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Saikat Chattopadhyay

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Posts posted by Saikat Chattopadhyay

  1. Please let me know if this is the right section to post this. 

    I was trying to learn to light these type of shot(s):

    1. Wide Angle Night Interior (mostly living rooms) : I honestly don't have any specific references hence I am looking for usual approaches from different DOPs who prefers naturalism. What type of lighting you would prefer if you need to place the fixtures far away and get a nice fall off at the same time. From sets where I worked as AC I saw multiple fixtures with 8* flags ,which doesn't light up faces as expected. It would be nice if someone can help with examples from Films/narratives.

     

  2. On 3/25/2023 at 1:13 PM, Chris Gu said:

     Sure things. I've been using Midjourney v5 for a few weeks, and there pictures below was made by it. Also, I only provided prompts without any post-production.

    ChrisGuFilm_In_a_southern_Chinese_town_d

    ChrisGuFilm_Male_protagonist_teenager_fu

    ChrisGuFilm_Male_protagonist_teenager_fu

    I would like to share some of my points with you all if you are interested in.

    After experiencing MJ v5 for a while, let me summarize the biggest impressions.

    There are two points.

    Firstly, I believe those who have used it a few times would have the same feeling: at the current stage, it is difficult for users to control the scene very precisely through prompt words. It can be said that the result is in a vague state within the given prompts range. Just give AI more time.

    Based on the understanding of the first point, the second point arises. How to obtain a scene that meets one's needs as much as possible? At present, it still lies in the prompts themselves.

    From the view of the composition of the scene elements, the prompts should pay special attention to the overall logicality and accurate specificity. The latter is easy to understand, as the prompt words provide specific visible objects or scenarios. For example, you may say you want a romantic scene, but what is a 'romantic' scene? How does AI understand 'romantic'? Does it mean the same as what most people understand by 'romantic'? Instead of giving the prompt 'romantic' directly, I would recommend describing something like this: a French girl dancing in a forest under the backlight during the golden hour. This indeed requires imagination.

    Then what does the logicality of the scene mean? I found that the more detailed the prompt words, the better they are not. I think AI's processing method is trying to give you what you need. However, the prompt words you give may be contradictory to AI. For example, you give "close-up shots, out-of-focus light spots" and a specific scene content "empty square". In my opinion, humans can understand these three descriptions, but putting them together for AI is contradictory because, logically, to shoot a close-up shot with out-of-focus light spots, environmental information is extremely lacking. However, you also provided AI with environmental information. In this process, it has to choose between the two, and the final result might be a close-up shot without knowing where it is, or a scene in the square, but not a close-up shot.

    Please feel free to talk about this topic!

    Thanks for the lovely insight Chris,

    also is it possible to share the prompts for 2nd or 3rd Image?

  3. Kindly ignore if the topic is irrelevant.

    As a student of cinema and cinematography,what I have noticed the advancement in tech is more of a concern in cinematography rather than the aesthetics or in some case, story. Films like Nope or TV series shot in virtual production,or something like Way of Water .

    Hence I wanted to ask in what way we are going to see evolution of Cinematography in next decade or two ,and should we still study films by Freddie Young,Vittorio Storaro ,Frederick Elms, Chris Doyle,Bruno Delbonnel,Claire Mathon etc. where the aesthetics is still kept under consideration?

    Also the people who are starting out in cinematography ,would need to add some more skill set under the belt ?

    Thanks in advance.

    Saikat C 

    Cinematographer | Colorist

  4. Hi ,

    I will be shooting my Diploma film next week and most of it is inside a room and a hallroom,hence I am looking for some suggestion on how to setup lights indoors.Apartment is high up hence lights cannot be placed outside and using lights inside is a challange because of bounce and less control.Also Director wants both uplifting and gloomy scenes .

    I am looking for suggestion rather doing a recce because I cannot do it due to rental charges. I have only seen the location and took some snaps.

    As far the lighting kit goes ,I will be using Apurture 600D as primary and 3 other 200 W Godox LED lights along with diffusers,CT gels,flags and one china lantern (pretty low budget).

    Including a folder of my previous projects in school for reference (not sure if it is relevant anyhow).

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d5vhuhfh6gekjr3/AADEJhZvSwwXcQiLM0yG_yH3a?dl=0

  5. 12 hours ago, Miguel Angel said:

    You could watch two masterpieces in lighting (and directing) called "Leviathan" and "Loveless", both directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and lit marvellously by Mikhail Krichman.

