Lighting a Hair Salon

[Wiliam Cardoza]

35mm 500T rated at 1,600

Slow lenses a 40mm at F4 and an 80mm at 2.8

1 x 2K frenel

 

Shooting while the salon is open, this is for a short film, we are having a rehearsal there tomorrow so i was going to experiment with lighting. Shooting for real in about two weeks.

 

Going for a high contrast or natural look - low key, or what ever i can manage in a minimalist way because of the salon being open while we shoot and because of budget. I could possibly rent some super speeds and an extra light set up for a quick take. Tomorrow I'm going to measure the rafters and see if I can hang lights from there as another possibility to not be intrusive and to get my coverage.

 

If you can make out my floor diagram, X marks the spot where i would shoot scenes. And i was hoping for a wheelchair dolly move down the middle hence the arrows etc.

 

I've shot there before using 16mm Tri-x rated at 180 and I got an F2 or i might have bumped the zoom on my K3 and actually shot at 1.8??, just using the ambient about ten or so feet in during mid day. Windows face north. So at 1600 i'm figuring F11 ambient near the windows and probably wide open further inside.

 

1. The reptilian part of my brain says to shoot my 2K through a 4x4 and just use as fill or to raise the ambient a little bit...

2. And for the dolly shot past the salon booths for a more high contrast look i was thinking

of just making a slit with the barn doors and shooting across and bouncing off the mirrors? And letting it go dark for part of the move etc.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[Stuart Brereton]

Why are you rating the 500T at 1600iso? If you were able to get an f2 at 180iso before, then you only need around 800iso to get an f4 for your slowest lens. Are you planning to balance for the daylight from the window, or for whatever sources there are inside?

[Wiliam Cardoza]

Hi Stuart, yes I want to balance to the ambient, or close to it, further inside the salon.

 

I'll meter the space and see where i can set up lights and think it through some more.

 

I thought the mirror running down the length was taller, I'll take some better pictures tomorrow.

[Stuart Brereton]

From your second picture, I can see that in addition to the daylight from the window, you have at least two different types of fluorescent tubes in overhead fittings. One set looks like it's fairly close to daylight, the others are warmer, perhaps cool white tubes around 4300k and noticeably green. If you're planning to add tungsten lamps to this mix, it's going to be pretty tricky to achieve a neutral color balance.

[Wiliam Cardoza]

Thanks Stuart I'll take that into consideration and test.

I have some gels perhaps something warm, an amber perhaps or maybe even blue?

How that's motivated I don't know but maybe it could look interesting?

[JD Hartman]

The 8' tubes are likely cool white, you should check the other flouro fixtures with the plastic diffusers to see what they are bulbed with. Simpler solution to lighting might be re-bulb the existing fixtures with Kino or Movietone bulbs (rent them), shoot when the sun is not directly streaming in the the front windows, unless you want that direction to be blown out. You might still have to ND the shop windows. Augment existing lighting as needed.

[Wiliam Cardoza]

Thanks JD I'll go by there and check out those tubes.

@1600 I had a F5.6 way back into the salon, it's actually a larger space than it looks in the pictures.

We started so late I only managed to shoot one 200' short end, tested some low con filters and tested lighting ratios in the back room doing one stop and 1/2 stop under fill, there was a tube in the back room and an exposed light bulb.

 

I shot some Polaroids with my Hasselblad but I had to guess using bulb setting about 2 sec exposure so they came out looking like flat, bright lighting; hoping to get a darker ambient look on film. Maybe i should have brought a dslr, to test but what's the fun int that LOL...but does anyone do that shooting film? I'm used to using my light meter shooting stills. ..

[Wiliam Cardoza]

35mm test from a couple weeks ago... I did rent a Lowell 700W the day of at the last minute, which came in handy to test, used for some gelled fill / key. . Back room: i used low con filters #1 & #2 i like how the violet gel came out.

 

 

Grading: I kinda like how it looks as far is it coming out ambient / "gritty" i suppose that's what i'm going for. I don't have much experience color grading, going to mess around with it of course, but does something like this have a lot of leeway for manipulating? A. basic contrast B. stylistic stuff ... It's a 2k scan Prores 4444 and I got some DPX cause it was such a small scan i figured it would be a good chance to try that out and for future workflows etc.

 

Augmenting lighting: Any low budget pointers in particular treating that back room as far as augmenting the grittyness? I'm kinda digging the violet gel. i got a tiny - tiny amount of edge light from the tube fixture above the dresser; keeping in mind that the rest of the salon i only have access to when it's open so i obviously can't set up too much. etc.

 

Thanks.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Wiliam Cardoza