Tiago Pimentel

Hey guys, I want to do a wide shot for a sequence that's supposed to have an oneiric feeling, where the father picks up his 3 year old daughter and starts dancing with her. I want to shoot this in a wide shot and here's my concept: It's a wide shot of a small room, the camera is placed at a high angle. It's night time, so there's just simulated moonlight (which I was thinking it could be done as hard light going through some sort of cocoloris to create window shade in the walls) and a small lamp placed on a table, standing in the middle of the room. When the two start to dance, I wanted to slowly dim the moonlight until completely off to a point where only the actors are lit (supposedly by the lamp). Everything else is pitch black. I realize, in a small room, there's no eggcrate in the world that would allow for a side lighting, without any spill on the walls... So I was wondering if I could get away with some sort of light placed on the ceiling, with skirting to allow the light to fall just on the actors. But since I don't have a big budget, I have to think of an alternative to any kind of structure that would allow me to place the light above the actors. Maybe I could get the chandelier replaced by a china ball with a LED bulb. I could get some cinefoil around the china ball to direct the light down towards the actors. Any suggestions? :) Thanks!

Thanks for all the advice guys. Here's my final shot, (still needs some grading tweaks). I reframed it and took the advice to add fill light. I'm happy with how it looks:

Thanks stuart! I'll take 1/8 cto and place in front of the Rotolight. Btw, I've never worked with this Rotolight leds which has all of those of tiny led bulbs that need to be diffused. Maybe using diffusion paper directly on the light? Will that be enough to properly diffuse it?

Hi guys, I have a question. I shot the first part of a night exterior scene yesterday with a dedollght LED kit to light the actors (the street is illuminated by the street lamps). I dimmed the dedolights to 2800k to match as close as I could with the street lamps. Next week we're shooting the rest of the scene but I won't be able to take the same kit. The only light available are two Rotolights LED bicolor. But these lights will only go to 3150k. I wanted to match both lightings. Even if I WB the camera to 3150, the street illumination will change. So my best option will be to try to transform the 3150k to 2800k, using CTOs. Any idea on the measure I need? Maybe 1/4 is enough? Thanks!

Thanks David. I can't remember what exposure I had on the lens, but every time I use haze, it really darkens the room a LOT. So maybe I'm using too much? As for the fill light, I could use a tungsten fresnel with CTB through muslin folded twice, perhaps? You mentioned the eggcrate, the idea is to not let the light spill against the haze in the sun? Thanks!

Michael, 2 tungsten balanced PAR64s (the only ones I can get) with CTBs to match, pointed at the subject should help? The haze should diffuse it. The best example I can find to exemplify the effect I'm looking for is this: What lights should one use to get this? :) Thanks

Thanks Michael. The thing is, I really need to get a little detail on the subject. So you'd point the PAR64 at the subject or would diffuse / bounce it? If pointed straight at the subject, it might be to harsh, yes?

Definitely agree with you guys. I tested this without any artificial lighting. If I had additional lights, how would they interact with the haze? The idea would be to lift the subject, but I don't want to wash out the haze or make this a no contrast mess. Any tips or tricks I should try? I have 2x 1k fresnels I can rent and try them.

I decided to go to a different location and actually take advantage of the real thing: The only thing that I need to correct is the exposure. Maybe putting a lamp on a dimmer on the lamp (right of the frame) and letting the window clip a bit. What do you guys think?

Ok, did some tests today and this is the best I got (still not happy): I got a black board in the back to be able to see the beams, but the image still looks dark for a sunset... but everytime I add some light, the beams become less visible. Any ideas? :) Thanks!

Thanks Stuart, that makes sense. What about other lighting? If I just light this with one backlight, I'd have to silhoette the girl that will be sitting at the table. Is that the only way? I'm trying to film this with a sunset feel but also mystical at the same time.

Thanks Stuart. I understand the physics of it, but is it only visible if the light is pointing towards the camera? Seems easier to see the light through the haze that way.

Guys, let me just resurrect this topic by saying that I'm trying to do a first shot of this sunset scene with a bit of a stylized look a la Kaminsky. I uploaded two photos (both taken with my phone). The first is, more or less, the angle of where I'll be shooting. I just hazed it a lot for you guys to see, but my goal is to have beams of light to come from behind that table (from bottom to the top). Here's the photo I'm only using open face 1k lights with dimmers, so it's really hard to get focused beams. What's the trick to get those defined beams, without flooding the entire room with haze. Should that light be the only one there? Other light might shade the other beams... I'm a little lost, my experience with haze is not that big... Here's the photo of the room from above, so you can have a better look (there's a light on the left but I wasn't using it): Thanks!

