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Hey, quick lighting question. I am shooting a music video, and the concept heavily involves a sprinkler in a park at night. The talent is supposed to “dance” with the stream of water as it circles around the grass, and eventually passes over the talent at the end. Like “Singing in the Rain” but with a sprinkler at night. We have a location with a sprinkler that puts out a lot of water, but I’m having a hard time lighting it so the stream of water shows up on camera as a solid mass. It just looked liked it was raining, but it needs to look like a wall of water moving closer and further away. It’s low budget, I don’t own any high-end lights to test ahead of time, but I plan to rent some. We have an A7S so we plan to take advantage of a full moon. Looking for advice on how you might approach this problem in general, and advice on any light(s) to rent. I’m really trying to highlight the stream as a solid, glowy, “wall” of water that the audience can clearly track. Thanks!

I wanted to add my new book as an option alongside the classics from Blain Brown, Harry Box, and John Jackman. Shaping Light for Video in the Age of LEDs; a practical guide to art, craft, and business of lighting. By Alan Steinheimer. 2018. Available now at Amazon and B&N websites. Shaping Light ... is a practical, hands-on guide to lighting for video. Using a Dummies-style approach, the book explains lighting techniques through real-world examples, including recent updates on the groundbreaking use of LED lighting and wireless control options. This book focuses on firsthand application of technical knowledge, to appeal to cinematography students and video freelancers. Beginning with simple lighting setups and progressing to more complicated scenarios, the book holds the reader’s attention with illustrative anecdotes, and links theory to real-world applications. There is a 30 page glossary/set vocabulary at the end that would be useful to most newbies. The e-book is coming as well as peering into the first 16 pages at Amazon.

Hi all. Excited to ask my very first question on this forum! For an upcoming short, I'm trying to achieve a pastel, somewhat low-contrast color palette in a bright daytime exterior, very much like the attached reference image from Vertigo. Being a micro budget project, I don't have the opportunity to pre test a bunch of filters or lenses. Any recommendations on filtration for this reduced contrast, slightly blooming look? For the project, I'm using the Ikonoskop A-Cam DII. I own this camera, and the colors from its Super16 Kodak CCD sensor feel inherently pure and dare I say film-like. I'm pairing it with oldish glass, the Cooke 9-50 Varokinetal (T2.5). I've rented this lens before and it is not only affordable but renders a very creamy three dimensional image. I've attached a sample I shot with this configuration, no filters. Just need to turn that into something less contrasty, more talcumy, more "vintage" for lack of a better word. Thank you! Jall

Hi guys! Once again thanks to those on here for their help & support. I am about to do a shoot at a theme park on a dark ride. The client wants to show 2 rides. The 1st is completely pitch black except for some areas - eg. passing through LED fire ring, LED star, etc) but add not a lot of light at all. The other ride lighting is hitting the props/character installations but no light on the coaster or people. I went for a recce and the lights hitting the character installations on the 2nd ride expose around F 2.1. So I have gathered lenses that can accommodate for this. I am in the middle of planning what lights I will need to highlight the areas in complete darkness for both rides. I am trying to decide whether I need a 5k Arri Tungsten with 2x 2k Blondes or will 3x 2k Blondes be enough without a 5k. My idea is to not make them look lit in the most case going around the ride but more to just bring up the ambient light on the actors. I can take a 5k and bounce off Polly for the ambient, filling in other areas if need be with 2k blondes or just do this plan with only 2k blondes. If I choose to use a 5k I will have to do a long cable run from the control panel, however, I can power 2k's from inside the location. I also am debating whether to rig small lights to the rollercoaster next to our rigged camera for our reverse POV, so I have a consistent exposure on the actors while they go through the ride. Or if I should lock the ride off and try to recreate this with lights, a fan, and a dark background. Any thoughts on this also would be appreciated. I am attaching some pictures below. Please let me know your thoughts:

I have a short coming up where I'll be shooting in a subway car standing set. I need to accomplish two things: a chase for the lights within the subway tunnel and a flicker of the overhead practicals. For the flicker I'd like to see the practicals themselves. Unfortunately I have yet to scout the set as production is a mess. This is a really low budget shoot so I need to figure out something crafty. My immediate thought for the practicals was to replace the existing units with Quasar or Astera tubes (especially since the Astera can be used wirelessly). The chase and the flicker will occur in the same scene. Any advice/ideas is greatly appreciated!

