dark lighting
 

i am having trouble lighting a shot i am trying to get. it is more typical in like a basement setting with one single light dangling that lights the scene with the viewer only being able to see for example the face of the person everything else around them being absolutely black. very specific and very directional on just a certain object. and this is also going to happen in a very small space. about 4ft wide, 10ft long, and only 4 1/2ft high. any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

You need a wharehouse. More space all around and no windows to the outside. A maintenance barn is perfect. Since your shot involves a very short list of props and practicals any large space will do. It's just hard to do in a small basement where you will get reflected light in the scene...

Bigger room would be nice, but if that's all you have to work with, depending on your camera angles you may try to darken your background with a black sheet, assuming that your over head light is not too bright . But 4ft x 10ft is really tight. and did you say that the ceiling is only 4 1/2 ft high? shooting midgets..lol

it is the inside of a extended cargo van. so i can kill anylight coming in and only use what will be needed to light the shot. am i only looking for one light on this kind of shot coming from above to get the look? should this light be bright or very dim for said look?


it is one thing when you get an idea in your head but a whole project to get it on tape.

almost forgot what kind of camera angle am i looking for. i can come from any side,front,below. just not above obviously.

Couldn't you do this in post with a mask set to multiply?

could you explain a little more. i am pretty good with editing but just haven't been around enough to realize all it's capabilities

speaking of which i was messing around with ae6.5 trying to get the same effect with a spot light but it just didn't seem as good. i think it would look alot better if i could get it done while shooting.

I'm still sort of green when it comes to masks myself, but...
This will be easiest, if the camera has little movement.

You export a still into Photoshop, which should be in everyones toolbox. You then create a new layer, and paint your mask over the area you want to keep, leaving the areas you want to darken. Export the layer into your NLE, over the clip. You then select the mask, and in the options, choose either darken, or multiply. This SHOULD darken everything EXCEPT what you wanted to keep.

Anybody have anything to add or correct?

yea that is good for a still the camera won't have any movement but the person will be moving there hands when the put on some glasses

Any movement within the frame wouldn't matter. It's the framing that I was referring to. The guy could do a cartwheel, and the effect would be the same. Everything outside of the mask would be dark.

However, if you are doing a pan, you would have to move the mask across the screen, to simulate the stationary location of the light source. Are you following me?

yup i follow you now. that is pretty much the same thing i was getting with ae6.5 but it looks alot better in ae using the spot light. actually lighting the shot would get me my best results i think.

Maybe, maybe not. There are limitations to what DV will handle well.

Excuse me guys, but, if Adam says, "the viewer only being able to see for example the face of the person everything else around them being absolutely black," then you should shoot it in a larger space, as Jimmy suggested in the first reply. Black is black. Why shoot in a confined space when the viewer can't see that its a confined space?

Or, you can buy large sheets of black foamcore at an art supply store, to create your black environment, if you want. You will probably see the black "walls" when you shoot it, but in post you can pull your black levels down till you end up with stark black. I assume the bulb will be in the shot and be the only source of illumination. In that case you may want to knock down the camera side of the bulb with some "Streaks and Tips," leaving the other side clean to light your subject.

Wayne Orr, SOC

well i would love to shoot it in a large place but the illusion i am going for is going to happen when the talent walks out of the van. he is prepping to find a victim to kill(something like silence of the lambs) and the creepy part about it is he is in the back of a van parked out front of your favorite store getting ready and finding a victim. i would hate to shoot in a large place then cut to inside the van where the lighting would be totally different and the audience would definately know i shot in two different locations.

could you elaborate a little more on this streaks and tips technique?

Barndoors drawn tight... or else snoot your light with aluminum foil. All you need to do is focus your light by having it really close to the subject (just out of frame) and snoot/flag.

If you get your subject several stops lighter then your background... the background should black out fine.

I've shot video to simulate an on-stage vocalist... in a small WHITE bedroom by putting a 300w fresnel on the singer... Obviously there was so much spill everywhere that the whole room was lit up... even with barndoors drawn... but the DIFFERENCE in exposure was so high that the background STILL went black when the cam iris was closed down to properly expose the singer.

