Have a commercial shoot coming up next week that involves shooting a game of chess. Director wants the chess set to appear as if its in a large room and the board and pieces are 2-3ft tall. I've done quite a bit of research regarding DOF being very important when shooting scaled objects.
Does anyone have any advice/ tips as to what I can do differently, avoid, ect???
My Plan:
They are building a custom chess set/board that will be slightly larger than a normal set. The set will be on a table top that is the exact dimension as the board.
-I suggested to build 3 wall flats that will sit about 5-6ft back from the chess table (the walls will be movable so we can adjust accordingly) The walls will be 4ft wide and 6ft tall.
-I will be lighting mostly from overhead with a few sources from the sides.
-there will be a slight haze over set.
-a hand model will be moving the pieces as we go through the scenes. the shots will be a mix of closeups, slo mo, overhead, sweeps.
I will be shooting on a RED EPIC. I thought it best to have the camera on a Chapman Dolly the entire day to save time of setups.
My Questions:
-What is the best way to approach lens choices for shooting miniatures?
-How much light do we really need if I plan on shooting at say an f16 (Is there correct math for choosing the best aperture when shooting miniatures to get the correct DOF?)
-Will the walls act as a proper background for this project, making it feel as if we are in a giant room?
-Will the chess pieces look bigger than average?
Looking forward to hearing your advice and answers.
M