• Cinematography

  lighting a car shot…

  Posted by Oraxio on February 27, 2007 at 7:42 pm

  Hello guys. I need your help.

  I’m doing a three-person shot (driver, passenger and back seat) inside a car. My camera (SONY HDV) will be in front of the car on the outside of the windshield. The big problem is, it’s an exterior shot. I’ve done some test shots and I haven’t been able to get rid of the reflections on the windshield.

  Although this is my main problem, any lighting suggestions for the shot in general would be usefull.

  Thanks!

  Tim Kolb replied 19 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  John Sharaf

  February 27, 2007 at 9:13 pm

  Oraxio,

  Shooting in cars can be tricky! The only simple fix to your problem is to either use a polarizing filter (properly oriented to comnpensate for the angle of reflection) or perhaps to stage the direction of car travel to minimize the light on the windsheild itself.

  Otherwise the solution pecomes exponentially more complicated; namely “roofing” the area from the windscreen forward and using artificial (day)light to illuminate the actors in the front seat. This will necessitate towing the car as the drivers vision will be obstructed by the rig and the lights in his/her eyes. Power for the lighting can be carried in the tow vehicle, either 120 batteries/invertor or a generator.

  Another alternative is to “process” the shot by shooting on a stage or other controlled area, with a blue or green screen in the backround, shooting plates to composit into the screened area and recreating the daylight lighting quality on the car and the actors.

  Hope this helps!

  JS
• 

  Oraxio

  February 28, 2007 at 1:01 am

  thanks for your quick response. I will be trying a lot of your suggestions tomorrow, specially the polarizer and the roofing. my last resort will be the soundstage but i’m not discarding the possibility.

  thanks again

  oraxio
• 

  Tim Kolb

  March 14, 2007 at 2:26 am

  I’ve also found that, when appropriate for the material, a suburban street with mature trees that form a canopy can help to get rid of the sun, and once the polarizer is properly adjusted it adds a hint of movement as the tree branches create moving patterns.

  John…would he gain from being at a right angle to the sun, or is the angle to the windshield the key factor?

  I’ve done this before…but I can’t remember what the angle to the sun was or how it affected the shot…

  TimK,
  Director,
  Kolb Productions,

  Creative Cow Host,
  Author/Trainer
  http://www.focalpress.com
  http://www.classondemand.net

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