Dan Stone Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 I've got a 20' x 20' front yard that needs to look sunny (afternoon sun). Problem is it's pouring rain. We'll cover the yard with a 20x20 rain shield and we can put a light on a Condor as the sun coming from the back. Question is how bright a light are we going to need to look convincing? Think an 18K HMI fresnel will do the trick? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted October 2, 2016 Premium Member Share Posted October 2, 2016 You'd have to work with a smaller light that is under the 20 x 20 with you, otherwise you are backlighting the rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Stone Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 Ah, great point. Didn't think about that. I did figure out that I'll need about 1,000 fc. Direct sunlight is 10K fc, daylight is 1,000 fc, and daylight on an overcast day is 100 fc. Thanks for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted October 3, 2016 Premium Member Share Posted October 3, 2016 Generally it's a bit more than a 3-stop difference between sun and shadow out in the open, so that's a good starting point, your sunlight will have to be 3-stops brighter than your soft overhead light. However, since you are shooting under a 20x20 anyway to keep the rain off, you could make it a heavier diffusion or add a net to it to bring down the subject compared to your backlight, as long as you don't notice that the foreground is darker than the background (it helps, for example, to shoot against a darker background of trees, etc. Though that may make it more obvious that it is raining back there... you probably should try to shoot at a wide aperture to throw the background out of focus.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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