Hi! I'm shooting a film in a couple weeks, and one of our night scenes calls for our actors to be holding flashlights (which will be lighting key areas of the scene/action). These flashlights may be the only light source(s) in the scene. I would like these flashlights to be as bright as possible, and spread their light very wide (not be super focused). We are shooting at 23.976 fps, ISO 800, at 5K with a RED Epic. Do you have any recommended flashlights for these conditions? I am interested in LED flashlights but am concerned about flicker. Thank you for your help, Suzanne

I wanted to know is there any good lighting resource material that anyone would recommend? I know that experience is the best teacher. I'm looking for books or videos to show how to manipulate light to get the look that a director is looking for? Thanks,

I'm about to start a feature and because of our schedule as well as dropping temperatures, the possibility of shooting day for night is becoming more and more real. My concern is that having red/orange light in the night scenes is extremely important to the director, but that the grade will suck all of that out. The source for the light is a campfire, but one of the characters will also be bloody and wearing a faded red jacket. I've seen the 40's/50's day for night scenes which have a lighter grade and thus more colors, but those seem to have been done because of the sheer expanse of the locations that needed to be seen. Cast Away is the best example of fire/red light I can find for day for night, however I have read that there were some VFX in those shots. While we do have access to a good VFX house, I want to be able to introduce red light practically as a baseline. One detail, we'll be shooting in the woods in California so I'll have limited generator power due to fire concerns. So essentially I am at a loss. Any advice is deeply appreciated.

https://vimeo.com/152461958 Thoughts on how this was lit? Looks like a single light to me with some bounced fill on most shots. I really like how clean the dark greys are, and the skin looks great as well. Sandeep.

Hello Every One! Thanks in advance for checking out my post. So as the title says, my work is building a video studio. I work at a toy company as their in house video guy (1 man department). This is a brand new position and its quickly evolving. When I started, I was making simple product demo videos for retail sites and social media, now we are building a studio with the goal of producing some of our TV commercials in house. That being said, lighting equipment is not my strongest area of expertise. Basically my question Is, If you were investing in lights to build a professional studio. Which lights would you buy? I know its a very open ended question, but in doing research, I'm finding that there is plethora of choices and its making me more confused than anything. I know that there isn't a magical configuration of light that will cover you for every need but what would be a good all around set? Im thinking I want at least one ARRI SkyPanel S60-C (maybe two) What other lights would pair well with it? Here are some examples of past TVC's we've had produced. Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 The studio space itself is 30x30. We are most likely going to install a Ceiling rail system if that makes a difference in selection. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Thanks Again, George Mills

Hi Everyone, I love collecting behind the scenes photos where you can see lighting setups from great cinematographers. Does anyone have any they'd like to share? These ASC articles on Se7en and Carol both contain a lot of great bts photos of Darius Khonji's and Ed Lachman's work: https://ascmag.com/articles/flashback-seven-1995 https://theasc.com/ac_magazine/December2015/Carol/page3.html# All the best, Alex

I own an old Ianebeam 2kw. It works great, and so far this year it has been used on an almost weekly basis on the shoots that I work on. I was wondering if anyone knows of somewhere to purchase safety mesh/glass to put into the light, as the moment it is just fully open, and that worries me a little! I would never use this light in a tight space, I have mainly used it to light interiors from the exterior, so it's always placed away from actors/crew. It would be nice to complete the light with some safety mesh, or even a scrim for safety.

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum so hopefully, I'm writing this query in the right place. For my dissertation, I completed a test using Dedolight DLH4's (The 3 head kit) and I used the dimmer switch to adjust the intensity of the light. I was wondering what the dots represent on the dimmer switch? I've attached an image below for reference. I was hoping to find a numerical value as so far my research has only found this indicating 'dimming from minimum to maximum'. Any information or guesses are greatly appreciated and hopefully, someone can shed some light on this!! Thank you.