"Streaks and Tips" was originally used as a fast hair color product that was picked up by gaffers and grips as a way to dull down shiney objects. S&T comes in different colors, but dark brown and black are most commonly used for our purposes. The product comes in a spray container, and you spritz it on whatever object is causing unwanted reflections. Or, in this case you would spray it on the camera side of a light bulb that is in the shot to knock down its output to the camera, while leaving the actor's side of the bulb clean so he gets the full output. You probably would use a 40-60 watt bulb in this case. Don't overdo the spray, just take it down so you don't have that sharp source in the lens. It can be wiped off.

You can find "Streaks and Tips" in most grip supply houses under "expendables." (Expendables are those items that tend to get used up in the course of a shoot, such as gaffer tape, lighting gels, diffusion, etc.)

Wayne

I hate to state the obvious, but spray it on BEFORE you turn the light on... Hot light plus S&T equals excellent special effect... just be sure the cam is running if you get that bulb HOT before trying to control it with S&T.

Thanks for adding the word of caution, Matt.

well believe it or not i blacked out the whole van with some black vinyl stuff i got from a fabric store about 50 bucks worth of the stuff. it worked out pretty well. only problem i had was on the last shot when he was walking out of the van you can obviously see the background but i tried to make it look like the interior was sapost to be black i even velcroed some to the doors inside so they were black. came out pretty well and got the effect i wanted. now my problem is when i was trying to get a little bit better color in post i turned up the brightness and contrast which has a great color to everything but makes the talents skin look like it has a orange tint to it. any suggestions?

Now you are working against the grain. Literally and figuratively. The whole idea of isolating your background to black at the lens by using professional lighting and perfectly placed practical lighting is so that the moire and grain don't appear in post. Now you're turning up the B/C in your NLE!
Yeeks!
You can further colour correct to shift a group of hues, colour pass etc., but this is getting destructive.
It's all about the movement of the cam and lighting, lighting, lighting.

yea i noticed it was getting grainy the light was good i was just being fussy trying to make it better. with a little adjustment it looked a little better with no grain.

Jimmy is absolutely correct, Adam; it's all about the light. You'll begin to understand this as you shoot more footage. But back to your problem.

"Brightness & Contrast" are the worst way to adjust footage. Just trust me on this, because it gets into a long tutorial on color correction and how you lose information by diddling with B&C. What you want to do is adjust "Levels." In FCP, there is a marvelous three way color corrector, and hopefully you have FCP of something similar. Here is how I would do it in FCP:

Open the clip in the viewer. In Tools, open the Waveform. Tear it off and drag it somewhere so you can see the viewer.

Go to Effects, Color Correction, Three-Way CC and apply to clip. Click "Visual" to open the three color wheel controls.
Go to the Waveform. Look at the black background. It should be at or very near zero. If not, go to the extreme left control in the Three-Way CC, which is the "Black" level control. Beneath the wheel is a line with a mid-point. Slowly move the line to the left to lower the black level until it reaches zero or close to it.

Next, look at the area outside the van. If you see a white object that is illuminated, it should be close to 100% on the waveform. If it is not illuminated, or there is no white area in the picture, just adjust the far right slider till the areas of the picture that should look bright, indeed look reasonably bright. Adjusting brightness may raise your Black levels, so you need to go back and forth with the tweaking.

Next, look at the subject's face. Does he look to be correct, exposure-wise? If not, adjust the slider on the Mid-tones, the one in the middle till he looks good. Again, you may have to adjust the other two.

When you have the overall exposure looking good, it's time to fiddle with the color. If only the face looks orange, then you will adjust the color wheel on the mid-tones. Drag the control in the center of the color wheel toward the blue color. Slowly. Till you get a good flesh tone. Done.

Wayne Orr, SOC

i was just messing around to get it a little better. my lighting wasn't awesome because i don't have the best equipment and i know i am not doing it the best way but i am doing the best with what i have. now onto your demonstration. i have premiere pro and i think they ahve something simillar to what you are describing i will have to look for it and give it a try.