Stephen Selby

Nice video. Like the silks the most.

Looks good to me - probably I would gel the dedo to match the daylight flourecence depending on the script and time of day.

Natural

Go with David's advice unless you are looking for a dramatic late afternoon look - in white case get a 20k hmi and blast it through the windows. Gel the windows with something like bastard amber to give it a late afternoon feel. Twist the blinds round and then add a little smoke to the room to get light rays. But this is by no means a cheap option. Alternatively wait for the sunset and bounce the sunset light in using a reflector.

Dedo projection kit could probably do this.

Film lighting by Malkiewicz is certainly awesome - I think scriming/nets/flags can be a problem when you have lights to close to the action and the light is hard by nature. Would you agree with me David that you need to put the lights that you are scriming a reasonable distance away from action to minimize the fall off.

Monitoring can be difficult because if you reduce an image size it will appear darker. Try viewing a film in the corner of your computer a couple of inches wide - it appears much darker than when enlarged. Same with printed photographs for some reason. And monitors have brightness levels which can boost or dim the final image - you need a darn good monitor for viewing images at time of recording. If you use histogram you can make sure your highlights aren't blowing, which don't look very nice on digital - I prefer underexposure to overexposure. Digital isn't very good with blacks - even at 400 ASA underexposed areas will become quite grainy and muddy but it is easier to add more contrast in post than try and get more information back that you haven't captured. DSLRs have limitations. But considering the price they are very reasonable.

Soft lighting - just hang a shower curtain up at the window on a cloudy day and shoot - add a little more bounce fill if necessary. If you need to shoot on a lower ASA then you'll need fire resistant material and then bounce light of it or through it. Bounce is slightly softer than diffused lighting. But what you need to focus on is the fill light ratios - which here I would say are 5:4 key:fill.

You'll need a hardlight such as a pepper or dedo and then gel it with a blue gel from ROSCO or LEE

Low angle lighting for horror. Plus issolated areas so not to reveal too much.

You could almost get away with using practicals but place them very carefully to create a cosy atmostphere and then use soft bounced fill to bring up the balance in exposure - probably bounced fill. Yes using lights behind bottles - backlit bottles are nice. Glass works well with soft light.

Depends on the story. If you can't afford a huge HMI then you might want to give the actors flashlights. And throw a 2k on the background and use lots of reflected flashlights in the foreground. If it is a more period or afro style give then flames, oil lamps etc. Since when do people walk around at night not holding some kind of light?! If you shoot at 1600ASA and f2 then you'll be fine.

I have Dedo 150w and they are awesome. I don't think you could go wrong with anything by DEDO

If they are sat by a fire then it probably is that they've probably gelled room lighting with some CTB and the firelight practical with some CTO or Amber gel. Don't underestimate the power of gels - don't leave it to post. Very nice screenshot - some DOPs insist on use same colour lights - but if the background was orangy then it wouldn't have the same feel of wanting to huddle by the fire - or whatever it is they are doing. I quite like mixed lighting when it is done well and intentional.

You probably want to keep lighting soft, but flagged very well to keep light off the rest of the scene - that is more flattering. Add rim lighting that is glamourous. Make sure you keep your actress frontal lit, and high enough but not too steep. Personally I don't think an actress wanting to look beautiful should persuade the director or dop to shoot in a particular way. Though having said that the source light in the Casablanca picture looks pretty hard to me (see highlights in eyes and nose shadow). David is hardness really defined by size and the type of light?! Or is it more to do with ratios of key and fill? What about brightness of the light. When I turn my dedo dimmers right down to equivalent of a 40w incandescent bulb they seem quite soft?

I would suggest studying Joseph Wright of Derby and Carravagio's paintings. Exquisite lighting.

You might be able to use your car headlights with some diffussion material over - as long as you can get the car into the correct position!

If you want something like the photo you've posted you want a hard light on the ceiling - the shadows and black eye sockets suggest a single overhead source. Personally I don't like it . If you want it moody you may be better lighting from a low angle like in film noir. Make sure the black screen is as big as you can get. Black velvet from a material shop will do the job - but you want to keep your actors a fair distance away from the black background. I would suggest using a little rim light to seperate them from the background - unless you want that effect of underlit areas merging into the background. What are your characters doing - perhaps a table lamp will give you a moody feel. If you want moody study some of Joseph Wright of Derby:

Overhead lighting can be a bit bland. So go for some directional lighting with softbox. Are you shooting a master to include all courts. If just using one end court you could potentially put up a large white screen - switch the lighting off on that court only, and have the ceiling lights from the other courts diffuse through your screen. But that might be too much work.

