Lighting a Tablet Demo Video

[Bill Davis]

Look, lighting a self- illuminated product with a live picture like an operating iPad is not trivial.

It’s best done in a proper studio where the ambient light is totally controlled, the space potentially reflected by the screen can be properly managed and the physical mounting oh the hero product can be adjusted.

Finally, you need to get everything set up, look at and judge the shot on a completely reliable monitor, and have the proper tools such as flags, reflectors and additional product lighting at hand in order to refine the look of the shot.

This is how it’s done for high budget productions like what you see from Apple product ads.

It it was possible to do it by simply buying a few lights and having someone with scant lighting experience set them up -every product shot on the web would look like an Apple ad – but they don’t.

Simple as that.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Scott Sheriff]

I agree with what Bill said. Self illuminating, and reflective items makes it more of a challenge. One of the key things is to control dark reflections and specular highlights in reflective objects. While on any one of the ipad spots on the apple web site there may have not been a lot of instruments used, but probably a lot of controls. So having a grip truck full of choices makes this type of thing easier.
And with the budget apple has, you can bet this was color graded by a high end shop. And you need to use a camera that you lets you make custom scene files.
Based on what you said about your gear, you probably don’t have everything you need to even come close to this type of look. You can always rent. Getting the look of the ipad spots on a limited budget is going to be tough, because it’s not just the lighting, but the entire production process is high end from start to finish, which is how they get the richness in the images.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

Where were you on 6/21?

[Tim Ryan]

TBWA/Media Arts Lab produced this ad and I’m sure Apple spent some coin.

I’ll asks a more specific question that might be easier to answer. Assuming you’ve got this type of experience, what type of lighting would YOU use to at least try to light the subject’s fingers in such a dark environment? Notice how they’re nicely lit from above (or the side) as well as under lighting from the tablet? The fingers maintain their detail and focus so I’m sure a high resolution camera that works well in low-light is a given.

I should probably post the same question about the overall ad on a CGI forum as I’m guessing they had to do some compositing and CGI work.

Here’s my first stab at creating an iPad demo video. I’m just trying to take my work to the next level and like to experiment and try out new techniques on a low budget:

https://www.vimeo.com/26785797

[Robin Probyn]

When I shot laptops for Sony.. all the screen images were “put in” in post.. I think this is pretty standard procedure..

Other than that.. totally dark studio.. and large soft lights.. and a simple turn table.. you,ll always get reflections.. just make them work for you.. hence large soft light light source.. even just one can look good for small ipads..

Its the old joke.. whats the difference between highlight and flare… about $1,000 a day.. .. ie added to to your day rate.. 🙂

[Tim Ryan]

Robin – Thanks for the reply and for not belittling my effort. It’s nice to get feedback from someone that actually has relevant experience.

I’m going to test out different setups with both a softbox as well as direct light with mostly closed barn doors and a flag.

A friend also said he was pretty certain the graphics are added in post. I couldn’t figure out how they got such perfect color correction on both the fingers and the iPad. On the other hand, some of the Apple shots look like the don’t add anything in during post as there’s a reflection on the tip of the subject’s fingers.

Thanks again!

[Robin Probyn]

They probably added the hand reflection in post too to fool everyone.. 🙂

There are no rules.. but as rule.. its easier and with much nicer results to light a shiny surface with a large soft light.. otherwise you,ll get traditionally non aesthetically hard little points of light reflecting off the subject.. and not really lighting it either..

Classic example of this is shooting cars in a studio.. you would use few ,but massive soft lights.. esp over head.. and the large white rectangular reflections are often used as “effect”.. (night shots of cars outside usually dark in color to reflect all the nice neons etc.. )

Luckily ipad is very small.. your not shooting a big ad for apple so you may not get the results that they can.. might look easy/simple.. but many hours and lots of money spent on them..

If you get a dark room.. and maybe some kino flo lights.. Diva .. 400 or even a couple of 200,s.. and play around.. a turn table is a pretty cheap way to get a bit of extra production value.. very slow movements ofcourse..

[Mark Suszko]

Big soft sources are one factor. I am sure a lot of color-correction was done for the Apple product using the high end systems like DaVinci, where you can confine the color correction to tightly-defined areas like just within the screen, for example. They might even have used motino controlled cameras and done one lighting pass just for the screen exposure, and a second one for everything else, then combined the footage in a compositor like AfterEffects. There isn;t really any way to know withotu asking the guys that shot and posted it.

But if you were trying to emulate their work, this is what you think about; what techniques they used, and how you can mimic them.

[Scott Sheriff]

[Tim Ryan] “I’ll asks a more specific question that might be easier to answer. Assuming you’ve got this type of experience, what type of lighting would YOU use to at least try to light the subject’s fingers in such a dark environment?”

That would depend on the exposure latitude of the camera and/or how the scene file is set up, and how much detail I want to see in the dark areas. It would also depend on what the post production color correction workflow is.

I general terms, maybe a large butterfly/overhead, and a few small Fresnels, and some flags/fingers.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair

Where were you on 6/21?

[Tim Ryan]

going to test large soft box overhead as well as directional lights with more flags next per your and Robin’s advice. Here’s a low res screen grab of compressed H.264 edit from last night’s test. I used a diffused direct light flagged so the source only touched the fingers. It was too bright but a good experiment. I closed the f stop a touch to f/5.0 and lowered the ISO to 5000 which helped a tad with the details.

I would never expect to get something as good as the Apple version but would be excited to get as close as possible with a limited budget.

Here’s the screen grab from last night’s test:

https://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/photosbytimryan

[Robin Probyn]

Hi Tim

Ive not used DSLR,s much.. but last time the camera assistant dont want to go over 2000 ISO,or even 1600.. so I think 5000 will give you trouble.. could you not shoot at 2.8 and bring the ISO down..?

Iam no expert with those camera,s.. just what Ive heard from others who know more than me..

Good luck..