Various lighting questions & answers from 2004

[Rhett Allen]

If you have more than one shot or scene, film it backwards (time wise). The sun will be getting higher in the sky and if you shoot it chronologically the shadows will give you away.

[Alfred Okocha]

I'm doing my first 3-cam interview shot tomorrow.. Weather.com just told me it's gonna be sunny and CLOUDY (with capital letters..). One of the guys is black and the other white.
I don't want to interrupt them all the time since the whole idea of the program is to have some kind of flow in their converstaion.
How can I reduce the damage? We'll start early in the morning and I'll use some reflectors to bounce some fill. But my guess is that when the sun clouds up the faces will go black.. With three diferent camera men adjusting, the light will be all over the place for a while.. (post difficulties..)

any tips? Thanks.

[Matthew Overstreet]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not. But--when you light indoors using a 3200K light source, I'd imagine that the light coming from windows would appear blue. In this case, would it be better to filter the light, or would it be better to use some sort of filter over the windows?

Also, I notice that, in lower budget movies in particular--windows tend to be overexposed, you can't see out them. In higher budget films, this usually doesn't happen. How would you go about correcting this? Again, would you use some sort of filter over the window, to lower the amount of light coming in? Or, would it be better to raise the light level inside to match the amount of light coming in from the window. If so, how much light would this require--and would it be plausible?

Thank you.

Matthew Overstreet

[Rhett Allen]

You can do either the window or the lights. Using color correcting gels over the lights might be more practical as you can reuse the gels more easily than the film on the window. However, if it's really bright outside and you don't have a bunch of lights, you may want to buy some film for the window to filter the color and knock a few stops off the light at the same time.
How much light it takes to even out the scene inside and outside depends on how bright it is and how far the talent is from the window. You can always try to shape the natural light to light your scene but it can take quite a bit of umph to match a sunny day. Lower budget films either don't have enough light on set, wanted the effect (for whatever reason) or didn't know the difference. Bigger budget films buy (or rent) the right lights and filters and have plenty of professional lighting guys around to make the call.

[Alex Harding]

hi there
getting into film making as part of my degree, have borrowed an xl1 and 3 300w sachtler lamps. im ok with cameras but i know squat about lighting. what sort of things do i need to put the lamps to best use, bearing in mind money is sparse?
can anyone recomend a book or resource to help get me started?
sorry about pathetic newbie questions
thanks,
alex

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Alex,
There are many useful books on lighting. Search through our Read About It section for several tips. John Jackman's book is popular and is not bad for an inexpensive summary.

DV Creators has some pretty good instructional DVD's on the subject, too. They're a good value for getting started.

Bill Holshevnikoff has a very good FREE brochure on his Power of Lighting site. He produced the material for Arri, which includes a copy with many of their lighting kits.

But, in the end, experimentation and keen observation will be your best tutors. You already have some lighting instruments so you're well positioned for some "lessons".