It seems that a DOP needs to learn to light for every situation and then tweak those according to script and specific locations. Though not exhuastive I have listed the situations in which one should practice lighting. Can you think of others that are good to practice? DAY Interiors room dramatic. Hard sunlight through windows with possibly a little fill. Interiors room soft. Huge softbox outside window with a little fill inside room if necessary. Interiors car and transports dramatic. Hard sunlight through windows with possibly a little fill. Interiors car and transports soft. Huge softbox outside window with a little fill if necessary. Exterior dramatic. Hard sunlight with some bounce fill for close ups - or recreate use mega HMI Exterior soft. Cloudy day - or recreate use mega HMI and huge diffussion screen Exterior Contre-jour.* Exterior underwater.* Exterior to Interior or vice versa** - Doorways mixing 2 of the above SUNSET/SUNRISE Pretty much the same as above but with lower sun and lower kelvin temperature. NIGHT Interior Dramatic* - such as a prison door opening. Interior Cosy - Practical lamps Interior Clinical - Strips Lights Interior Watching TVs Interior Candle scenes Interior Torches* (i.e. caves, breaking into a house etc.) Interior Moonlight coming in from outside Interior Streetlight coming in from outside Interior Car Headlights coming in from outside Interior Fires Interior Oil Lamps Interior Storm Outside* Interior Car Interior Party - disco lights. Exterior Moonlight Exterior Streetlights Exterior Car Headlights Exterior Fires Exterior Candles Exterior Torches* Exterior Storms* Exterior Underwater* Exterior to Interior or vice versa** - Doorways mixing 2 of the above SPECIAL SITUATIONS Greenscreen* Rear projection* Front projection* Smoke* Snow* Rain* I've starred some of them which I think are in particular the most difficult and need more practice on. Personally I find doorways extremely difficult especially when the exposures are different either side of the door and lighting is different e.g. walking from moonlight outside into cosy warm lit interior. Perhaps one should avoid opening doors in movies - have the character walk up to a house in the moonlight and cut as one puts the hand on the door handle to inside and hanging up a coat? Are there any movies or behind the scenes that you recommend watching for door and lighting transitions? Close-ups are not too bad it is the masters that are hard to shoot. I find torch scenes at night quite difficult because if you over crank the moonlight the torches light seems a little dim. Perhaps I need to use some 320 lumen flashlights and a bit of smoke. Though trying to get an even coverage of smoke is very tricky - amost need black garden sprinklers or tubing everywhere in a scene without it showing.

I'm fairly new to cinematography - self taught - so take my advice with a pinch of salt. As David Mentions Day for Night only really works when moonlight is the only source. Why do you want to pull focus?! I find that a lot of cinematographers want to pull-focus, move the camera, what does it add to the scene - are you making hard work for yourself for nothing. Look at hitchcock films: 90% shots seem to be statics and they serve the story fine. Night exteriors are best done with either motivated lights such as Car Headlights, Street lamps, or Moonlight, or a combo. Day for night is a pain - try and shoot night for night. If you want to keep the atmosphere of moonlight - put the key light as far away from the scene as possible without loosing exposure - a soft bank of lights gelled with 1/4 CTB and shoot with tungsten balance. This will make the daylight moonlight appear more blueish. If he has just walked down the drive at night then why would he be walking in the dark - motivate a torch light. Use a little smoke if you want to add atmosphere. Otherwise have car headlights on. How many movies do characters get out of cars and leave the headlights on?!! It's quite commmon and nowadays it is fairly realistic given that certain cars have parking lights which stay on after locking the for about 3 minutes. If it's in town then motivate a street light on rely on existing street light. Don't worry if the night scenes are slightly underexposed, the camera meter reading will say you might be 2 stops underexposed - but that is often how it is! I'm sure if you took a meter reading of the following the camera automatic exposure would say it was underexposed by about 2 stops. Even he girls face was about 1 stop under (I guess)! To avoid pulling focus make sure that the characters walk across the focus plane or use wide so that the DOF is big enough 21mm or 25mm. This is from True Grit - the legend Roger Deakins. Probaby lit with a row of soft lights at 9 o'clock and a hard-light barn doored on background.

Barry Lyndon uses candlight only and a 0.9 lens. But John Alcott probably had very slow film speeds. You'd be fine with an f2 lens and iso 1600. You can get double wick candles that give out extra light or hide peanut lights behind candles to give out extra light. Use lots of candles - and possible artificial ones in background (out of focus) otherwise continuity of candle length becomes a nightmare. Use some tunsgten lights to augment the lighting but make sure you flag then correctly so that there is no shadow of the candle. See Cinematography book by Malkewizc and David Mullen.

Put white paper on the ceiling, dashboard and seats to introduce more fill, put NDs over the window in shot, choose a road, time of day, angle that is most condusive to exposure. For example if you find a road with buildings on one side and empty on the otherside then the fill exposure will be higher and background darker.

I get he impression that David Mullen is an extremely nice person - I think most people would be quite condescending and say "Look at the highlights and shadows". To be at the top of the game and still give advice shows that David Mullen is a very nice person. A second opinion is always worth while, just in case one misread the highlights. I wish I could get personal lessons from someone like David Mullen or Roger Deakins - wouldn't we all!

You should be fine lighting a room entirely with practicals - the main thing to remember with practicals is to have enough fill - which can come from other practicals and also to half-cover the bulb so the practicals don't blow out. I've read that they use hair spray for some - never tried that. I've also tried masking tape - don't it burns! Tin foil can be used on low wattage bulbs but haven't tried it on anything over 60w. I'm sure someone here will have a better suggestion. I'm shooting a lot of my practical scenes at f4 800ASA and use bounced fill light. One hard thing is judging the exposure in screenshots like guy holt has posted - I just use the histograms, to make sure practicals don't blow and the screen, but I'm sure that there is a better way of doing it that, experts such as David Mullen would recommend. One thing I notice is that in 35mm film blown out highlights or practicals don't bother me - such as ET. But in digital overexposed practicals look quite different. But then again down to the camera - I'm sure on and Alexia or Red would look ok. Personally I prefer unblown practicals and a slight underexposure of the environment to create atmosphere. For wides expression in the actors face is not so important as close ups. I like dark cinema where you can't see much of what is going on - it keeps the atmosphere and the audience on edge. After all if someone can make sense of a radio play with no picture then I'm sure they can make sense of a slightly underexposed picture. But really depends on script, you wouldn't want to underlight a comedy.