Rick Wise
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COW Coin
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You can go to the web sites of Rosco or Lee. Here is a table I worked up for my students about CTO and CTB gels:
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
To add to my previous post: There is now a sort-of-clone of the Easyrig made by Atlas that looks very promising, especially for someone who needs to shoot long segments hand held. Costs around $350. https://atlascamerasupport.com/
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Easy does it. Stay focused. The mood here is mellow.
I gave you a whole bunch of ideas. Do any of them click with you?
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
As always, the first step is to actually look at how the light plays on the face. Shooting directly toward the window will make your subject back lit. And you will need a lot of light to bring up his/her face to a level that allows you to set an iris that shows detail out the window. Otherwise, if you expose for the window the face will be black, and if you expose for the face the window will be blown out.
However, if you angle your subject so that one shoulder is facing the window, and light coming in wraps around the face, and you place the camera close to the wall near the window, you may be able to shoot with out any lights at all. Or, have along a 4×4 piece of foamcore or similar bounce material and adjust it so the amount of fill on the shadow side looks good to you. Beware of over filling.
As to a back light, a small unit may work, but since the outside is balanced for daylight and your small unit most likely is tungsten, you will need to add at least 1/2 CTB to the light.
And then there’s the room behind. What else is in the shot? Does another window illuminate it? Or do you need to light it? Remember color balance. However, do not be its slave. If a practical lamp in the back looks warm but good, don’t worry. Let your eyes really look! We mix color temperatures all the time to good effect.
Another way to go is to gel the window(s) with 1/2 CTO to convert the daylight half way to tungsten, and white balance to that light. However, if the window is in the shot it’s next to impossible to gel in a way that the gel is not visible.
Finally, there are items such as Rosco Scrim to cut down the amount of daylight. But generally it’s far better to really use the window light than to fight it.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Wonderful concept. Some very good shots and editing. Unfortunately the talent does not have very graceful or compelling physical moves. You mostly shot around that up until she starts to break free. At that point she and the shots become very prosaic.
Looks to me like a cool student film. On to the next!
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Hmmm… a falling strand of hair offers some options that a falling nail would not. There may be a low budget solution(s).
Questions: Is this hair against a real background? How do we know it is “falling”? Can it be shot against green screen?
Possible solutions: I would try to make a rig that allows me to control the intensity of a fan and the volume of air so I could produce a very, very gentle up draft. It will be extremely difficult to get the right and even dose of updraft to allow the hair to fall slowly and not be buffeted off track. Alternatively, if you can suspend the hair in the air by the right updraft, place a solid color (white/black/yellow/green/blue etc) behind it and tilt up past the hair, the viewer will think the hair is falling.
Or this idea: place the hair on a sheet of high quality glass or perfect plexiglass. Tilt the glass slightly, and have someone off camera blow the hair lightly. Angle the camera so that it is at an acceptable angle to the “falling” hair. Of course, you have to deal with what is behind the glass, and also the fact that most glass has a green tint to it that you can probably remove in post.
Any of these solutions will take a lot of trial and error. The first, second, and third rule of table-top shooting (which in a way this is) is Patience, patience, and patience. The act can be rather Zen.
In post you can also manipulate the speed of the “fall.”
I’m sure others will come up with other ideas.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Mark, thanks for the input. So, how can you key the talent since the ring lights both the person and the drape at the same time? Wouldn’t additional directional light on the talent force you to stop down, and render the background too dark? Or, given the bounce-back quality of the drape, do you have a wide range of OK exposure to pull a clean key?
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I have not used this unit. From their web site, it looks to me that the light right is designed to both light the talent and the background. I suspect you could add a directional key, hard or soft, turning the light-ring’s effect on the talent into fill light. However, you would then have to stop down to accommodate the key and then the background would be too dark. I suspect you cannot add any lights to this system unless you also boost the background with additional lights that spread evenly over your green or blue drape/wall. If that’s the case, why use the light ring at all?
If you do NOT modify the light from this system you end up with very, very flat frontal lighting.
Hopefully someone who has actually used this rig, or a similar one, can chime in with more information.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Type “shoulder” in the search box. A Ton of info.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com