Lighting Question

[Shane De Hoog]

Good evening to all of you,

I've got a question regarding a lighting setup - I'm very inexperienced and I want to practice it a bit / get some experience.

I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUZ1LFyEq1w and I was wondering how I have to recreate it.


Screenshot 1: http://i.imgur.com/pyXp26i.png

How will it work out if I would light this scene like this? http://i.imgur.com/5oCmC8Q.png
I'm not sure but I think I would need a lot more fill light?

 

[Larry Kelly]

It looks to me like the key is high and quite a bit farther cam left to me, almost at 90 degrees. The fill may be close but would need to be dimmed about 3 stops?

 

[Bob Gundu]

Lose the light on the right and replace with a reflector. The key light is high above and to the left as Larry said.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

check the reflection in the sunglasses...

 

[Bob Gundu]

check the reflection in the sunglasses...

My guess is that those 2 strip lights are primarily there to give some nice reflections in the sunglasses. They don't seem to be contributing too much except for a few tighter shots on the face that reveal some upward shadows from the glasses.

 

[Shane De Hoog]

Hey guys,

thanks for the input - I already figured those lights in the glasse were there to get some reflection - nothing much more.

I've now made this diagram: http://i.imgur.com/7XPYwrt.png

This should be good, I think. Do you agree?

 

[Louis Maddalena]

Definitely closer to what it will actually take... If you're really interested in learning to light, might I suggest grabbing a cheap lighting kit, camera and a subject and just play around with putting the lights in different spots and seeing what it does, and trying to create looks. Also try to recreate looks you see in TV, Film, etc using the lights you have, trying to light something with limited equipment actually helps you learn, so later when you have all the gear you'll feel like you can light anything.

Also, try to get a job on set and watch when they are setting up lighting.. You'll learn a lot that way as well, until you're ready to take the job yourself.

 

[Larry Kelly]

I don't think you need the two soft lights on either side of the camera, they will just flatten things out which is what you don't want in my opinion. The key and reflector looks spot on though.

Larry

 

[Shane De Hoog]

I wanted the lights on the sides of the camera for a cool reflection in the sunglasses - would it not work?

 

[António Fagundes]

This is just one light. Top diffused Light. If you use all those lights you suggested, see what happens and please come back and tell us what you've learned...

 

[Ulf Krentz]

Cannot see the vid because of the youtube license regulations here but as far as I can see from the screenshot: One from the top (medium size,probably with eggcrate/barndoors/flags), one from the left(medium size, not too soft), front fill light under the camera(smaller size rectangular) the ones for the background would work like you suggested, not too complicated, there is an overall vignette to the frame. It is definitly not only one light.

Cheers, Ulf

 

[Ulf Krentz]

I wanted the lights on the sides of the camera for a cool reflection in the sunglasses - would it not work?

The fill light should not be too big in size to achieve that "feeling" in the shadows, also the low frontal position is important. If you want a strong reflexion in the glasses your light source has to be bright, if it is also big it will spoil the overall look. HTH.

Cheers, Ulf