Lighting for seamless white background

[Brent Dunn]

You can get away with two floods on the background from each side. As long as you have a continuous background like you shared, you’ll be fine.

Use softboxes for your talent. The more distance between the talent and background the better. With DSLR, you can use the depth of field to help with hiding the background.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro
with Final Cut Studio Adobe CS6 Production

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks Brent for the input. Todd had also mentioned using some shop lights to light up the background. And since I am the talent and don’t have to worry much for how “professional” my equipment looks I am thinking that a cheap way to light the background is the way to go.

Would a couple work lights like these do the trick?

Or would a couple shop lights attached to a light stand be better?

The downside that I see to these Halogen lights is that they get much hotter then fluorescent shop lights, but they do output a more light.

[Todd Terry]

Dan, those halogens are gonna be REAL hot, not only thermally (you can cook an egg on them, and they’ll heat up a room in your house in no time flat), but optically as well. Unless you can place them VERY far back you’ll get a real concentrated “hot spot” bright area in the very center that falls off fast.

Those are really only useful for flooding big areas where you can put the instruments far enough away… and you have to take the cages off the front (they cast shadows) which makes them even harder to deal with.

Go with the flo shop lights. They’re cooler and much softer, which is what you’re after. Yes, the halogens are brighter, but brighter isn’t the goal. The right kind of light is the goal. Shop lights are more than bright enough. In fact when I use them here, occasionally I take one tube out of them because sometimes full-tubes are just too much. For your application those four-tube shop flos are probably overkill… the kind that take two 4′ tubes will be more than enough in your setup, I guarantee it (and they’re only about $15).

T2

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

[Dan Shaw]

Todd – I agree. I used a few smaller halogen lights for some stock photography work and they are really hot. I think down the line the Kino Flow’s would be a great choice to light me, but with those price tags I need to build up some capital first. Plus, I am the “talent” so I don’t have to worry about impressing clients with my gear. 🙂

So if I were to use the 2 x 4′ shop lights for the background what would you think about using some shop lights for my main light, key light, and fill light?

I could use a 4-light or 6-light for the main and then another placed a little further back for the fill. I could even then put a 2-light up on a boom pole with a c-stand for my hair light. I realize that this isn’t the most professional, but I would love to give it a try and see if I can make this happen.

What do you think?

[Todd Terry]

Well, you could use shop lights for your key and fill, I suppose… but I generally stick to the DIY stuff where it doesn’t matter that much (like wallwashing), where those things will do what they need to do just fine.

Personally, I’d much rather use a softbox for the key light, and another small softbox or a 4×4 bouce for the fill. They could be either flos or tungsten. Softboxes aren’t that expensive. And I’d use a small fresnel instrument as a back/hair light.

But that’s just me, since you asked.

Can you use shop lights for the key, fill, and hair? Yeah, you can but they are not going to be anywhere near as controllable as “real” lights.

Spend a few bucks on rigging shop lights for your background, and you’ll have plenty left over in your budget to get the couple of instruments you need to do it right… or at least semi-right. You still wouldn’t be able to purchase top-shelf instruments, but that’s more than enough to get by on without it being junk either.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Just a PS… I just looked a bit at the video embedded in your above post about the flos, I hadnt seen it before I posted.

Obviously this guy used his flo lighting setup for his demo video. The first thing that jumped out at me were the long perfectly vertical reflections in his eyeballs, from the 4′ flo tubes. A little offputting, to me. Most people wouldn’t notice it, but it just gives him the “something’s not quite right” look… rather having a nice singlular small square or circular reflection. Just another reason in my book not to use those kinds of instruments as keys or fills.

T2

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

[Dan Shaw]

Funny you mention the vertical reflections in his eyes. 🙂 I noticed the same thing and wondered if that would show for me since I am doing video and not wearing glasses. But I appreciate your feedback and trust your judgement. I’ll go with the shop lights for the background and then what do you think of these choices for the main light and the backlight?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/32212-REG/Lowel_LC_88EX_LC88EX_Rifa_Lite_eX88_1000.html

-or-

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/354761-REG/Chimera_8005_Video_Pro_Plus_1.html

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/157757-REG/Arri_530100_150_Watt_Tungsten_Fresnel.html

Thanks Todd!

[Todd Terry]

Those instruments are fine… you certainly can’t go wrong with Chimeras, which are more or less the industry standards for softboxes.

BUT… if you want to save some nickles look for Photoflex softboxes. About the same as Chimeras, maybe not made QUITE as well but very close, but are MUCH less expensive.

There’s always scads of cheap (and I mean CHEAP) softboxes on eBay as well. I can’t attest to the quality of any of them, but they are very inexpensive.

As for the Arri fresnel, that’s fine, it’s a good instrument. I personally prefer LTM Peppers over Arris… but you’ll find plenty of people in both camps.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/125371-REG/LTM_PH_154B_Pepper_100W_Fresnel.html

That instrument has the advantage of taking either a 100w or a 200w globe. I have several of those. They are a bit less expensive than the Arris, too, although I notice they are on backorder from B&H. Probably available somewhere else though, if one didn’t want to wait a week or two until B&H has them again. The Arris and the LTM Peppers are similar, biggest different is that the Peppers have a cast metal housing whereas the Arris have a sheetmetal housing. There are different advantages and disadvantages to each of them, but both are excellent instruments.

T2

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

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks Todd! I’m getting real close here. There are so many parts to think of! Regarding the LTM Pepper light, would a basic overhead light stand be the key to getting this in position behind me?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/154639-REG/K_M_21411_500_55_Tripod_Microphone_Stand.html

[Todd Terry]

You can either use a very tall stand, if your backdrop arrangement allows you to put the stand behind it, with the instrument sticking up over the top.

In that situation though I’d usually just use a C-stand with a grip arm on it….

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/227746-REG/Matthews_756040_Hollywood_Century_C_Stand.html

…and of course a sandbag on the tall leg of the stand.

Often on locations we’ll use a scissor clamp to hang a backlight, like any of these…

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=scissor+clamp&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

…but I believe you said you were doing this in your living room, so I’m doubting you have a tile drop ceiling in there.

A C-stand with a grip arm will be the most common solution.

T2

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