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Basic 3-Point Lighting Question
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Given the same type of lighting setup I described earlier, but instead using Kinos, would I also want to place gels several feet in front of the Kino fixtures, or is the light from the Kinos soft enough already and capable of bouncing off the reflector without the gels?
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You’re on the right track.
re: lack of adequate fill. With a flat surface like the Photoflex a slight variation in the angle of the reflector can make a big difference. Sit in the chair where your interviewee will be, and look over at the reflector. If you see a bright spot in the middle of the reflector, it’s aimed at you. If not, it’s reflecting the key somewhere else. It is easy for the reflector to get nudged off angle. Also, the brighter the key, the further away it can be, which helps your relatively-closer reflector contribute more. If your key is right on top of the subject your reflector will have to be practically touching the shady side to contribute much.
That reflector can move pretty easily and go off-axis. Alternatively, you may want to try an eye-light (e.g. a low-wattage fresnel, with diffusion) at or near the camera as your fill. To “dial it in” for different faces or degrees of “drama,” you could put a small dimmer on that eye-light. Just look out for multiple shadows on the face. And, whether your fill source is a reflector or another light, don’t “fill” those shadows entirely; let the key be your best friend. Otherwise you’ll get that wonderful “passport photo” look.
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If you key with a large enough Kino, you can probably still use a reflector for the fill side. You may find it easier to use a second, smaller Kino, instead.
Kinos are basically “soft” lights; to make one even softer you can place diffusion on the barn doors; to make it even softer than that, fly the diffusion out in front.
To focus a reflector, hold a small mirror in the center of it, and move the reflector around until the mirror hits the area you want lit.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
If you key with a large enough Kino, you can probably still use a reflector for the fill side. You may find it easier to use a second, smaller Kino, instead.
Kinos are basically “soft” lights; to make one even softer you can place diffusion on the barn doors; to make it even softer than that, fly the diffusion out in front.
To focus a reflector, hold a small mirror in the center of it, and move the reflector around until the mirror hits the area you want lit.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Just thought of another connotation of “soft” in photography–not sure if this is what you’re after, but “soft” can mean soft focus, like the soft-focus close up shots in movies like “Casablanca.” For such a look, filters on the lens provide the most efficient and repeatable method.
In my opinion, the ag-hvx200 can use a good dose of filtering, btw. (Personally, I find the sharp focus to be an overly sharp image picking up pock marks, laugh lines, and other so-called flaws in the skin that film-grain appears to hide. Not having any blurring filters, I end up applying a blur node via an additive node in Apple Color, where the other branch of the additive node is run of the mill color correction.)
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