    You might find interesting night scenes there.

     

    Have a good day!

    Thank you for the suggestions ,I watched the trailers of both films and they look astonishing and seem to be very interesting . Will definitely watch and study them !!

    • Like 1
  6. Hi everyone,

    I am not sure if it is a right question to ask or has been asked before! Pardon me for that.

    I am looking for movie recommendations (or it can be short film/tv series/tvcs) which has some good example of natural interior night time lighting and shows contemporary era (not period) to light my upcoming project. All the movies I usually watch have very high contrast night lighting generally. However I found the night interior scenes by Helene Louvart and Robbie Ryan are bit on the naturalistic side. It would be very helpful if you can recommend some more.

    Thanks in Advance.

  7. Although I am from Electronics Background but I am not sure about my answer: 

    A digital sensor might not measure any wave property i.e. wavelength or frequency . Tools like Spectroradiometers can but they cost more than mid range cine cams. Sensor has photosites(in short diodes) and 2,4 or more photosites make a pixel. Photosites convert photon energy (light energy) to electric and voltage is measured in sensor . That measured voltage is sent to ADC and other components . 

    RAW data doesn't have any chroma subsampling and workflow is same as David mentioned because there is no chroma component before bayer pattern. However, RAW can have compression just to save space.

    In Y'CbCr/YUV the CbCr components are 'Chroma Difference Blue' and 'Chroma Difference Red' ,which actually means how much they differ from the green component while keeping the luma same. However,I don't have any idea about how much chroma component is there in luma or how it is calculated ,I just know in subsampling the luma component is kept aside and YUV Broadcast model was first coined to keep BW and color TV models running at same time.

    Hope this helps,corrections will be appreciated.

  8. I am not sure but I think a log can also be a multi gamma function. Brands modify the shoulder and knee regions in log gamma to squeeze more and more details . However, a gamma is not color space or equation ,it is the power in the equation. In a CRT input output response is denoted by something like I=V^y (think 'y' as gamma,I don't have greek letters in my keyboard) . 

    For the time being you can refer to this article that I found recently ,it is very informative and easy to grasp:

    https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/content/entry/5246/looking-deeper-into-log-gamma

  9. I use to study mainly commercial works by DOPs from their website or from the Ad itself . This happen to include DPs from my country as well and I quite go through their works a lot. However , I started noticing that the direction and overall intensity of light on set look exactly same in almost all (I mean Ads in same Genre) . Only some difference in set design is there to confuse you . My only guess is what Stephen mentioned ,that the light setups are already there and they just go there and roll the camera. Most of them just show off with the cameras they touch ,which are eventually setup by some other guys . There is a DP ,working in high budget commerial ,said that he uses False Color to get perfect color in his works when asked in an interview.

    However, this might happen because of the unnecessary deadlines by client or agencies and also the fact that these guys take everything for granted . Their 'people-won't-find-mistakes-anyway' attitude is also a big concern . 

  10. 20 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said:

    You have to ask yourself: (1) what do you want this to look like, and (2) what would this look like in reality (as a frame of reference). If you're in a day interior, maybe the windows would be hot and blown-out naturally, it isn't always bad to have hot windows. And it depends on the windows -- narrow vertical windows might look OK if whited out as opposed to broader windows. And it's a church, maybe glowing windows will give the scene a more religious feeling (look at this frame from "Barry Lyndon").

     

    Screen Shot 2021-01-13 at 9.33.54 PM.png

    Thank you for this informative piece!! Yes, Barry Lyndon is definitely a bliss to watch . But in the Church Scene from the blog the light fixtures were very prominent unlike this scene,even the DOP mocked about it by saying 'it was like multiple Suns out there'. 

  11. 20 hours ago, Stephen Sanchez said:

    Something that I do when windows are in the shot is set the iris to expose for the window at a range of detail I like, then light the frame to meet the window at a pleasing level.

    If it's your lights that are blowing out the windows then turn them off.

    Thanks for the other explanation ,that has helped a lot. The fact that confuse me is ..if the light has to go out of frame then it must be in some angle and the direction of light will be changed accordingly . So in that case Sun position will be a considering factor as well!! 

  12. Hope everyone is staying safe. Kindly let me know if this has been discussed before or not suitable for this section.