Hey, I'm relatively new to working on my own projects and it's been quite awhile since I've shot a short film, as I've mainly edited up until this point. I'm shooting a short film this weekend and I'm trying to achieve a very specific lighting look. I'm trying to bring out a more of yellow, somewhat sickly look without over lighting my actors. And the space is small and I have a very limited budget, so I've been using work lights up until this point. This is the room: 1.https://drive.google.com/file/d/100eenq3szzINkdNcrsPVaog0cgHznaKH/view?usp=sharing 2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t-XntmH0FZOx2GiO8s1EAYdHwY9PQVM6/view?usp=sharing We're removing all the photos from the wall behind the desk and chair, a well as removing most of the stuff from the lower book shelf. We're placing a yellow practical light on that lower book case for some of the yellow-ing effect. I was thinking about using to overhead soft box lights coupled with lighting outside the window. I'm just a bit stumped on how to really work with this space and whatnot. What my goal is something similar to this style of lighting with a bit more age and yellow: 1. http://mattscottvisuals.com/lighting/2015/10/23/largesourcetungsten I've been trying to draw up lighting diagrams by looking over his work and considering some of the tests we've ran in the room. Thanks for any help!

Hey everybody. Coming up this week I'm going to be shooing a commercial for a company that makes granite table tops and was hoping to get some thoughts on how to light it. The idea is that we'll be shooting overhead looking down as we see hands on the counter doing different day to day tasks. For example, we will start with one counter top as we see a hand throw some keys on the counter, cut to a different one as we see someone else's hands preparing food, then another as we see the hands of a kid playing with a toy car, and so forth. I'm curious as to how some of you guys might tackle lighting this. I'm imagining high key, soft lighting. Obviously I can't use a soft overhead source because my camera will be in the way, and I'm a bit concerned about distracting reflections on the counter top. I have a few Arri fresnels, Lowel Pro's, Omni's, and a Tota available to use. At the moment, I'm thinking along he lines of shooting a 650 Fresnel through some kind of diffusion to the side, maybe even a book light, but I'd love to hear your suggestions. Thanks!

Would really appreciate information, thank you. :)

