Exterior lighting

[Jay Gladwell]

Here's a nice little article from digital producer magazine.com about lighting exterior shots you may finding informative and interesting.

http://www.digitalproducer.com/2003/...hting201p3.htm

[Stephen Schleicher]

Did you like it? Was it helpful?

[Jay Gladwell]

It was information I was already aware of (having taught film production). I just thought it might be helpful/informative to others in the forum. It was concise and well presented.

[Stephen Schleicher]

Cool :)

Thanks

[Bryan Beasleigh]

Stephen
It was great. not because you presented stuff people have heard many times but because you actually showed them the difference in stages.

Great approach.

Beas

[Brian Huey]

Nice work Stephen, I've seen bounce cards used before for still photography but never seen the differences presented alongside each other. Very helpful. Any do it yourself cheap gold reflector ideas? Do they have gold tinfoil?

BTW Didn't like the look of the net in the background, made the shot look like a greenscreen composite. Seemed like the background and subject were unatural together, is this just the still or does the same look persist with video and motion?

Thanks,
Huey

[Stephen Schleicher]

The problem with the image is one that can happen if you aren't paying attention :) I was trying to get this set up and torn down in about 15 minutes. Basically the reason the background net looks they way it does is because the angle of the sun is causing a reflection on the net. If I had made a slight adjustment to the net, the background would have been darker and you wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Funny thing is, the same thing happened over the weekend on one of the College Football games. They were doing one of those outdoor announcer shows and the background looked just like in my article. Sure enough when they cut to a side shot you could see the black net and the sun casting a reflection on it.

Here is another example with the net in action - this time on a cloudy day.

http://www.mindspring.com/~schleiche...ry/light15.jpg

Not the best example, but you can see the difference.

As for gold reflectors... I really think you would do yourself a service if you spent some money on e-bay and purchased some 5 in 1 reflectors. These come in a variety of sizes from 12" all the way up to 42+". These are pretty cheap, I got a 42" reflector the other day for $20.

Not only do you get the gold reflector, but you also get the white, silver and diffuse material. The only addition you might want to get after that would be an arm/support to clamp the item to a c-stand.

[Brian Huey]

Are your 5in1 reflectors pretty good quality? I was thinking it would cost me about $70 for a dual side photoflex one, but saw some ebay auctions for prices like you were saying, different brand though. Thanks for the info.

As for the net, do you adjust it so that it doesn't cast a shadow to prevent that bit of a reflection or just adjust it until you get what looks good?

Thanks for all the tips.

Cheers,
Huey

[Stephen Schleicher]

The three that I have purchased off E-bay are of great quality. No complaints so far. The most I have paid is $52 (including shipping) for a 42" 5 in 1.

As far as the black net goes, place it so it doesn't catch the suns reflection and make sure the subject doesn't cast a shadow on it.

[Charles Papert]

Another option if angling the net is not possible (in a backlit situation, for instance) is to flag it off with a solid, which would necessarily have to be of a similar size or at least cover the area as seen in the frame. This does start to get into some skilled gripping, particularly if you are talking about elevating an 8x8 or larger (in the case of backlit) so be careful and get someone who knows how to tie down frames properly.