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Shooting with natural and handy lights


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Hello C gang,

I'm shooting a low budget, but written and produced with love, short and the date of production is coming closer, I'm excited!! This is my first project where I've been challenged to shoot with all natural lights and keep it simple/easy because of extra small crew of 8 people. 

We have a lot of locations, indoor and outdoors where there isnt much control and we'll have to roll with what we get, like- post office, train station platform, inside of the train, metro, metro station, a building elevator, road. But there are some locations like- house interior, motel room interior, motel dining area. 

Now due to multiple location changes and locations being really far apart and the fact that we only have four days to shoot, we're supposed to keep it simple. I'm looking for suggestions as to what all I can keep handy when shooting a short like this. My director loves the look of natural lights and the story is a very sombre and simple one where othing dramatic is required. I'm shooting with a lot of long lenses, first half of the film is mostly shot on 85mm or above. I'm also looking for larg-ish depth of field.

So I have a small equipment list for now that I'd share here so you know which direction I'm going~ ultrabounce, astera LEDs, ND gels, black flag, reflector, beedboard, diffusion paper.

Also looking forward to any and every lighting or/and camera suggestion that comes to your mind regarding the project, I'll be so grateful! Thankyou ?

 

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Sounds like you’ve got the situation pretty well covered. The only thing I can add is to stick to a consistent visual approach. If it makes sense for your locations to blow out all the windows and expose for the interiors, try to maintain that for the whole film. Or if you would rather expose for the windows and underexposed everything inside, then stick to that. Or maybe you always push some fill light into the shadows and never let the set go black. 

Whatever it is, sticking to a single approach will make the ‘flaws’ appear as an intentional choice, rather than a mistake. I’ve found generally that the less control you have over a location, the more you need to make bold choices in the lighting and photography to maintain the illusion of intentionality.

Edited by Satsuki Murashige
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Full frame cameras give deeper DOF. Could be beneficial as opposed to finding faster S35 lenses. I'd also suggest high ISO camera for low-light areas where natural light interiors can drop. My go-to would be the FX9. But there are others that do great in low light, like C500, Varicam.

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1 hour ago, Stephen Sanchez said:

Full frame cameras give deeper DOF. Could be beneficial as opposed to finding faster S35 lenses. I'd also suggest high ISO camera for low-light areas where natural light interiors can drop. My go-to would be the FX9. But there are others that do great in low light, like C500, Varicam.

Full Frame will usually give you a shallower DOF ,rather than a deeper one.. in that you are using a longer lens to achieve the same frame as a s35 or smaller sized sensor .. from the same distance ..   agreed the FX9 would be a good FF budget camera .. the dual ISO / variable ND a bonus too.. 

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Oh, my mistake! I misread Janhavi's question. I was meaning shallower. But even then he wants deeper.

Well, on that note! While working with the FX9, I sometimes use the extra ISO range to stop my lens down for deeper DOF. That camera is wildly convenient. And can be used in S35 as well. I think I've become a Sony proponent... It's not intentional. I suppose you recommend what you know.

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9 hours ago, Stephen Sanchez said:

Oh, my mistake! I misread Janhavi's question. I was meaning shallower. But even then he wants deeper.

Well, on that note! While working with the FX9, I sometimes use the extra ISO range to stop my lens down for deeper DOF. That camera is wildly convenient. And can be used in S35 as well. I think I've become a Sony proponent... It's not intentional. I suppose you recommend what you know.

I have an FX9 sir .. its a great camera .. unfortunately FW V2 got pushed back from June to Oct ..due to COVID. will get touch screen and 5K scan mode ..and more goodies .. its just a really good sensor with  the Venice color science .. and the REC709 out of the box S Cinetone is really going to put some colorists out off a job ? 

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I would suggest bringing some inline dimmers and a bunch of different halogen light globes with you, both edison and bayonet based ones (probably some practical lamps as well if your art “department” aren’t doing that already).

Depending on the locations, some high CRI fluorescent tubes might be useful as well  

If you can’t “light” the spaces, then having some control of the practicals can make a big difference.

 

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