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Filed under: Cameras •Lighting •Production •

Ooops, we did it again

SHOT 1: The Actress

We’d shot parts of our previous music video project at the pool in the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz, and that’s where we went back to for our first three setups. The first setup, the actress, took place next to the indoor pool and the bulk of the lighting came from opening up a roll-up door in the side of the building. Normally I prefer the shadows to fall toward the camera in any particular lighting setup but in this case that wasn’t possible without building a camera platform in the pool. The front light worked out well, and I was able to adjust the quality of the shadows by raising the rolling door up and down to make the “light source” bigger or smaller--which in turn made the shadows softer and lighter or harder and darker.

We really wanted to sell the pool in the background, and while cleaning the bottom of the pool we discovered that the ripples created by the pool sweep were perfect. I added an open-face 650w with full CTB to pop the ripples a bit. Originally I tried the light without CTB, and that made the pool an interesting greenish color when matched with the camera’s 5600k preset. I put the full CTB on the light when I realized that we were probably going to warm the shot in post--adding warmth to that color green would probably push it too far into bright green or yellow, so I made it more neutral by adding the gel.

I watch excitedly as Jono checks the shot

Read on if you like music…

(Page 2 of 6 pages for this article  <  1 2 3 4 >  Last »)

Absolutely!

Passive fill means you’re just adding a bounce card to catch and reflect light that’s already in the scene.

Active fill means you’re adding a bounce card AND a light that is specifically meant to bounce off that bounce card.

Posted by Art Adams  on  07/25  at  08:53 AM

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You beat me to it!  I couldn’t post as I wasn’t registered earlier!!!!

I don’t think Art is up that early 6:34am?!
I believe “active fill” is the bouncing of light from a fixture and “passive fill” is the bouncing of incident light.  It that right Art?  Glad to see you using that HVX-200 again!

Posted by  on  07/25  at  09:19 AM

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Thanks Art & stupper57. I suspected that using a dedicated fixture for the fill was the difference.

Posted by chucksav  on  07/25  at  01:15 PM

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Excellent work Art.

Just a brief question, what is that Reflectix Board you use? It looks like the space blanket material we use for camera covers glued to foam core or some other material. I used that space blanket material years ago on a 6x6 frame to light someone a block away from the reflector, hard but soft and brighter than shiney boards.

Posted by RC Fisher  on  07/29  at  01:41 PM

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Reflectix is water heater insulation, available at most hardware stores. In my neighborhood I get it at Orchard Supply, but you can find it most anywhere. It comes in rolls and you can buy it by the foot. I tape it to foam core to make it rigid. It’s a bit softer and more reflective than space blankets, but the same basic idea.

Posted by Art Adams  on  07/29  at  07:18 PM

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Canon is still one of the best lens makers around and there’s still plenty of time for them to put some of that glass in front of an HD CCD: boy would I love a 720P GL3!
vergeturi

Posted by  on  05/18  at  11:45 PM

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