Hi Miguel, I'm a little limited by the gear I can take with me, but the rental company that I usually work with, have this Dedolight DLED7 Kit (90w each bulb) that seems great. It's three Led lights with chimeras that can go down until 2700k. My first problem will be the overall light of the street which I measured at 2500k. So, to have the faces white balanced, everything else will look a little yellow. But that's probably ok and a relatively easy fix in post. Your idea for negative fill would be to place a black flag against the wall, between the actor and the camera, to stop the light from bouncing back to the cheek and neck, right? As for wide shot, there will be a very wide first shot of the street that I'm not that worried because I won't be adding any light. After the big wide shot, the widest I'll get is going to be this: Thanks!

Today I went to the location and did some screen tests with different lenses (without any artificial lighting). I measured the overall color temperature at 2500k. Here are two of the stills I got with my camera: Watching this, what do you guys think of the best way to light this? I'm now considering renting a Dedolight Dled7 kit. Not sure I need a lot of lights to do this, though... Thanks!

Miguel Angel, The restaurant will be opened at the time we'll be filming. So i'll have some backlight on the actor on the right. My idea is to rent two led lights with booms and diffuse them to the actors (or is it better to bounce at the wet floor?). Much cleaner then huge tungstens with generators. How would I get the look like the sam l jackson still I pasted? Not talking about the color, but the way the light just falls off so fast. Is it placed on his left side and doing a kind of Rembrandt illumination?

Miguel Angel, That would be a great idea! Unfortunately, we'll be filming in the night, after the closing hours of both stores. Anyway, the framing will be almost parallel to the stores, to create depth with the car lights, street lamps, people, etc. Tomorrow I will go on location and shoot some screen tests without any artificial lights and post here for you guys to see. What about LED lights? I need something discreet as I don't have a permit to shoot (I don't really need one, as long as I'm not creating any hassle with traffic or with people walking by). How could I recreate that look of the still I shared, using only LEDs? How would you place the lights? Thanks!

Here's a good example of the kind of lighting I wanted for the scene (look at Sam L Jackson): Of course, Samuel L Jackson is not sitting in the ground against a wall, but the overall concept of lighting in this still is what I'm after. I can see some frontlight on his face that falls off very fast on his cheek.

BTW, would it look better to have the actors lit with tungsten balanced lights or daylight (in this case, moonlight) balanced? The street is filled with street lamps, so it would be easy to motivate light from the street lamps. Not sure how I'll balance the tungstens with the street lamps... Maybe 1/4 CTO would do.

Thanks guys! Would you use any backlight on the actors? They will be sitting in the ground, with their back against the stores and looking at each other. I could have two lights on each actor, one bouncing down from the wet floor (great advice!) and another as backlight to silhouette them. What do you think?

Yes, I will be renting a generator. I think it's still cheaper to do that than renting two LEDs with batteries.

Edit 2: Camera will be between both actors. Actors will be sitting down, against the doors of each store and talking to each other. At one point, actor on the left will walk to the other, sit next to him and talk.

Btw, I will be shooting close to the actors. There will be just one or two wide shots (such as the one like the photo I took) but I don't think I'll add any extra light on those.

Hi guys, I have an important night exterior to shoot on a very low budget indie short film. I've scouted for a street with good overall lighting and for cars going by to have background detail and I think I've found an excellent street. But the thing is, I think I still need lights to get good exposure on the actors. To better explain the scene, here's a photo I took from the street. I'll have one actor sitting on the ground, in front of store with the owl and another actor sitting down in the other store. On the right there's a cute little restaurant as you see in the picture. What is the cheapest way to get a good exposure on the actors, besides using a very fast lens and a light sensitive camera (camera will be the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6k)? LEDs are still too expensive to rent. I was thinking maybe 2x 1k tungsten fresnels to get good exposure on the actors skintones. And they would match with the yellow light from the lamps much easier than HMIs (I think the lamps are probably at 2800k). I would probably have to gel the tungstens... What do you guys think? My experience with night exteriors is limited, so I'm hoping someone more experienced could chime in and share their knowledge. :) Thanks!

Hi, yes it's from the tv show Madmen. There are too many light sources, now that I really looked. There's one I didn't see initially which is a blue backlight on Don's head. This could also be the light that's giving the cool blue on the bed. Anyway, here's what I was thinking I could get with my 4 1k Arri fresnels. What do you guys think? - 1k tungsten fresnel on right of the frame (no diffusion nor gels) edging the male actor; - 1k tungsten fresnel on the right side of the camera with a full scrim to take it down, going through a big diffusor with grid as fill light. It could also have a blue gel on the bottom, bellow the diffusor to get the blue on the bed; - 1k tungsten fresnel on the left side, with a full scrim, going through unbleached muslin and then flagged very tightly with two black flags to light the actress; - 1k tungsten fresnel in the hall for hair light (with CTB or without?) on the actress. This leaves me without the blue light to get some light on the background, but... I could get a 100w bulb and put it inside a china ball and use it as fill light for the actor and use the 1k Arri to light the hall. What do you guys think? Thanks