How would you tackle this?

[Benjamin Jarvis]

Have a project I'm working on and we'd like to achieve this type of look with video. Evenly lit but a strong shadow on part of the scene from an object. Would you try and get an even light throughout the set and use a spot to focus on one subject?

 

[M Harvey]

Each object in the frame is actually casting a shadow-- it's just emphasized more in some places than others by the set design (shadow reads darker on blue than yellow, and there's only a small shadow from "flat" objects in background).

I'd say your key is high frame left and then you have a big soft frontal (near the camera) fill. (The difference between those light levels=the shadows you do see.) If you tried to use a spotty light (like a leko) for each object, it might be hard to get the shadows to look like they're all going in the same direction.

 

[Björn Benckert]

To get even shadows and a look like that You need a small strong light on a far distance. For film there is not many such light availabe...But there is one such light source which is the sun a cloud free day.

So if you shoot outside a sunny day and stop the hell down you will get such look.

 

[Christopher A. Bell]

I have a feeling those shadows were created in post.

 

[Matt W.]

I have a feeling those shadows were created in post.

Me too. The direction of the rays feels very inconsistent.

 

[Tom S]

I would paint the shadow on the ground or wall as desired, then light evenly. Put a strong unmodified light where you want it, trace the shadow and paint it in.

 

[Jamil Stubbs]

I personally thinks there maybe some green screening going on in them pictures....

 

[Andreas Gotfredsen]

as a commercial working with advertising I would do this using green screen / blue screen . I would shoot and light each object individually with the same light source direction . the scene shadows don't seem to come from one light source . for me I think what they have done is how I described it ... that way you get this uncanny shadow effect .. uncanny shadow ... if that did not exist before I introduce it as a new term to use ...

 

[Mark Wuerthner]

How do you plan to match the perspective? Off the top of my head I'm thinking that if you use the same exact size bed, on set you can move the camera in and out from the bed and actually measure the headboard of the bed against the width of the bed frame with a ruler on the monitor. Measuring your picture I get a measurement of 1 to 1.60 which means that you take the measurement of the headboard width on the monitor and times that 1.6 and that number should equal the width of the bed frame on the monitor. At that point you should have the same perspective of the photos. In regards to lighting I agree with the person above who said to use a single unit. I would think that a 5k in full flood far back and left and above of camera would give you the shadows you need. I would place a large soft source (6x or 8x) directly above and close to camera. That way any shadow that it cast tends to go directly behind the object and slightly downward and should be covered by the 5k.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

You can recreate this lighting effect with a single hard source way up high to camera left, maybe a 5K Skypan would do it, plus a very soft frontal fill. But the objects look so CGI-ish that perhaps only the people should be shot for real on a greenscreen stage and everything else added later.

 

[Benjamin Jarvis]

Wow - thanks for chiming in everyone. I really appreciate the input! I'll use these approaches and see what we can come up with.