Ben Morfoot

Ok great, all makes sense, thanks Adrian.

Eric thank you for your wisdom, loads for me to get thinking about there and reflects I guess that this something that will really build over time. I’m definitely trying to document any real world setups I do, recording the key numbers about the scene and what seemed to work. Hopefully that’ll accelerate my learning. And Adrian thank you, hadn’t come across Lighting Designer. Don’t have an iPad but will borrow one to check it out. Been looking for an excuse to pick one up! I’m slightly unclear from the app page - is it primarily about documenting a setup or does it help in the actual design too? I haven’t played much with DMX since working on stage productions in college but would love to get into that for bigger shoots. Thanks for the tips. Is Capture just fiddly to use? And do you find the idea of outputs it gives to be fairly accurate when you actually light the and scene live?

Thank you Eric, that's really helpful! I do take some shots around the scene but not as comprehensive as full 360 degrees. I'll start doing that and moving towards more comprehensive illustrations of the scene as they get a bit more complex. And makes sense on the lights man, I will try and rope in help from any other crew who are around when I can and hopefully at some point be on some shoots with someone dedicated to that. This week I've made myself a spreadsheet based calculator to try and automate a few of my steps. I have record of the photometric data for 1m brightness of the lights we commonly use. It then gives me the estimated stops I'll get from that light at various distances. It only uses the inverse square law which I know isn't that accurate, and for bounce and diffusion I just roughly assume I'll lose a couple of stops. So while not precise it gives me a quicker reference to be able to estimate what lights I'll need (and critically make sure I have enough brightness on the day). However this feels like the sort of tool that must exist already. I've seen the ARRI calculator, but not one for a wider set of lights. When you're planning your lights to bring to set, are you doing that entirely with judgement, or some back-of-the-envelope calculations or another tool?

Hey everyone, I've been a long time reader but posting for the first time as I'm finally in a position to start trying to apply what I've learnt from the forum. I want to ask for tips on my process, and any suggestions you have from your own processes. I'm a DP for a small production company and our model is generally a single person (myself) handling everything to do with the camera and lighting. We do a range of work but a lot of time is on short form content for social media etc, which includes a lot of on location interviews. I'm looking at refining a workflow to make sure I having as much control as possible. However, the budget is always limited on our shoots and while we have a small range of lights we can use, I need to justify rental of anything more powerful (and conversely make sure I don't turn up at the shoot without enough lux/candlepower to get the shot). I also need to justify if I need additional people on the shoot to help with lighting. For example It's easy to tell producers I want an M18 to key, but I need to be able to break down it to the bill payers why that over say an Aputure 600D. This is my current process: On scout, meter light levels on the proposed interview background Back at base work out the lighting setup based on the location and what we want to achieve - where I'm putting my key/fill/backlight etc. Using published photometrics of sources I'm thinking of using, I'll work out roughly what LUX/FC light I'd need based on what stop I'm shooting to, and what I've metered to on the scout. Generally double this to account for bounce/diffusion and make sure I've got enough headroom Look through out lists of lights and commonly hired lights to see what will meet that Armed with the shoot plan, and the numbers to roughly justify it, rent lights what I need. Is this a fairly typical process? I'd love any feedback on how I could get better, do things more efficiently and more intelligently. Thank you in advance for your help! Ben