Using mirrors to bounce set lights

Don Davis · May 2, 2005

Hey gang,

I've been on a couple shoots where the DP, shooting inside a room, needed to bring light in through the window. Instead of just setting up a light outside and firing it in, he set up a mirror board and fired the light into that first. There was plenty of room to walk a lamp back away from the window, so it wasn't a space consideration. Any ideas on why this method was used?

Don Davis

AC/aspiring DP

Kevin Zanit · May 2, 2005

For several different reasons bounced light from a mirror seems to have a "harder" characteristic. It is a lot more controllable. You can choose to bounce just the "hot spot? of a beam, or just the softer non center areas. The best bet for you is to just take a light and a mirror and see what the difference is.

Conrad Hall used to use mirrors and paper tape to make hard "chunks" of light, or just selectively light something.

Another use is when I have a limited number of units/ I don?t want to spend the time to set up an additional unit I will ?ping-pong? light around the room to serve several purposes. For example:

http://www.kevinzanit.com/projects/watermethod/image006.jpg

I used a mirror to bounce that edge to the ground for when the actors were in a different position (it is frame right, small 2x2 mirror)

Kevin Zanit

May 3, 2005

Great reply and example Kevin!

This post makes me want to stock up some mirrors as well. I was gripping one day where the DP used maybe 6-8 small 1x1 mirrors (some broken) to splash light around a room, very effective.

May 3, 2005

It's interesting Kevin notes the inherent "hard" quality of mirrors for lighting- historically, mirrors were originally used in early-classic Hollywood black and white cinema to bounce light that couldn't be rigged in rafters of a studio or a location where the wall height became an issue. The hard light was essential for the black and white rendering given issues of speed and contrast. I've read of more recent cinematographers well versed in classical hard light, such as Alan Hume and John Hora using this trick for colour work, because they'd learned first hand shooting hard on black and white. I know Rob Hahn did something similar on the heist sequence from The Score too, although I heard he was after a different look.

That's a beautiful image you posted, Kevin- Your resourcefulness is inspired! Thanks for sharing it with us! :)

John Sprung · May 4, 2005

Another use for big mirrors is to relay bounce sunlight. Set reflectors where you want your light sources to be. Set mirrors to feed a hard beam into those reflectors. Tweak the mirrors as the sun moves to keep the light coming.

-- J.S.

Kevin Zanit · May 4, 2005

Thanks.

It was just a simple set up - 4k PAR through the window for a little backlight, Kino for key, mirror to hit them on the ground.

Kevin Zanit

Laurence Avenet · May 4, 2005

I've used mirrors to bounce back the flash that comes out of a gun (loaded with blanks) in a pitch black room.

Laurence

Matt Pacini · May 4, 2005

I spray-glued heavy mylar to the back of some of my foamcore boards for this. (Some silver, some gold).

Not quite as controllable, but I'm paranoid about having mirrors break, people cutting themselves, etc., plus it's so much easier to rig a piece of foamcore than a mirror.

MP

Kevin Zanit · May 4, 2005

Good point about them breaking.

We go though about two a week. Luckily they are cheap. Mostly they break in transit. Some of my guys made a "mirror" crate that is padded to help fix this.

Kevin Zanit

Laurence Avenet · May 4, 2005

I spray-glued heavy mylar to the back of some of my foamcore boards for this. (Some silver, some gold).
Not quite as controllable, but I'm paranoid about having mirrors break, people cutting themselves, etc., plus it's so much easier to rig a piece of foamcore than a mirror.

MP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess I should have mentioned safety precautions with gun shots & mirrors. On our shoot, no one else is allowed in room/area beside actor and operator. Actor has specific targets to hit away from mirrors or operator. I haven't had any mirrors break, but safety is of upmost importance before attempting this. Blanks and mirrors are very dangerous.

Laurence

Luke Prendergast · May 4, 2005

My mirrors all have a layer of gaffer tape on the back and a run around the edges so if they do break the bits aren't going anywhere.

Alvin Pingol · May 6, 2005

Plus, no one wants to deal with all of that bad luck... ;)

nchopp · May 6, 2005

Necessity is the mother of invention. Was at location, didn't have a reflector - grabbed a mirror off the wall. Appropriately, my particular favorite brand of vodka. <grin>

oscar jimenez · May 6, 2005

Hey, Ive got four of those Desisti fresnels, they are very sturdy. Something about mirrors:

on reflection quality or aberrations

1. Back reflection Mirrors ( cheapier ) they tend to project sort of a 'ghost' image of light beam

2. front reflection mirrors ( reflective coating is on top over the glass ) better quality reflection thus more expensive.

nchopp · May 7, 2005

Hey, Ive got four of those Desisti fresnels, they are very sturdy. Something about mirrors:
on reflection quality or aberrations

1. Back reflection Mirrors ( cheapier ) they tend to project sort of a 'ghost' image of light beam

2. front reflection mirrors ( reflective coating is on top over the glass ) better quality reflection thus more expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, Desistis are alright by me. Got 4 of those 1ks, 3 of the 2ks, a 750 flood and a bunch of 650s. They get the job done, for indoor work.

Edited May 7, 2005 by nchopp

Lucita Jones · August 10, 2005

Necessity is the mother of invention. Was at location, didn't have a reflector - grabbed a mirror off the wall. Appropriately, my particular favorite brand of vodka. <grin>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting...What happened to your color temperature? If it's an interior /daylight and you bounce tunsgten against a mirror...I would say it will cool down. Do you worry about this light's color temperature at all? Could I gel the mirror as a soluction for converting tunsgten to daylight without losing so much light from the conversion?

Thanks...