lighting. I have a feature I'm shooting in July, with a few car days and I would like to use this technique with a hive wasp 250W par. We'll be towing a car in the uhaul tow and using the rosco black scrim. I have a few questions about tie-ing to the car. From research I've found that if the battery are run in parallel, I'm going to have to find a battery that has similar specs to the uhaul truck battery doing the tow, is that correct? And is there anything I should be looking out for spec wise to be exactly the same? The wasp should be pulling 25 amps paper amps from the 12 volt battery before voltage drop. I was planning to run 12 feet from the car battery to the bed of the truck for the second battery and 3 feet to the pure sine wave inverter, and I was planning on 4 gauge wire. My math was that the resistance per foot was .00024 so the .00024*30ft*25amps=.18 Volts for voltage drop. So the draw will be 21 amps. How much voltage drop is too much for a 12 volt system? 2/0 is pretty expensive, if I'm only running the hive which should have a pfc of 1, would the 4 gauge cable and a 400 watt pure sine wave inverter work for that distance?

Would you guys describe the key light as being soft, I see a pretty defined nose shadow, and the chin shadows as well. Seems like upstage cross keys were only slightly diffused and the camera side fill was used to balance out the contrast, am I wrong on that?

I've noticed that the when I set diffusion frames to diffuse the sun, they take away way more light then when I put them in front of a light. Is that because of an inverse square thing?

There really is none as long as the diffusion frame is fully illuminated from edge to edge and the bounce is the same size as the frame. The real question is what is easier to do in your shooting situation. The only thing that matters is the size of the source in relation to your subject. In small rooms you wont be able to fully illuminate a diffusion frame at least not a large one so bouncing will create the bigger source in relation to the subject. In a large space going through the diffusion might be better because it can provide more exposure. Also the "quality" of light often times gets thought of as subjective when it really is very objective. Take a look at the nose shadow, cheek shadow, and chin shadow when analyzing the softness of a source. At least when I started looking there, I saw less and and less differences between bounced light, diffused light, book lights, and double diffused light of the same size.

If the fill light is 2-3 stops beneath the far side key light, does it matter whether or not the broad side fill is a hard or soft source? Can't you get away with it being hard, like a fresnel with opal since the harsh nose shadow from the fill light will be overpowered by the key light? I'm just messing around in Cine Designer and wondering if this is true in real life applications.

Wanted to check if my math was correct on line loss based on the Set Lighting Technicians Handbook. I used the voltage drop formula VCm/2KI=L to determine the longest length I could run bates 60 AMP #6 AWG, with a load of 40 amps and stay within the 3% recommendation. (3.6)(26240)/(21.6)(40)=109.3 ft. So if I wanted to stay within NEC recommendation I can run 2 50 ft. 60 Amp bates. Is this the way you guys determine the cable you rent for runs or is there another methodology. Also how do you check voltage drop at the end of the line when the current needs to be flowing for the voltage drop to take place?

Ryan I did exactly what you did with my first cinema camera. There is value in the the process and your thinking but Bruce is right. After diving to deep into the rabbit hole myself, I can attest that for a DP there is marginal utility to learning the deepest knowledge of gamma curves. My advice is focus on the slope of what ever curve you are using specifically in the mid tones. Thats whats most important. The higher the steepness of the slope the more contrast in the mid tones, which gives you a more poppy saturated image, but it also increases how crushed 3-4 stops under will get, for this you need more fill light. I find 2:1 to be good for really high con looks where you still want info in the blacks. If your gamma curve is less steep and closer to log in the mid tones, you'll get a flatter milkier look, which makes the difference between stops in the mid tones sometimes unnoticeable. If you have a 2:1 contrast ratio with a low contrast gamma curve, it might look like a 1:1 so I usually almost always go at least 3:1 or 4:1 for low contrast curve lighting ratios. I guess what I'm trying to explain is that for DPing, I would recommend focusing more macro for your gamma curves. Does the project require a low con, medium con, or high con look, and then have lighting ratios that you find pleasing prepared for the three cases.