Interviews in a white room.

[Tony Ditata]

Hello all. I have a shoot this week in an extremely bare white room. No window to play off and no set design. The production wants a simple look but any suggestions on how I can make it a little more dynamic? I have a few ideas but just wondering what some of your thoughts might be.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Perhaps some Gobo lighting.

http://neiloseman.com/?p=6680

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Assuming that the client is not going for interviews against a clean white background (which is an intentional style sometimes), I would do anything to change up that white backdrop. Use creative lighting, production design(create your own if you have to). Just whatever you do, break up that white wall syndrome. Make sure to get talent off the walls, create some depth. You can turn those white walls into a work of art. Make sure you have enough lights, enough modifiers, some gels, and perhaps some production design elements you can use to your advantage.

Another option is to use a backdrop but I'd probably lean towards creating your own look.

 

[Stacey Spears]

Tony, take a look at some of the Apple launch event videos where they have a complete white backdrop. I think they look good. Another option lighting with a pattern to fill the back wall.

 

[Tony Ditata]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I am thinking I may try to get some subtle gradient to the background. Keep it clean but not completely white.

 

[jussi rovanpera]

Also adding a lot of negative fill just outside the framed area will add contrast to the subjects. Common problem in white spaces is too much fill.

 

[Mark K.]

Or just black out the room and start from scratch, then you can project colour or a gradient onto your background with light and create the sort of mood/tone you're going for.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

One simple thing you could do is play with color temperature. Light the background with 5600K sources (or gels) and light the subject with 3200K tungsten. Set the camera to 3200K and now you have color separation and depth. Another thing to try would be using Source 4 Lekos to create patterns on the background. As already mentioned you could try gobos, but I would use the framing shutters and wide lenses to create a row of vertical slits of hot light, as if they were windows on the back wall. Since it will be out of focus, it could sell. You could do the same thing with bare single Kino tubes, Christmas tree lights, or string lights.

The best thing to do would be to rent a textured photography backdrop in a darker color, then combine with the other techniques. Use fast f/2 or f/1.4 lenses wide open to make the background focus fall off quicker.

One last thing - by lighting the subject to a higher stop than the background and ND'ing down you can make the background appear grey rather than white, which would help your subject pop more.