Diffusion question

[omar robles]

Hello Redusers:

So my DP has gone M.I.A and unfortunately we did not finish the scene we were supposed to finish. And I would rather not go through the expense of reshooting the entire scene again. Unfortunately I dont remember what kind of diffusion he used to light with the kino flo. He told me at the time it was just some basic white fabric. I got a basic white fabric to test out and i did not get the results he did with the kino. I am enclosing a shot i intend to relight the same on the next shoot. Any idea what kind of diffusion material was used in this shot would be appreciated it. He lit it with a 4 by four bank kino flo with 5600 tubes.


Thanks

O.R

 

[Matt Ryan]

To be honest, if he used any it's a very light diffusion. The shadows are pretty harsh for diffused light (look at the eye shadows).

Have you tried using a white bed sheet? Basic white fabric doesn't really help cause theres multiple kinds of white fabric. It might be a bleached muslin.

 

[omar robles]

Yes I did try a white bed sheet. The image was as vibrant as the picture above. The AC on the shoot actually thinks it was bleached or unbleached muslin. But he isnt sure.

 

[Matt Ryan]

Yes I did try a white bed sheet. The image was as vibrant as the picture above. The AC on the shoot actually thinks it was bleached or unbleached muslin. But he isnt sure.

The thing is, did you expose the same, have the same camera settings, etc, as in this shot? If not it will never look the same. If the fabric was white then it's bleached, if it's off white to slightly brown/yellow then it is unbleached.

http://www.filmtools.com/8x8blmucat30.html
http://www.filmtools.com/8x8unmucat30.html

 

[omar robles]

Yes the settings were the same. We used the same AC from day one and he remembered the exact settings we used previously.

 

[Michael Notar]

Put some 1/4 or 1/2 white diffusion (251/261 off the top of my head), its pretty close. if the diffusion was on the light itself its not huge in quality, further away it is. i usually put tough rolux (super heavy) on my minos. isn't the point of a pickup to make it work/close enough that you never know...

 

[Matt Ryan]

Put some 1/4 or 1/2 white diffusion (251/261 off the top of my head), its pretty close. if the diffusion was on the light itself its not huge in quality, further away it is. i usually put tough rolux (super heavy) on my minos. isn't the point of a pickup to make it work/close enough that you never know...

haha that depends on what kind of "pickups" they are. If he will be shooting more coverage of a scene and not just close-ups or inserts, and actually shoots wides, etc, then it needs to match seamlessly. Otherwise it won't match and will look off.

The light appears to be pretty close to talent and not heavily diffused so probably a 1/4 on the fixture. You can see the hot spot on his head. Also if he's shooting wides and the contrast ratio doesn't match, things will get ugly unless you have a great colorist.

 

[Charlie Hohenshilt]

Did you ask your gaffer?

 

[Peter Strietmann]

This is a guess but it looks as though he used an egg crate to focus it.