Joshua Davies

Haze or smoke used in film is typically white and picks up any ambient light in the room and reflects it. This always lifts the shadows so they are no longer black but dark grey. If you have any shadows in your frame that have a bit of detail in them (like a dark table in the foreground), oftentimes that detail will get lifted with the black level and become more visible to the eye. This is the same principle that makes Low Con/Fog/Mist type filters work, although in the case of a filter the shadows in the image get lifted globally rather than in three dimensional space. As a result, real smoke and haze usually looks more organic than a filter.

Haze is very complex in what it can do to an image depending on the amount and the relations between the light, the subject, and the camera (and the focal length + distance to subject.) It can milk the black level sometimes, which gives the impression of lowered contrast (but no increase in shadow detail), but the particles floating in the air can actually bounce some light back onto the subject, lifting shadow information. All depends on the angle of the light, how much of the beam is in front versus behind the subject, etc.

Thank you very much. Very helpful answers.

i use a program called LXFree.

It's mostly for theatrical; but it has some cinema units in it, and I like that it's roughly to scale

 

http://www.claudeheintzdesign.com/lx/lxfree_about.html

Thanks, I'll check it out!

Hi,

I'm in pre production for my graduation film and I was wondering what the best way to create lighting plots was. Do you guys use certain software, apps etc? I'd be interested to know of any other good pre production tools or software you guys know.

Thanks.

I would have a second light though, maybe a small LED to bounce off of the ceiling or floor or something in the wide shot if you need more ambient fill. Though if you haze the room, often that acts as fill.

How does the haze act as fill?

What lights did you use in the end? Looks good.

I assume you've shot the commercial by now, I hope it went well! How did you create the lighting plots out of interest?

It's basically used as a spray-on ND for light bulbs. Darkens the side of the bulb facing the lens so it doesn't blow out as much.

Thanks!

What is it your using the spray for? Reduce the intensity, shape the light? Sorry if this is silly, I'm a student and haven't heard of this before.