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Fashion Runway Lighting for Video
Folks!
Longtime lurker here…. was looking for some advice/insight from some of the very talented and generous contributors on this forum…
I have been handed the task of setting up a runway in our warehouse for video-ing the models as they finish getting photographed.
The runway will be 18 feet long by 4 feet wide…. We are doing videos to post on our website and would like to have very nice/soft/even lighting…. We are going for a very clean/cool feel to the videos.
Essentially, my idea was to create two walls with diffusion fabric on the sides of the runway about 6 feet away from the side of each runway and put flourescent lighting behind the diffusion fabric.
Essentially creating a huge diffusion screen and putting a bunch of flo’s behind it with the hopes of getting enough diffused/soft light through to achieve a very fashion friendly soft look.
That takes care of the lighting for the sides… then I was going to put more lighting by the front two corners of the runway… However… I’m doubtful that those lights would throw far enough back to properly light the models as they come out and step on the runway…
My initial solution to that… was to hang some flows up in boom stands and place them over the diffusion fabric screen and point them downward at a 45 degree angle…
But then that Leaves the hairlight… What do I use for that?
I’m not sure my approach is the best… I’ve also considered just hanging up a few trusses and put parcans on them and turn down the A/C big time the day of the shoot…
Attached is a little diagram to illustrate….
Questions that I have…
1. what do i use for rim/hair light…
2. Should i ditch the flourescents and use PAR arrays?
3. should I use diffusion fabric to create a ceiling and hang more flo’s from above? essentially creating a “softbox” tent…
4. how many flourescents do I use for each side…
5. good idea to use the soft boxes at the front of the runway??
6. do i ditch these plans entirely and approach it totally differently?
Any help would SERIOUSLY be appreciated.. I’m pushing for video video video…. but I don’t wanna buy the wrong things to get this going…
thanks so much!
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5 Replies
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Resend the diagram. It didn’t attach.
How high is the ceiling? What’s your budget?DS
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The ceiling goes up to about 20 feet… but there are light fixtures and piping and A/c ducts around there… so I would say 12 feet unobstructed…
Budget… as minimal as possible… trying to keep costs down as much as possible…
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That’s a lot of white. But it’s certainly a concept; and defintely “high fashion”.
There are as many different ways to do this as there are people posting on this FORUM.
My choice would be to use dark brown or midnight curtains and use light sources as a visual element. Since there’s not enough money to use fiber optic curtains, I’d put dozens of “camera candy” lights (booms with PARs or LED’s, include strobes) in front of the curtains, shooting at the cameras.
I’d light the models along the runway, on both sides, from the floor with striplights (4 color circuit MR-16’s or LED strips such as Color Blaize). If that were too much (power, cost, complexity), then a simple linear run of 8′-0″ mega single Kino tubes (without the housing) on each side would also be stylish.
I’d key and side-backlight the models with folow-spots, using a triangular arrangement …two fixtures shooting over the curtains in the rear corners and one downstage center (right over your center runway camera). Operators would be on ladders. Simple 19deg lekos with an iris would be the instrument of choice.
You could also add flashing PARs overhead to provide more “excitement”.DS
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Those sketch-up diagrams are very useful, aren’t they?
I am just musing out loud, and I am no expert, but using large diffusion, I would think that flos are not the best choice there because flos themselves are already somewhat soft sources, and won’t have much throw. So, tell me if I’m wrong, but I would instead consider putting an array of cheap tungsten PAR bulbs behind panels of diffusion, if they are meant to really throw some soft light far enough to fill in a person walking down the runway.
Another idea would be to bounce harder, stronger light off of the side walls from overhead sources, to make the walls the diffused light source.
You are going to see what’s above the models’ heads, right? Runway shots AFAIK are generally shot from a lower angle, maybe hip-high or knee-high? If you lay out some very lage white panels, overlapping them like shingles gives you a hidden gap to the rear, the side facing away from the camera, that makes a nook you can hang a key light in, so you could hang a key in 3-4 spots along the runway, especially near the end where they stop and turn, and tha cameras won’t see them.
DO the lights all have to be fixed? Is this a case where two guys with follow-spots make more sense?
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Thank you guys for your input… i really really appreciate it…
This is what I am ultimately trying to achieve…
ASOS WEBSITEClick on “VIEW RUNWAY” link under the picture…
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