Lighting Control vs Lighting Fixtures

[Rick Wise]

A note of caution. It’s pretty much impossible to light well trying to follow a “recipe” from some one else. It’s been my experience that every time I followed the advice of another more experienced DP I did not like the results. It’s only when you find your own eye that you start to fly. Fortunately we learn a lot from our mistakes.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Jon Frost]

Certainly this thread wasn’t meant to devolve into words of caution:

The whole idea of this thread was to promote the sharing of ideas, methods, materials and experimentation. Every lighting job I have ever worked has been a collaboration between the camera department, gaffers/grips and others to fine tune what the DP is looking for. This involves the sharing of ideas, methods and materials.

Those who are just getting started can learn to appreciate the wisdom of those who came before them. With all the technology ( i.e. Kino-Flo and Cool Lights, RED Camera Systems, Arri Alexa, DLSRs, etc.) related to digital cinema, today’s students have huge opportunities to try out new ideas and rely on tried and true methods decades past.

Thanks for everyone input… Discourse is a wonderful thing!

[Rick Wise]

Devolve? I hardly think so. The word of caution comes from experience: don’t think that trying to follow my “recipes” is going to work as well for you as it does for me. There are no recipes, in fact, just general guidelines. It’s up to the shooter to develop the eye along with the technical skills to tackle any and every opportunity.

I agree about the terrific opportunities for today’s students.

Note: my “caution” was directed at SB.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Bill Davis]

[Rick Wise] “Devolve? I hardly think so. The word of caution comes from experience: don’t think that trying to follow my “recipes” is going to work as well for you as it does for me. There are no recipes, in fact, just general guidelines. It’s up to the shooter to develop the eye along with the technical skills to tackle any and every opportunity.

I agree about the terrific opportunities for today’s students.

Note: my “caution” was directed at SB.
“

It strikes me that what Rick is saying is not just true it’s pretty universal about all the “creative” skills.

Take cooking for example.

Better yet, take two forms of cooking. Meal preparation – and baking a cake.

Cookbooks are legion. Good “recipes” are accessible to all. But we still have a relatively small number of people who truly excel at the arts of cooking.

I mention both, because they require subtly different skills. The chef works largely in the realm of flavors, textures, spice balances, and even eye appeal. The baker, on the other hand, has to have a deep understanding of food chemistry and the effects of temperature over time on ingredients. Not all great cooks are great bakers and vice versa.

In the video realm – having a “recipe” for lighting is not much different in my mind.

A lousy cook can take a perfectly good recipe and turn out pretty lousy food. Not because they don’t know or can’t follow the recipe, but because they lack experience in how the recipe relates to the real world of cooking. A talented chef can take that same basic recipe, and using their decades of knowledge of tastes and presentation and turn out something people will pay serious money to enjoy.

The baker has to approach things differently. They need to work within very strict guidelines in order to achieve success. If the temp is wrong, the yeast isn’t handled correctly of the timing or heat is off by a narrow margin of error, things can go very wrong.

The important thing is to understand that buying cooking equipment never makes anyone a good cook – buying an oven never makes someone a good baker and, of course, buying video production or editing gear, never actually makes anyone competent in the skills of video making. The equipment merely enables your ability to start learning.

All “recipes” are just a set of procedural guides that even if followed very closely – are a beginning point.

You need to add your own special ingredients to make things really special – and that takes a lot of trial, error, and constant learning in order to achieve consistent quality results.

FWIW.

“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

[Bill Davis]

Oops, double post.

[Dennis Size]

BILL: Congrats! You win the award for the best advice given in a long time!!