Lighting A Storefront

[John Sharaf]

First off, put the key lights on the roof, approximating the effect of the source being the spill from the store interior and/or from street lights.

Fill lighting from the floor (street) must be played like a pool shot; use a black flag (or improvised gobo) to block the reflection to the camera angle.

None of this really costs anything, so it would pretty simple to implement considering the limitations you recite.

JS

[Ralph Chaney]

Possibilities…

Shoot when the store is in direct sunlight and the street and/or opposite storefronts are in shade.
Reduce the reflectivity of the glass.
Make the interior of the store brighter than the reflections, essentially removing them.
Shoot at night.
Change what you think your storyline or shot requirements are.

-RC

[Steve Wiggins]

I’m probably going to run with your last suggestion, but before I do that I want to look at some alternatives. Have you ever used a dulling spray on big plate glass windows? I was thinking about that, but I don’t want it to look unnatural. Thanks for your thoughts.

[Steve Wiggins]

I was thinking about a flag, but it would have to be huge. I’d need some riggers and don’t have a budget for the additional manpower. May have to go to the Client and squeeze some more money.

[Todd Terry]

The above suggestions….

PLUS… use of a polarizing filter might help battle the reflections to some degree (either a screw-on rotating pol filter… or one you can put in your matte box, if it has a rotating stage).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ralph Chaney]

I’ve not “dulled” a large surface. Evenness is the challenge. For evenness a super mild film of some kind… or even that “black mist” cloth might work. Not experienced with either, sorry.

-> Ralph

[Dennis Size]

Shoot your scene at night.

DS

[Michael Easparam]

If you want everything to look natural, you should work with the reflections. Experiment with the angles required to shoot what you need without seeing the camera setup.

The hardest part of this will be keeping onlookers from stopping and staring at your setup, causing them to be seen in the reflections.

[Mark Suszko]

I was wondering why only Todd said “polarizer on the lens”. Cheapest yet most effective method of all of these, IMO.

[Mark Suszko]

The other trick would be to set up a large sheet of black cloth on stands, just out of shot, and have the windows reflect the black, instead of shiny objects. This is a trick used often in audio recording studio shoots.