    I was going through a blog by one DOP and he had to shoot inside a church . There were two possibilities, one to throw lights from outside or to place them inside and match direction, intensity  etc. However, due to budget constraints he couldn’t rig the lights inside and placed them outside. Now in the parallel dolly shot (with windows) every light was visible but as the windows were closed it didn’t look completely unnatural. Coincidentally the director liked that shot and didn’t even care about this.

    Now my question is how can one avoid this situation when the window will be in frame (let’s say the camera is in eye level) and the light would have to be placed outside that window. Along with avoiding blown out and diffused window frames.

    Thanks in advance.

  13. I believe the best bet is to rent out cameras if possible but it is just a choice. Also the Komodo has CMOS and Global Shutter using CMOS is relatively new technology. However , I am not sure how frequently one would experience rolling shutter effect (jello) in limited FPS. Even in global shutter the camera would be limited to 120, unlike a Phantom. Also 6K$ for body only and single card slot without xlr inputs, bit pricey . Moreover, it has compressed RAW formats and ProRes is limited to HQ internally.
    I am not trying to say Komodo is a waste or whatever, just that if I had the money I would go for URSA G2. 10-12 bit ProRes should be enough to take stress in post imo.

    If the target is 6 inch color inaccurate phones or say some TV screens then most of the mid-budget cine cameras will do the job,however, if it’s for a 70 feet IMAX or True HDR displays then one would need much more than ‘ just a camera ‘ I believe.

  14. 16 hours ago, Nicolas POISSON said:

    There are a few pictures of the set-up of  " Portrait of a Lady on Fire" here:

    https://www.red.com/news/claire-mathon-afc

    Given the size of the windows, half the surface of the wall can be considered as a large source, the other half being a large reflector.

    Thank you for the article, the setup seems pretty complex to me or may be I am too dumb. Still it helped me understand some of it. 

  15. 17 hours ago, Stuart Brereton said:

    Try a big, soft source close to camera, and add a harder 3/4 backlight from the opposite side of camera. 

    Thank you for the comment ,much appreciated ! One thing I noticed in all of these that the overall space is very evenly lit. Will the light feel directional when I use a single large source from one direction? 

  16. I am unable to edit the post for some reason,you may use the dropbox links as well :

    Film: Her , DP: Hoyte van Hoytema

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/blfx8mr9mu97i4n/Screenshot 2.png?dl=0

    Film : Portrait of a Lady on Fire, DP  Claire Mathon

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4bvxnse4lcp07j/ScreenShot 1.png?dl=0

    Film: Never Look Away, DP : Caleb Deschanel

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4pbeek5yb5xgbw/ScreenShot 3.png?dl=0

  17. Please let me know if this post is not suitable or has been discussed before.

    I am trying to build a demo for high key interior lighting and I have found some stills from movies which mostly matches my requirements. However, I am not saying to light up a set/location exactly like them, neither I have the expertise nor the equipments.

    These are mostly cowboy shots and to light up this wide I need to have many lights to fill the overall space along with lighting the talents. I can rent very few lights and diffusers but I have seen overhead rigs for this type of lighting(may be wrong) which is not possible for me. 

    So my question is : what can be a good way of lighting an interior like this ? I might use sunlight ,let it in with some modification , but shot matching will be difficult due to movement of Sun or weather changes. 

    Kindly use the drive link to view the screengrabs (apologies for poor quality)  :

    Film: Her , DP: Hoyte van Hoytema

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hjOUcnF4torL4i4ppa09r79C6mEaqCL1/view?usp=drivesdk

    Film : Portrait of a Lady on Fire, DP  Claire Mathon

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hacJJBcH3Q_rg3Azpej9jHUl-zbutMyR/view?usp=drivesdk

    Film: Never Look Away, DP : Caleb Deschanel

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmr6j7yyeb8CsTUEks8PJTbrhkmcVBjN/view?usp=drivesdk

  18. Pardon me if I sound like a technically challanged person. What I know ,when I underexpose digital sensor I will raise the noise floor while trying to lift the shadows. 
    So I wanna ask:

    Was it intentional to raise the noise to add grain to images ?(sample images look amazing needless to say and it really match film response)

    However, I came across other ways to match film response, either mapping grain to different luminance range or using plug ins like Film Convert or may be using Nuke (I have no idea but Steve Yedlin showed some examples)

    Do these processes really work for theatrical releases? I did test and it looked good on my consumer level monitor ,not sure about theatre screens.

    Also Juan Melara have some good blogs regarding this which I don’t understand completely.

    https://juanmelara.com.au/

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