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Getting this on broad daylight

Joe Cage

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Hello,

A client wants to shoot at noon a silhouette shot at the location below, there are 360° windows. And he want to shoot a silhouette shot like this.
I figure I can set up an HMI to create a heavy backlight, blow some smoke up between the talent and the HMI, lower the exposure in camera and put a negative fill behind the camera. Any other idea's or tips?

Thanks

location
27xntj7.jpg


silhouette
29b0ugm.jpg
 
Last edited:
I just filmed in a similar location and had a similar idea of doing a silhouette. The problem we had was that all the floors and walls were white so they reflected a lot of the light coming in. We opted not to do the silhouette as it didn't work as well as we wanted. A night time shoot with HMI coming from just one direction might be a good idea? Or black muslin on the floors (would need a lot...).
 
Yeah client only wants to shoot at noon, otherwise it would def be simple to shoot at night.
 
I believe the heavy backlight and the negative fill can help. The other problem, though, is that you want your subject silhouetted against a brighter environment-- and if you lower your exposure in camera, the environment goes down with the subject. (Though that's true to some degree of your sample silhouette image, too-- relatively dark environment.)

Assuming you don't have enough light to boost exposure on the environment as a whole, you could consider using another HMI to selectively highlight background elements, so that they are above exposure of your subject. Pools of light falling behind your subject can also help-- they can give some layers to your background and help your subject pop out as a silhouette.
 
You could build a 20x20 box of duveyteen with a roof and leave one side open, pull down the exposure on the ambient and add some backlight. It's a little involved but that would be one way to get close to the look you're describing.
 
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