Reflection of subject in lens effect?

[Austin Millinder]

Im DP for a project and the Director asked me if this type of shot was possible. The scene is a photographer is stalking people from afar and taking their pictures. So my director wanted to know if its possible to get a shot of the photographers lens with the person hes stalking reflected in the lens. It's hard to explain, but if you get it and can help, please do so!

 

Im thinking of maybe a) getting a shot of just the lens and also a shot of the photographers subject then compositing in post, or B) the same as A but with the end of the photographers lens covered with green so we can put in a shot of the end of the lens with the subject reflected. Sorry if this is confusing.

 

Thanks,

Austin Millinder

Cinematographer

[NickMarshall]

This should be a relatively easy one to pull off i think. The best bet would be your second option, to cover the lens with green, but put some red dots on the green (either one or four depending on the room over the lens and what the camera can pick up, but 4 is better if poss for a 4 point track). This way you can track the lens to replace what is on it quite easily.

You will help yourself out a great deal if you can shoot a couple of reference passes of what it actually looks like when you film a reflection in your lens. I suspect that you will need to play around a bit to get both the correct movement of the reflection over the lens, and the glass effect reacting to the light. Also, depending on the light, you may see down into the lens barrel a little, so be prepared to recreate that look if its needed.

Bear in mind, i dont expect you will need to key the green, its just to give you a high contrast area so you can see what you need to replace.

 

Good luck!