Hey everyone, Since this is my first post in here, I'll quickly introduce myself: My name is Benedikt Dresen, and I'm a Filmstudent / aspiring Cinematographer from Germany. I started out doing music videos, but now I'm getting more and more into narrative work. Right now I'm in Pre-Production for a 14-minute Shortfilm I'm DoP'ing. The film is set at night, only in one apartment, which will be built on stage. It's about a woman entering her home, where she find a complete stranger waiting for her, who's intentions remain unknown. The whole story unfolds through dialogue, but the blocking will still be very vivid, so there isn't really any corner of the apartment, that's not in the frame at some point. So directions of the action/camera shift throughout the different scenes. Also the Lighting will change quite a bit. In the story, the Stranger is in total control of it. The base-setup I want to do, is basicly like the one in the attached Mood Picture: A soft, cold, kinda "toppy" ambient light coming from one side of the room + really dim sodium streetlights from afar, only illuminating the windows a bit. There will be 3 main setups happening in the living room: 1. Like the mood picture, but also with a tiny practical illuminating a small coffee table in the middle of the room 2. The stranger will light some candles and maybe more practicals (warm and cozy feeling, as it seems like he's not a bad guy for a moment) 3. Absolute "darkness" as the Stranger turns out all the lights, while she left the room for a second. So the lighting should basicly mimic total absence of light. One more thing that's important: As she is our protagonist, she's supposed to be keyed in a not too unflattering way. While the stranger, should only get a back/rimlight most of the time, so we can't see his eyes or facial expressions most of the time, leaving him and is intentions mysterious. Gear-whise I basicly have a full set of Arri Tungsten Fresnels and some open face units to work with. + CTB of course, and some color gels to match Sodium Vapor Streetlights. 2x 2kW T2 Fresnel (including 1 chimera I believe) 2x 2kW Open Face 2x 1kW Fresnel 6x650W Fresnel 6x300W Fresnel My approach till now would be: - Creating this soft, ambient light from the top left corner in the room. Maybe shooting the 2kW through a lot of Diffusion, or creating a large bounce. (from above the walls, as we won't have a ceiling built) - Aiming the 650W, or maybe only 300W through Sodium Gels to each window that's in frame, trying to keep it a few stops under in order to not make it light up the room to much, as the ambient light should dominate the room. - Trying my best to flag the ambient light off the top of the walls, to create some kind of gradient/contrast, as seen in the mood picture. My main concerns about all of this: - The ambient light should direction-whise always function as a backlight in order to keep that moody, night feel. For the main actress I will need a fill, max. a rembrandt style shape. Should I try to rely on a close soft bounce for this kind of fill (that's basicly her key), or should I introduce an LED through Diffusion? Also would you have this light at the same stop as the backlight, or over/under? - As the direction in which we're shooting in the room is shifting throughout the scenes, I would basicly need to shift the direction of the ambient light aswell, in order to keep it backlighting the characters. Is this an okay thing to do, Lighting-Continuity whise? I'm thinking of the ambient light not as a "light" that has a source in the story, but as a light, which represents "absence of light" and has no believable source in the story. Does that make any sense at all? Or should I keep the direction of the ambient light locked, and introduce more lights to backlight whenever needed and flag the ambient off the faces, whenever they would be frontlit by it? Additional info: I'll be shooting on the Sony FS7, paired with the XD-CA unit, recording 4K Cinema DNG RAW through the Atomos Shogun. This is my biggest project up to now, and there's quite a budget flowing into the stage built, so I'm really trying to do my best in my department and not **(obscenity removed)** up. I would endlessly appreciate to get some feedback of you more experienced Cinematographers about my general idea and if it does make any sense, and if my approach to lighting it will work, the way I imagine it to do. Regards and Thank You all, Benedikt

Hi guys! Okay so I have a shoot coming very soon. One particular scene is in a garden at night, with friends around a table eating & in conversation. Its gonna be 10/12 seconds in the final video. So I want to put up hanging lights between 3 palm trees in the location with the characters underneath the lights. I tried looking in to research for other DP's who have done this look quite nicely. Deakins in Sicario I found he used 40 watt bulbs and there is quite a lot of them (plus light bouncing back down off the ceiling). Here is an image for reference: So here is now my location. All exterior so no bounce from the lights giving me extra illumination down there. So obviously this will be at night. The hanging fixtures as mentioned will go between the 3 palm trees (table and actors near center). The production designer on our meeting had with her the hanging garden fixtures. She had also 5w bulbs. Each meter of the hanging fixture is 2 bulbs (10 watts with these bulbs). I am worried that once this all is hanged up it won't be enough using these bulbs to light the scene. In my head it's around 200w over the talent heads, but if Deakins is using all 40w bulbs there than it makes me think I need to put higher wattage bulbs in this too. I could use a 500w / 1k Jem Ball over the top of them if this happens, but I kind of like it being easier to set up the wide only using the practicals & then with my MIDS coming in with a soft source for their faces (granted I am only getting 1 wide but still saves me putting up this giant light up top). Let me please know your thoughts. Would this be enough with these 5w bulbs? Should I get a bunch of 20/40 watts instead? Should I fill in the 5watts with a bigger light up top out of frame? Anyone who has done something similar before I would really appreciate the feedback. I am using the RED Epic Dragon to film. Thanks!

