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How Do I Light This Massive Structure at Night? Need your help.

Patrick Wieland

Patrick Wieland

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So planning a night time shoot filming Wakeboarding. The shoot will take place at night on the side of a lake. I've never had good luck lighting stuff at night for wakeboarding as the water just absorbs all the light and doesn't reflect any light like snowboarding.

1o7hh0.png


Above is a picture of the size of the structure that I need to light. Power is readily available as well as generator.

My plan so far is 2 1200 Watt HMIs PARs blasting from 20-30yds away. Both behind the camera pointing light on each of their halves of the structure.

Would you recommend a better route? Is this going to be nearly enough?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
 
It would look a lot more sexy if you put the pars from either side so they side lit the frame from either side, but a 1.2Kw par from 20-30 yes away is pissing in the wind.
 
Yes get a couple 4k hmi's if you can
 
Are you over-cranking for this shoot? Because that will obviously increase your lighting needs. I really hate to say this, but if that's all the light you have you might want to look into some other camera options like the F55, C300, etc.

One obvious solution is to just shoot at dawn or dusk, but if that isn't an option why not build some lighting into the structure itself?
 

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Just a thought - with your current lighting setup, how exactly are the wakeboarders going to see the structure at night? Enough light for the camera would be my secondary concern here to safety of the riders.
 
It's pretty sketchy lighting on water. Anything goes wrong there could be lives lost, seriously. How far from shore is the structure? Balloon lights would be my first choice, but not sure your budget. I'd also blast some maxi brutes or hmi's from the shore to light "patches" on the water that I wanted to focus on. This shot would take a bit of light at night...

Redbull just strapped some led's the the wakeboards which would look cool with the structure lit as well.

I had a quick look through some night wakeboarding videos and the lighting is dim to none. You will definitely need a good amount of light.
 
Water does reflect light and it depends on the angle.


http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/critical_angle/

http://scienceprimer.com/reflection-refraction


If the water is not murky and very deep you can use this to put some light sources underwater and the light will bounce back and forth between the surface and bottom, giving you interesting effect around the platform.

Another vote for those pars more to the sides. More depth and edges.
Also, as seen on the example Matt posted fixing portable light source on the boards is a cool idea.

A7S might be good for static camera and slow pans, for action sports like these its rolling shutter might be a problem.
 
A lot of solutions are going to hinge on budget, Its at a cable park right? I imagine the feature is probably fairly far away from land.
My first thought is a couple of 4K HMIS, but then you have the issue of powering them etc.

Again budget dependant you could hire some floodlights the kinds they use for football games and roadworks etc. Depending on there power output you could keep them on land and get a nice even light - although I cant imagine this wouldn't be cheap.

A little trick we used to do when filming skating was to use car headlights - I have seen some X stars and other boats with some pretty intense lighting - is that an option? at least that way you could position the lights?
 
How about an LRX Moon Cube?
lrx_moon_box.JPG


lrx_moon_cube_inner.png


That's 4 20K HMI's inside, on the end of a crane all controlled from an app on your phone...

Or maybe the LRX Clam?

clam_light_toronto_skyline.png


inside the clam is . 32 - 1500 Watt FGT Bulbs that are fully dimmable..

But maybe you don't have a big enough budget?
 
We can place the lights as close as we want to the structure. Also power isn't an issue as there is readily power outlets and extension cords.
 
Light from the camera POV is certainly not very interesting. it would flatten the scene.

I see a cable based construction pulling the athlete along. Is there no way to connect something a few yards above the athlete on that "vertical" cable. Some LED battery driven units?

Besides that, wouldn't be some studio-strength/waterproof torches mounted on that "staircase" directly not much more effective?

(Perhaps to far fetched, the Lantern scene in the bond movie perhaps)
 
does it have to look like night? how much light can you actually throw up on the structure without ruining the shot (if its supposed to be dark?). I think safety is the primary concern, you can light it all sorts of ways but the light you will need for this is going to take a lot of juice/crane/ballon/something insane. dawn or dusk or different camera seems like a lot less of a hassle... plus how will the riders see it? cuz if its too dim they can crash, very bright and they are blinded...like when i have a light on my hot shoe in the club everyone just squints angrily at me, will it end up like that? i think safety takes precedent over the lighting choice and budget is the main issue with it
 
Rider safety isn't an issue... I've been working with these guys for over 5 years and this isn't the first night shoot we've done.

I was just trying to get some advice on high powered light options to make this easier. We are probably gonna settle with 4 1200k HMIs and go from there.
 
Consider putting lighting fixtures into the frame and close to the subject.
For instance, can you backlight with floating battery lights?


Can you improve the refective value of the athletes costumes, changing from black to grey for instance can be a deal winner.


Consider a line of lights along the oposite bank.


Mike Brennan
 
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