Rick Wise
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Solution #1: John’s post above: use a Diva 200 for a back light if you are using a 400 for a key.
Solution #2: are you tubing the Diva with tungsten bulbs? If they are daylight, there will be a huge difference. The cheapest way to correct that problem would be to gel the 650 (which is probably way too hot and needs to be scrimmed way down) with 1/2 CTB. The back light will then be pleasantly warm. However, if your interviewee is silver haired, add another 1/4 to 1/2 CTB to cool the light even more.
Whether you tube with tungsten or daylight, Divas tend to have a green spike. A 1/8 or 1/4 minus-green gel (magenta) should cure that. Osram tubes seem to run to a more true color.
There was a series of posts on CML about how the EX1 seems to react to Divas differently from true tungsten lights. I found no convincing posts. In any case, test with some color-correcting gels to even things out. A little trial and error and you should be good to go.
Remember, color variations run along two axes: the blue-orange axis (CTB/CT0) and the Green-Magenta axis (Plus-Green/Minus-Green.)
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 -
Todd,
Zero from film school? Too bad you didn’t have access to where I teach…. But that was then, and now is now. On we go!
Rick
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 -
Todd, neat trick using the HMI as both back-light and key! I almost always use the key as both key and fill with a similar bounce idea, but I’d never thought of your solution!
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 -
One of the reasons it is nearly impossible to use a light meter to determine exposure with video is that it’s almost impossible to determine the “true” ASA of any video camera. And, the relative ASA in low light will be different from the relative ASA in bright light. You can try to reverse engineer this: with a waveform monitor, set the iris to the correct exposure. Then with your meter measure the light and find the ASA that gives you the same f/stop. But, because the relative ASA changes in low light, this is mostly a waste of time. The only use I find for light meters on a video shoot is to get consistency.
Zebras are you invaluable friend when it comes to judging exposure with video. Especially when you have no monitors, no waveform, no engineer. Set the zebras to 70. Then place a “normal” Caucasian in front of the camera. Adjust iris until there is just a whisper of zebra on the hot spot (usually the nose or forehead, sometimes a part of the cheek). And you are set. If your subject is particularly dark-skinned, borrow a Caucasian to set iris.
Shooting landscapes you may be better off setting the zebras to 100. When parts of clouds show some zebra you are probably OK. But here it’s more difficult. Due to the narrow range of exposure with most video cameras, usually you have to sacrifice either shadow or highlights to get a decent exposure. Depends on the framing, the look, the time of day, etc.
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 -
Todd,
I think your blue glass filters are way overkill. I’ve long found that when mixing tungsten with HMI/daylight, placing 1/2 CTB on the tungsten units does very well. Or, if there’s no actual daylight in the scene, you can get more bang by placing 1/2 CTO on the HIM. 1/2 CTB cuts the light by 1 whole stop; 1/2 CTO cuts the light by 1/2 stop….
Correcting by only 1/2 seems to produce good results. Note that a full CTB overcorrects a tungsten unit to 5700K, and a full CTO on an HMI overcorrects the unit to 2100K. (Source: “Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, 3rd edition, by Harry C. Box, p. 166.)
But your painted foamcore idea sounds like fun. Perhaps you could put 1/2 or 3/4 CTO on a C-stand arm so that the gel covers only 1/2 of the foamcore; the rest receives raw HMI. Then try to paint a bit of the raw side of the foamcore to match the color of the gelled side(it will have to dry to be true….) No doubt several trials to get this even close to right.
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 -
Donald,
You posted the same question on the CML forum. May I suggest that in the future you start with one forum, wait a day, and if you don’t get an answer to your question or the answer is incomplete, them post on another. For the benefit of others here who are interested in this topic, I’m printing below the very thorough reply you received on CML. The suggestion of fluorescents is a great one. I’d suggest flying a large silk below them to even out the top light. Fluorescents will save you both power and height, as you can even place the fluorescents between the grids with some clever rigging. As for dimmers, many fluorescents cannot be dimmed. I’m not so sure you need a dimmer at all. It would be cheaper to have on hand a large grip double to fly below the silk. (Better yet, a single and double.) You could also wire them so that you can cut off individual units as needed.
