John Milich

Just want to know if there is a generic way one would set up a basic home flat screen computer monitor in order to do some colour grading as best as possible. I'm using Red Giant Colorista II. I just have a basic 22" Lg monitor.

Depends on the camera a bit. Some of them do better with over exposure than others-- but since you can normally see what you're getting i find it best to judge by eye and temper by experience-- e.g. get it lit to look good, and then go hmm.. meter says I should be at a F4, but that looks too bright; so i'll maybe close down a stop and a half.

Right now I'm shooting on DSLR with a 7D and T2i. I actually did come across the scenario you mentioned, where the meter told me one thing, but it looked a little bright on the LCD display. My question is, how accurate are the on board displays? i know once the footage is viewed on the computer, it's vastly different from monitor to monitor. I tend to trust my meter, it's given me great results especially since the one I use has the software to calibrate it to the cameras sensor/lens combination, and It displays midtone measurements. By using this midtone information I know if I'm to far one way or the other regarding exposure, as the cameras dynamic range is displayed right on the meter. I remember well, shooting on the ARRI BL 16mm a long time ago, and obviously then, all you had was the meter to go by. I tend to treat the digital realm, at least on DSLR the same. Maybe I'm not making full use of the technology as it stands today.

So my shoot went well. After seeing it, there are some things I would have done differently, i.e kicked a bit more light off the back of the subject to create more background separation. All in all it worked out well. On an earlier post, it was mentioned to expose a touch under for scenes like this. I've pushed and pulled exposure with film long ago, but digital scares me a bit. Would you get a good night lighting result by exposing spot on, then playing with it in colour correction with software such as Colorista II by Red Giant? I exposed this recent project about 2/3 under overall and it yielded good results. Just wondering what you guys do.

http://www.arri.de/lighting/lighting_emea/photometric_calculator/#

I know it's not a phone app, but it does what your after I think.

I mean; realistic in reference to what? Of course no one really has 1Ks in their living room shooting out of a window-- but then again; how often are people rim-lit by the moon with a glisten in their eye? Realistic is all well and good, but at the end of the day it's all about what is believable in the world of the film.

Good point. And to that I guess it's the eye that sees it so bright, not the lens. I do like the idea and will play around with it. Thanks for the advice

That's a beautiful house, and offers quite a few placed to put lights. Have you thought of throwing the 1K through one of those windows (and probably the 650 as well) to throw a shaft out onto the driveway?

Hmm, no I didn't. Would that be realistic, to have that much light pouring out of a window like that? I know it would look good as the light could be shaped by the blinds and what not. I also want to be able to kick the actor off the black sky, and be able to justify the light. Or am I over thinking this? I was kind of thinking to put that 1k up high just off to the right side of that white down spout on the right of the photo to hopefully throw some moonlight across the porch. But I also realize that may not be a good idea seeing as the whole yard would probably be flooded with that kind of light, and I don't exactly have a Musco truck.

I have an ARRI 650, 150, and a 1k to play with. I may fake the shed light or stay fairly tight and try moon light with the 1k and CTB. Here's the house. scene takes place under the overhang with the white pillars. I couldn't fit the whole pic but the driveway is quite a bit longer

Well that settles it then lol. Guess I'm shooting this at night and will just alter my approach slightly.

The scene is up in Northern Ontario cottage country. Houses are spread out, lots of trees, no street lights so it's no suburban area. It's quite dark at night. The shot was supposed to be an over the shoulder of a Sheriff walking up the driveway using a glide cam set up following him. There is no car. The shot was holding on the house. I was going to use a sound effect of a car rolling up a gravel drive way, door opens and closes, then he walks into frame, and he's followed up to the door where the dialogue between Sheriff and home owner take place. It was to take place right at the door, with porch lighting, and the house interior light on as well. My dilemma was with the glide cam and focus. Perhaps I'll just nix the glide cam shot and go shoulder rig so I can keep the focus at f2.8.

I never thought of that. The porch scene I was hoping to shoot at night. I can actually light the porch. It's the walk up to the house that was the concern. Was going to use a glide cam, but can't pull focus on it so I was hoping to use a smaller aperture to keep focus.

Hi again. So I shot the first part of our little project which was a moon lit scene. Thank you David Mullen, Phil Rhodes, Travis Gray and Guy Holt for the invaluable advice you've provided me on prior posts regarding this project. The end result for me anyway, was exactly what I was after.