Hi again everyone. Not really a question this time but would wanted to show my lighting plan for an upcoming project to get some feedback. I have attached my lighting plan... The talent will be talking to camera and cooking. The background will be dressed with Christmas decorations and what not to celebrate the coming season. I want the lighting to be very soft and cold, to have that winter feel. I'm shooting it all in daytime. I'm using an M18 through the left window (only window our too the left) through a bed sheet which will highlight the background and rim our talent. The other M18 is inside in front of the talent which will be my key for her. I plan to bounce it and have the light come through another bedsheet to get it softer. For the fill, I will bounce it in from my M18 sources. I guess actually I do have a proper question. Would you recommend an Arri Skypanel S30C through multiple diffusion instead of the M18 inside? The kitchen is very small so I did think at one point maybe I should go for that instead. The shoot will start early and end before sunset. Anyways any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

Hi all, sorry if this has already been answered in other threads, this is my first post here. Due to financial constraints, i won't be able to buy more dedicated cinema lights until next month. I have 4 clamp lamps with daylight LED lightbulbs. If I get more of these, will I be able to light scenes decently? How can I create different atmospheres with these? And are there larger, brighter bulbs I can get for them? I understand fully that lighting is one of the most important aspects of filmmaking, but for the time being, I don't want to sit on my ass and do nothing when I can be refining my skills.

Hi, I've been conducting a little research about gel and I wasn't sure the relationship of transmission and stops. Say, a gel has transmission of 30%. Does that mean that the gel reduces the luminance by 70%? If so, is it in lux or lumen or stop? (I don't have a firm understanding of these units so I might be saying random things) Also, is it helpful to know the transmission vs. wavelength chart? I'd also like to know how the colour temperature of an original source affects the end result through gels. Is there a certain colour temperature that's most appropriate for gels? Or is it totally up to users? If you have your way of working with gels that'd be amazing to know as well. Thanks!

Hi guys, I've been given the task to shoot a music video. The director wanted to be to create a lighting set up similar to the picture below. It's very low budget, so I have 3 kino flows and one Arri 2k. I wanted to know what will be the best way to avoid spill when using the kino flow to light the subject? Thank you for reading Christopher

I have the spectacular challenge, due to budget, of attempting to match day for night to our night for night footage. I have a feeling this will end up being a sad time in the DI where my night for night is graded to look more like day for night, but what can you do. My biggest concern is matching quality of light as best I can. I know the rule of thumb is generally to get some spots of day light light while avoiding the sky. Some of the matches will be for ECUs which I'm not as concerned with, but the wider matches are what I fear the most. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated! I've attached some ungraded lo res stills.

Hi everyone! I have a few quick questions about running a Mole-Richardson 10kW Tener Solarspot (or really any other large fixture) from a 100A 120V service panel on the building mains. The panel has Cam Lock output and will be going into a 100A distro box like this: https://www.lighttheatrics.com/lex-100-amp-3-phase-motion-picture-box-with-tail-input-dbs100dt-b4bi2/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzrTUBRCnARIsAL0mqcwbjlgWj2tBopApyjosTuHu4g6KpgcC221J8FoAubpZwbrsBvLRjOsaAlBMEALw_wcB I will need to power fixtures such as the Mole Tener and ARRI M90, which I assume we will be fitting with 100A bates connectors. My questions are: Does the power need to be balanced across all three phases, or is this only necessary on a generator and not from AC power? If it does require balancing, what adapter would be used? (100A - 2x 60A Snakebite would only connect on two legs, and I've never seen a 100A Bates - 3x 60A, besides the fact that it sounds like a dangerous and bad idea) I believe that if I run the lamp from one leg, or split between two with a 100A - 2x 60A Snakebite, that the neutral in theory could hold the excess load. I won't be able to run an acceptable ghost load along with the 10kW with the power I currently have. What are the negatives, if any, of doing this, and am I just completely wrong about that? Is it better/possible to get a single phase distro box and run only 4-wire from the 5 Cam Lock outputs on the service panel? I understand the basic concepts of balancing a load within 20% for each leg of 3-phase off a genny, but I am new to using 3-phase AC power from a building. Hope this isn't a stupid question, but I couldn't find a specific answer elsewhere. Am I worrying too much? Too little? Thank you guys in advance for your help & patience!

So, I've posted this on a few forums, and if you've seen this already, I apologize. I just bought an old set of Came TV 900 LED panels for a very low price. They are very bright and the quality of light is great, but they have a magenta shift. Do I send them back or just buy some plus greens and go on my way? Does anyone else own these panels, or have this issue?