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Table top lighting suggestions needed

Samir Patel

Samir Patel

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Okay. I wanted to put together a bad ass lighting kit for all scenarios as I like shooting photography, video, all sorts of stuff. But watching some content recently like Chef's Table and the closeups of the culinary dishes it reminded me that I do have a soft spot for product photography. So I wanted to field some suggestions on some good lighting for filming products on a table top so to say. Not looking for flashes (I have those for photography). But looking for continuous lights which give pleasing light for basically shooting table top style stuff. Any suggestions? Thanks all.

P.S. I guess I should also mention I would like something I can use for shooting slow motion 96-120 fps when needed.
 
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Paging Glen Powell...Glen Powell, please report...

Seriously though, Glen does table top stuff quite often and it always looks really mint. Just incredibly robust/solid (I think he uses Kinos mostly.)
 
kino celebs are great because they give you a strong soft source but dont get hot, so you can get them pretty close without melting food and ice. that's what i have been using the past couple of years mostly.
 
I think these new bi-colour flexible LED lights are a really interesting option for lighting table top scenes. So light, that they're going to be REALLY easy to rig overhead, and being flexible, they're going to be much easier to control to volume of light hitting the top of the table versus how much is hitting character's faces.
 
Mike is right. Talk to Glen Powell. As an example....


https://vimeo.com/81808482

He has a BTS shot of this setup that he sent me and I have somewhere. When I find it I will post. He used some Dedolights on most of it.
 
Thanks Mike P

I use a ragtag bunch of gear that's well past its prime...
a bunch of Kino heads and tubes, 4x4', 4x2', 2x2', and microflo kit
a 3 light Dedo kit with dichroics
a bunch of redheads lamped as 1K with dichroics
a blonde or two
assorted small HMI heads
and a whole whack of frames with diffusion, lots of bounce card, foamcore, mirrorboard.

Doesn't need to be fancy to work.
 
Hi Samir

If you get into the macro table top world at 120fps don't underestimate the stop you may need... Now of course it is possible to get lights in closer but I see CU work all the time that could do with a bit more stop... You may not be doing commercial style work (and my experience is then less relevant) but Brands frequently want their product to look super heroic ....and macro shallow (don't really see anything shallow) can be very very pretty but not always appropriate. Also the size cues you get of shallow point to small..

Maybe post examples of what you love?

I was testing different borescopes the other day for some upincoming work and lined up a table top test shot where despite running a 9k + 4k HMI (and a few Cineo HSs) I felt I was a little shy on stop. If I had wanted to be at 100fps it would have been a serious rejig..

you can see the shot here if curious..

https://instagram.com/p/8256mlsci0/?taken-by=16ozstudio

if you looks along in the instagram feed you csn see a BTS setup pic and how close the lights where...

From a general table top pov I would seriously look at what is implied in Glens list but as a min...

2 classic fresnel like fixtures (one as punchy as you can afford).. flicker free is important so HS ballests are needed if HMI's are employed
An easy to use soft light like the cineo HS with softbox (or from kino/Arri etc)
1 or 2 8ft Kinos as a fast way of creating certain types of reflections (there are lots of other ways to do this but the shape of your light as a reflections is very important)
some very small in your hand type lights that you can throw around the table.. (I like these at the min... http://www.cineolighting.com/matchstix/)
you def also need lots of bits of grip and textiles etc...

Good luck ....and posting what you love will help with lighting suggestions..

Michael L





Samir Patel said:
Okay. I wanted to put together a bad ass lighting kit for all scenarios as I like shooting photography, video, all sorts of stuff. But watching some content recently like Chef's Table and the closeups of the culinary dishes it reminded me that I do have a soft spot for product photography. So I wanted to field some suggestions on some good lighting for filming products on a table top so to say. Not looking for flashes (I have those for photography). But looking for continuous lights which give pleasing light for basically shooting table top style stuff. Any suggestions? Thanks all.

P.S. I guess I should also mention I would like something I can use for shooting slow motion 96-120 fps when needed.
Click to expand...
 
Michael Lindsay said:
From a general table top pov I would seriously look at what is implied in Glens list but as a min...



Michael L
Click to expand...

Definitely - I think my point was more along the lines of; you don't need to spend 35 or 40K in order to shoot some basic tabletop setups.

You may also notice the line in my signature...
 
I think Michael Lindsay touched on this, but in my tabletop work lately I've been using BIG tungsten units almost exclusively.

Some 2K open faces won't flicker over 100fps, but I don't usually trust them. Only 5K, 10k, 12k, 20K tungsten are reliably flicker free.
For macro, borescope, periscope + highspeed, just jump right to 20Ks.

Here is a quick breakdown of a tabletop high speed shoot.
highspeedtabletop-02.jpg

http://www.cinematographydb.com/2015/06/high-speed-tabletop-lighting-breakdown/

Also if you want to some learning on the best damn Borescope/Periscope in the game:
http://www.cinematographydb.com/database/lenses/optex-excellence-periscope-probe-system/

Cheers,

Matt
 
Hi Matt

Thank you so much for the compliment... ... actually you amaze me with your skill with a lot of the new tools. Some of my DP mates struggle with an iPhone;-)

Re 16ozstudio ... Yes it is but unlike you I am in the dark ages... When I started it was the last good days of word of mouth and I keep earning so subsequently have zero marketing. I really need to update my apporach.. (especially while I am not desperate and work is still coming in ;-) I have a website that will go up in the next month or so explaining what we actually do and I am tentatively trying to get my head around instagram as a way of exposing/shareing... not pushing it yet (actually haven't shared with most of my friends yet) as I am not 100% about our approach.

I am preping some really informative BTS images/Clips from some projects I just finished that I hope will be usefull to this film making comunity. If they are actually of interest to people great but if not I may have to rethink approach... look our for them in a week or so.

thanks again

Michael L

PS I am dislexic so twitter was a no no for me.


Matt Workman said:
@Michael Lindsay Is 16oz your company? I follow you guys on Instagram, great work!
Click to expand...
 
Also consider the LitePanel made by LiteGear if you're looking at LED panels; I have been using their stuff lately and I've become obsessed. Super clean light, incredible color, high output.
 
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