Rick Wise
1
COW Coin
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The B&H reflector will almost certainly be a bit harder than foamcore. The softest “hard” surface is bead-board, which is styrofoam. Next harder is white card. Harder yet is Foamcore.
A trick grips use to focus a board is to place a small mirror near the center of the surface, then tilt the board until the mirror reflects hard light where you want the maximum amount of bounce.
Equally, if the there is too much fill from the bounce you can reduce it several ways: move the board further away; tilt the board off its maximum bounce, or “waste” it; scrim the light falling on the board.
Remember that light intensity changes by the square of the distance. Double the distance of a light (or bounce card) you cut the light to a 1/4 of its previous intensity. Cut the distance in 1/2 and you increase the light by 4 (2 stops). In other words, moving the light a little closer, or a little farther away, makes a big difference in intensity.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Steve, I keep posting that I see no way to make a SWF player using Super. Am I missing something?
For that matter, how about posting your Super settings, what works for you to convert you AVI files to flash?
Rick
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Steve, I remember you suggested “Super” — but I cannot get it to produce a SWF player, and the image is less sharp.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Steve,
I so agree. However, is there a good alternative if you want to convert your video to Flash?
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
The Arri lighting kit you have probably has: one 300 W tungsten fresnel unit, two 650 watt tungsten fresnel units, and one open-faced 1,000 w tungsten unit, plus stands, barn doors, scrims, and possibly a chimera for the open-faced 1K.
If so, I’d use the 1K with a Chimera as a key. I’d rig the 300 as your back light, probably with a red (double) scrim in it. As before, a piece of foamcore or white board will serve for fill, bouncing the key toward your shadow side.
AS for daylight, is there is very, very little, then you can probably ignore it. However, if some of it is contaminating the wall behind you, you need to either block it off (black garbage bags work just fine) or else put 1/2 blue on all your tungsten units. Otherwise the wall will have a blue edge.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I presume you will be the only person on the podcast, unlike your sample image. To answer you questions:
1. You can do 3-point lighting with 2 lights and a piece of foamcore or white board.
2. You want to be as far from the wall as possible so that you can control the light on the wall independently of the light on you. You may, or may not, need an additional light for the wall.
3. How far the lights are from you depends on their size and intensity.Where to place your lights: Ideally, you would key — your main light — with a soft light around 3-4 feet from you. Place it 45º to either the right or left of you, and set high enough to be around 45º above horizontal. Place a 4×4 sheet of foamcore or white board on the opposite side and move it closer or farther to adjust the amount of fill light it provides. You would hang/sling a small second light behind and above you, high enough so that you light the back of your head and shoulders. You may need to flag it off so it doesn’t shine into the lens. Use a friend standing/sitting in your place so you can see the results of your lighting. Experiment!
What lights to use: The choices are infinite. You might start with this link, which lists B& H choices of profession and semi-pro fluorescents from the cheapest to the most expensive. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=sort&A=search&Q=&sortDrop=Price%3A+Low+to+High&bl=&atl=&pn=1&st=search&mnp=0.0&mxp=0.0&sv=fluorescent&shs=fluorescent&ac=&fi=all&pn=1&ci=1201&cmpsrch=&cltp=&clsgr=
There are two types of lights/blulbs: daylight, and tungsten. If you have a lot of daylight in your room, be sure to get daylight bulbs.
Fluorescents are a relatively cheap and efficient way to go. LED lighting is coming in, but is still expensive. HMI/daylight lights will always be very expensive. Tungsten units are hot, and also somewhat expensive, and you can’t use them in a daylight environment unless you gel them with some 1/2 blue — always a possibility.
Your backlight needs be only 1/4 the intensity of your key. You can even do without the backlight, for starters.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Actually, these units DO list color temperature — daylight. Seems like one heck of a deal. I have no idea how long the bulbs last, where you get replacements, etc. 600 watts bouncing off an umbrella isn’t a whole lot of fire power, but maybe you can make it work.
Note that you could also use ordinary fluorescents. They should match any others in the scene. Then white-balance your camera and shoot. You may want to fool the camera a little bit by white balancing through a piece of 1/8 or 1/4 blue, making the camera warm up skin tones a bit. Get a sheet of 1/8th and try it. If you want more warmth, double it to make 1/4. The disadvantage to this method is if there is any daylight in the rooms as well as your lights, the daylight may look a bit magenta because you have, in effect, electronically added magenta to your camera’s setting to counter the green spike in the fluorescents. Further, if the ambient fluros are warm whites, then daylight will look very, very blue.
Consequently, it will be easier to use the cheap units you list, provided you are shooting in a daylight environment. If you are shooting in a tungsten one, you need to see if you can find tungsten fluros that fit these fixtures.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Indeed, it is hard to believe, and even harder to accept. But so it goes. Hence the search for a good alternative.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I tried Super. Possibly I don’t have the right settings. In comparison to FlixPro8 output of the same AVI file, I find:
–Super has less sharp detail
–if the original is 4:3, Super makes a 16:9 frame with the 4:3 inside, and black vertical borders left and right
–no swf player. As a result, the viewer has no way to control the playing; the Flash starts playing as soon as the page opens. No way to pause it, go back, etc.Like I said, maybe there are settings I am missing.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Steve, does Super make SWF players for the FLV Flash files?
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com