“15ft (5mtr) to the grid is not that high, a 2kw version will hang about 1/2
mtr below the grid so a 2kw version would give you 160lux in a 5 mtr circle.“Bearing in mind you overlap these lights you could be getting 300 lux
overall.“These are also much easier to get dimmers for a 2.5kw dimmer such as the ETC
smart bar could be up there mounted on the grid with the lights these will
power 4 lights.“If you went 6kw your spacelight would now hang down 1mtr below the grid,
produce about double the light over the same area, but dimmers for each
light will require 3 phase supply, and VERY expensive dimmer packs.“As a spacelight is only used to create the ambient light you will of course
need conventional lighting to the set/action. you don’t say if its film or
TV but the 2kw would be fine for TV, by the way, why not go fluorescent and
save a fortune in power.“Regards
“John Rossetti London”
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 -
The Ex1 is a bit pricer than your specs. You also need to fact in cards to record to.
The Sony HVR Z5u would be a pretty good bet. Although not quite as good as the EX1 or 3 in low light, it is a very close second. And, the Z5u has much better ergonomics for hand-held work. Currently $4,250at B&H. (Get at least one extra battery.) I suspect that it will put your existing camera to some shame, though the V1u in bright light will hold up OK. If I were buying a doc camera, this would be my first choice. (Others will have other first choices…) (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/582905-REG/Sony_HVR_Z5U_HVR_Z5U_HDV_1080p_24p_CAMCORDER.html#reviews)
If you want to move over to tapeless, then a jump to the $5,200 Panasonic HPX170 might work for you. (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/559333-REG/Panasonic_AG_HPX170_AG_HPX170_P2HD_Solid_State_Camcorder.html#reviews)
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 -
Space lights are a terrific tool. However, they are not in themselves a full solution to a shadow-free stage. They are hotter directly underneath, unless you scrim the bottoms (a good idea in any case; I had one explode, and the hot glass came down directly; fortunately, no one was underneath. Now I always ask for a wire scrim to be put in place.) And even then, you get uneven illumination. To be truly shadow free, you need to fly a large diffusion below those lights. With 15′ to the grid, that will be difficult with 6Ks. The 2K’s are shorter and you might be able to pull off something.
On the other hand, I’ve shot lots of white limbo with just plain space lights. A ground key from the side creates a distinctive and stronger shadow and also fills in the multiple space-light shadows. Better a 10K from far back, than a smaller unit closer — too much change in intensity as talent moves toward or away from the light. However, in your small stage, a 5K probably can do it, or possibly a studio Junior.
As to your question, would the 2K space lights be bright enough? I suspect they will, unless clients have “slow” cameras. Rent or buy just one. Put it up, take a light meter and measure output (or throw up a camera.) It’s been a while since I’ve used them — usually my gaffer goes for the 6Ks.
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 -
Ah, another reason to return to 2nd grade spelling: it’s “garbage matte”, not garbage mat.
As for the statement: [Alan Lloyd] “is just masking out an area that does not get any rendered keying.” My understanding, perhaps limited, is that a garbage matte can be used in two ways: to exclude an area from the key, or else to include an area to be keyed. In the latter case, one would fill in the area with matching green/blue, depending on the screen used. On the many green/blue screens I’ve shot, the director often says, “we’ll garbage matte that area” meaning that light stands, flags, whatever that is visible in the frame will later be removed with a garbage matte and replaced with a green that matches the main green. The only time that will not work is when an actor or object crosses in front or behind some “garbage.”
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 -
Industrial look: go for it. Just make sure your table is not shiny. Or, try shiny, look closely at the set without you in it. If you see green contamination, try dulling spray. (https://www.filmtools.com/kryldulspray.html)
1) Color wheel. Do a GoogleSearch. Take a look.
2) Dulling sprays can be effective, especially with repeated layers, after the previous one drys. However, it is very easy to wipe off the spray. Not a cure-all. Just one more tool to work with.
3)The more green behind you, the more possibility of reflection on the set. Obviously if your arms may extend outside the frame, you need green fully to the left and right. Maybe not so much on top and bottom.
4)I am not a post FX editor, though I do a lot of “regular” editing. my understanding, limited as it is, is that when you garbage mat, you fill in the area with a green that matches your main green screen. When all green elements are of the same color and intensity, you can pull your key cleanly…. maybe.
5)Back light. Probably it will be easier and possibly more effective for you to have two back lights, each coming 3/4 back, with some minus green to counter green contamination. You do NOT want a hot rim — deadly to a key. Very soft, very light, just enough. Try it and see what works best for you.
At the heart of all lighting is training your eye to really see. It takes years. You never stop learning. Try. Experiment. Fail. Learn. Succeed!
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