I now have to shoot the last part this weekend which has a Sheriff walking up a driveway to the door of a house. This is supposed to be at night. We do not have the equipment or budget to light up a street at night, so I'd like to shoot this in the day. There is also a dialogue exchange once at the door with the person inside the house, which would be under tungsten porch and foyer lighting. To do this, would I balance the camera to 3200K? Which would obviously blue up the outside light. Then play with the colour after in post?

Thanks

Just wondering how to best go about hiding a wire/string on HD video? CG is not an option. It's a dark bedroom scene and a prop needs to hang momentarily in the air, then drop. Would this be best handled with black thread, fishing line? It's literally going to be hanging for 1/2 a second.

The above information is fantastic. I'm confused about one thing though. Does something in the scene, be it the corner of a cabinet or whatever, not have to be fully and properly exposed? I'm under the impression that shooting the whole scene underexposed would lead to a potentially noisy image.

There's no rule that says moonlight has to be Full CTB, or any kind of CTB for that matter. There are many blue and blueish gels available in a variety of strengths. Experiment until you find one you like.

Agreed, I personally prefer the more steely brighter white light. That's what I'm after anyway.

If you have a Full CTB gel on a tungsten lamp and set the camera to 3200K, it would be fairly blue, depending on the exposure (it will look richer and bluer if exposed darker). You could set the camera to something like 4300K to cancel half the blue, or replace the Full CTB gel with 1/2 CTB, for example, which is the more common approach -- most shoots carry a selection of CTB and CTO gels in various strengths for this reason.

 

Setting the camera to 5500K would almost completely cancel the effect of a Full CTB gel on a tungsten lamp.

 

Now I'm assuming you aren't using some odd party gel super-blue color like Congo Blue.

It's a Ful CTB. There is some tungsten lights in the scene so I need to stay in that 3200 area. I tried a test with a higher temp and the tungsten looked awful. This is a low res capture of one of the test shots. It was also the 650 watt, not the 1K at f2.8 from about 20 feet away from the ligt source.

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I've been setting up to shoot a night bedroom scene. I'm using a 1K fresnel through a blue gel with a DSLR balanced for tungsten. All in all it worked out quite well. My only concern was the fact it was a little to blue for my liking. Just want to know what I should be doing in order to make the light a bit more white so to speak.

Thanks

I'm getting close to shooting with my first HMI setup and am presently checking around the local rental outfits. Some have both HMI Fresnel and PAR units, and some have one or the other. I'm in the 575 watt to 1200 watt range depending on our set limitations. Anyway, just wanted to know if there is a preference here, or does it even matter? I imagine a Fresnel having stricter control, but then again this is why I'm asking.

Thanks

That's great info. Thanks everyone

Amazing information. Thank you all. With regards to the moonlight being underexposed. Is this the norm for that type of scenario/lighting? If I underexpose the Key by 2 stops, what does that do to the fills and tungstens? Would that just bring the ratio closer together? Sorry if thats a little confusing. Just want to make sure I have a good grasp of the concept.

Thanks for the answers and pointing me to that calculator. What a great tool! It looks like the ARRI Fresnel D5 would do the trick. At 20ft it puts out 803 Fc. Gives some play room for a bounce and some latitude with f-stops. Now this is a 6000 Kelvin light so it's definitely going to be on the blue side. Would this generally be ok, as is color wise, with no filtration for what I'm after? Moonlight that is. This is really my first foray into the realm of night shooting. Or at least making the scene look like it's night.

Im assuming "based on experience" is a big factor. Anyway, I have a bedroom set, thats approximately 150 sq/ft. Its supposed to be primarily lit by moonlight. The scene has the actor sitting at the edge of a bed, with a window obscured by some tree branches to the right, parallel to her face. I wanted the moonlight to serve as the key here, with a bounce to add some fill on the shadowed side of the face. This is a small set piece so its ground level and I have total control over it. I was figuring on maybe an HMI with a tungsten WB on the camera, (tungsten end table lights) but I've no idea what size/wattage light I should be looking at.

Stupid question, but I have an L-478D that has filter factors in it. I'm assuming this is for lens filters and not gels on lights seeing that the meter is going to read the filtered light, correct?

Hello everyone. Ive been browsing this site for a while. Amazing information.

Anyway, I've a question regarding a scene that takes place at dusk. Its a bedroom set with one window. This is a controlled environment. We need to recreate a dusk light source coming through the window, while the room is lit with tungsten practicals and a china ball to mimic a ceiling light. I have two questions.

1. As for white balance, is it best to balance for the interior tungsten?

2. How would you best recommend I create the sunset style light through the window? There will be a sheer drape on the window and some staged branches just outside of it.

Again, this is a small set in a warehouse. Totally controlled

Thanks