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Advice on lighting a bedroom for sunset


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Hello Pro. DP's and Gaffers out there,

 

I am lighting a bedroom in a dialogue scene between a mother and her schizophrenic child. We want the scene to feel like its taking place during a sunset, but we want dramatic lighting. We also want to create a contrast between a warm interior and a slightly blue exterior.

 

I did a simple lighting test on the actual location using two basic 2K tungsten lights.

 

First picture is the lighting setup taken during the afternoon, where the second and third are taken right after sunset (a little photoshopping was done on the last two -- i changed the window color to a cyan blue and pushed the contrast).

 

I put one 2K open face with a chimera on it,at the left of frame, and another 2K open face just outside the window as you can see. The open face is gelled orange, and white balance is set at 3200. I exposed at F11 (about 2 stops under N).

 

If I want to follow the basic idea, any suggestions on how I can make the lighting even better?

 

I am shooting the film on Kodak 500T, 5219.

 

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

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For a bedroom at sunrise/sunset, my usual approach would be to shoot during the day but schedule things so that the sun is on the opposite side of the house to the windows in the bedroom (so you're not fighting direct sunlight). Then turn off the interior lights for contrast, balance for daylight (throw on an 85B), and fire something like a Blondie (open-face 2k) through the window.

 

Sheer curtains on the window will also go a long way to obscuring any unwanted background elements outside the window.

 

Here's a recent one lit using that basic formula:

 

HfKba2S.jpg

Edited by Mark Kenfield
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Yea I would shoot during daylight when sun is opposite like Mark said that will help alot. you might find with only having 2 2ks that you can't get an exposure without blowing out the window....that might ok but like mark said curtains would help you out a lot.....sheer curtains are a dp's best friend for day interior.

 

 

I would suggest taking both your 2ks and putting them through a little diff outside the window and firing them in to maximize the punch you can get.... when it comes to mimicing the sun I think the bigger the light the better.

 

 

then inside the room I would use a smaller source bounced off something to fill.....a very soft source.

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As the sun sets, it gets warmer depending on the atmospheric conditions, but when it gets really red-orange just before it disappears, it usually is not that bright anymore so you get this mix of the red-orange sun and the blue ambient skylight filling in, so the light is not quite as high contrast as in these tests, unless you want a very dramatic theatrical effect.

 

The only problem with shooting in daytime even if there is no sunlight coming into the room is that your 2K's may not be bright enough compared to the normal daylight all around, just depends. It would help to shoot more in overcast weather or nearer to dusk. On the other hand, the advantage of working in daytime is that the ambience is there in the room already, you might not have to supply that.

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