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How did they shoot this?
This I phone intro video is so amezing the lighting is so perfect with no shadows and great skin tone. anyone has an Idea how this was shot? what kind of lighting and video equipment?
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20 Replies
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They shot with a professional crew, great care and large source lighting. Usually the biggest tungsten light available (24K) into a 12×12′ Muslin. Same treatment for fill. If you look closely you’ll see two catch lights in the eyes which means key + fill. White backings are lit evenly to 80ire so they’re a straight line on the waveform monitor.
As far as camera, my guess is Alexa in log C gamma, which to my taste creates the best skin tone available at this moment in time. This gamma requires color correction, so it is adjusted on high end equipment in ideal monitoring conditions.
JS
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I’ll agree with 99% of what John said, as usual (actually usually) it’s 100%)…
It’s probably an Alexa shoot.
It was not a practical white background though… that was composited, likely greenscreen or bluescreen. The hair on the spikey-haired guy is the dead giveaway on that. It’s still a darn-near perfect key, even on his hair, but you can just tell by the way the individual hairs look that the background wasn’t a practical white limbo background, but rather a composite.
Virtually all the phone screens are composited and simulated as well. You can’t tell that at all on some shots, but on others it’s obvious, so I’m betting they are all fake. If this were a broadcast television commercial you’d see the tiny “Screens simulated” disclaimer, but since it’s for the web they don’t have to abide by that FTC regulation. This is a little unusual since for television commercials Apple almost always does use real screens (and very well and beautifully shot), but in this case they are mostly simulated.
There’s very excellent DP work going on there, especially on the exteriors.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Todd,
It is possible that the hair imperfections you notice are a result of compression and playback on the internet.
As for the exteriors, again the Alexa’s ability to reproduce 14 stops of DR is at play. Not to take anything away from the skills of the cinematographer!
JS
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[john sharaf] ”
It is possible that the hair imperfections you notice are a result of compression and playback on the internet.”Ehhh… could be. But I’m still willing to bet it was composited. It just has that composited look to me. Plus, I know for a fact that a lot of Apple’s white-limbo television commercials are greenscreen, so I’m betting this is, too.
[john sharaf] “As for the exteriors, again the Alexa’s ability to reproduce 14 stops of DR is at play.”
Yep, the Alexa is a powerful beast for sure. But there were also things like the car driving interiors that were obviously a darn-good lighting job… artificially lit, but still looked very natural without looking overlit.
No telling what the budget was on that piece… I’d like to be able to work with those numbers myself.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Looking at 4:04, is that a low/floor fixture in there too?
Steve
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Yup… the key is high, and the fill is low. Gives that completely flat shadowless look.
I think it works there, although personally I usually try to do not such flat lighting.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Very impressive job on the guy with glasses. No hint of reflection or haze on the glass at all. I’m in awe.
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[david braman] “Very impressive job on the guy with glasses. No hint of reflection or haze on the glass at all.”
Years ago I was directing a commercial shoot with a cosmetic surgeon once where we wanted to see reflections in his glasses, as he was working with patients’ images on a computer screen.
I worked and worked and worked trying to light it and block it to get what I wanted, but never got even a hint of a reflection.
Unfortunately, I had not really told this guy what I was doing, just kept moving him and positioning him and tweaking the screen and lighting and blocking. Eventually, he figured out what I was after and said “Ohhhh, probably because these are special non-reflective glasses.”
GRRRRRRRRR!
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Doesnt ring my bell.. really boring lighting.. and not that hard to achieve Iam sure the DP could have done better except this flat look is the in thing at the moment.. and must have been requested..
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Squeaky clean! The background matches so perfectly with the webpage color that I’m pretty sure it was keyed in. There is a nice white wrap on the faces. Could it have been shot against a white background that was then luma keyed? With a garbage matte on the faces, to keep needed foreground detail?
As to Robin’s comment, I’m getting a little sick of this Apple-perfection, to tell the truth. The Cult of Sparseness is wearing thin. It’s sort of funny – for years the “grunge” look was everywhere. This too shall pass.
Bob C
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