advice on CU

[Ozgur Baltaoglu]

Hi guys,

 

I need some general advice on lighting CU of faces... The scene takes place on a theater stage. The key light will be side light provided by those narrow long throw theater lights, probably a stop or two over... What should I do with the fill side and eyelight? I can bounce the side light but I want a warmer fill. Would a 600w fresnel + 1/2 CTO through a frost frame work and if it does how far shall I place it... BTW it's video...thank you all in advance

[David Mullen ASC]

It's just my taste, but I rarely fill with warmer light than the key - sometimes cooler light though. I just don't like reddish shadows - they tend to look noisy on TV.

 

I'm sort of the Caleb Deschanel school of using bluer light for fill -- it tends to reach deeper into the shadows without having to be as bright.

 

The only exception is when there is a warm light in the scene like a fireplace and it's flickering into the shadows as opposed to providing the key light.

 

I also think that bouncing warm light into the shadows for day exteriors looks a little fake compared to bouncing cool light into the shade. But it just depends on the look you're trying to achieve. It could also be motivated (warm fill) if the idea is that sunlight is bouncing off of a warm surface like the ground or a warm wall.

 

As for lighting a scene that takes place on theater stage, I've always had trouble deciding if I should ever dispense with the look of people being keyed by overhead hard spotlights and just cheat some softer light.