- Single person:
- Basic three-point lighting:
- MediaCollege
- Interactive (Flash-based) “experimenter”: http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/simulator.html
- MediaCollege
- Advanced “Interviewer in Teleprompter” Method for Talk-To-Lens:
- Basic three-point lighting:
- Two-people interview:
- Overall Impressions:
- No single method – various schools of thought.
- Basic idea is crossed-beams from soft-lights, possibly augmented by reflectors on the far (non-camera) side and/or back-lights, possibly supplemented by a wall-projection light, maybe with a colouful gel and patterned/textured gobo.
- However, camera placement varies – can single or multi, and the Over-Shoulder cams can each be placed to the right, underneath or behind its neighbouring soft-light unit.
- Tutorials:
- Tutorial (written & illustrated) by Mike Cohen of cine-med.com: http://library.creativecow.net/cohen_mike/Shooting-Interviews/1
- Great simple setup with plan-view: http://film-lighting.wonderhowto.com/how-to/set-up-video-interview-lighting-for-multiple-cameras-292686/
- Video Tutorial (by “Shirtless Apprentice”) featuring use of “Cutters” (light-beam blicking flags) to avoid opposing key-lights (soft) from impacting on cameras.
- Overall Impressions:
- Romantic (low-light) restaurant meal: http://film-lighting.wonderhowto.com/how-to/create-effective-candle-lit-scene-your-movie-416140/
- Basically a 500W 1-metre soft-box to one side of camera, augmented by rear/side (out-of-shot) 65W flourescent to provide blue (implying night-time) hair highlights on female principal (facing camera) and also a rear floor-mounted 100W light to lift just the back-wall of restaurant.
- Further Links
- http://tag.wonderhowto.com/diy-video-lighting/
- Wonderful assortment of video tutorials
- http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/lightingdesignpros
- http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/photon-management/123358-low-cost-yet-effective-lighting-arrangement.html
- Generic advice (from 2008) on inexpensive basic lighting kit.
- http://tag.wonderhowto.com/diy-video-lighting/
Archive for the ‘lighting’ Category
Lighting Arrangment Tutorials
Thursday, June 21st, 2012Training: Den Lennie’s “Music Video” Experience
Thursday, October 27th, 2011I attended, working on one of the camera units. Had a great time, learnt lots, at all sorts of levels. Even how to make good use of the Movie Slate application on my iPhone! Link: http://www.fstopacademy.com/
iPhone 4: LightMeter (app) & Theory
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011iPhone app: “Light Meter”:
- Uses iPhone-4’s cameras (front or rear), displaying image with overlays reporting framerate (can specify fixed e.g. 1/60), f-stop, ISO.
- Usage with my Sony XDCAM EX3 video camera:
- In settings, I set Stops to Halves, as that’s what the camera uses.
- I typically use an EX3 with a Tiffen T1 IR-blocking filter. What’s the ISO for this arrangement?
- I’m unsure in this area, but here’s my stab at it anyway, possibly flawed:
- EX3 ISO varies with mode, but 400 ISO is a reasonable estimate.
- CreativeCow post says: ISO 400 in 1080p modes, ISO 500 in 720p modes, ISO 800 in 1080i modes
- Filter loss is 1/2 stop (http://www.tiffen.com/userimages/T1_IR_Charts_SS.pdf)
- I think that implies corresponding equivalent ISOs of 1080p:320, 720p:400, 1080i:640 (based on data from http://c710720.r20.cf2.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ISO-Shutter-Speeds-Fstops-Copyright-2009-2011-photographyuncapped.gif)
- What do the EX3’s ND filters do to the ISO?
- EX3 has ND1=1/8, ND2=1/64
- (From EX3 user manual, page 50)
- I think ISO is linear, so if Camera is 320 ISO, they imply equivalent ISOs by simple division:
- 1080p: Clear=>320, ND1=>40, ND2=>4.5
- 720p: Clear=>400, ND1=>50, ND2=>6.25
- 1080i: Clear=>640, ND1=>80, ND2=>10
- Alternatively, for ND1 filter you can leave the app’s ISO setting as Clear (no filter) and instead adjust the app’s Correction Factor to -3 EV (though it’s maybe better reserved for simulating lighting variations e.g. due to weather, as in the Exposure Value Table further below).
- I guess from this one off case that EV is logarithmic, since 2^-3=1/8 as per ND1.
- That guess was later confirmed by further web research (further below), stating that EV is an “additive system”, i.e. operates in the logarithmic domain, base 2.
- Caution: being an ISO/EV newbie, I can only hope this is is all correct!
- Nevertheless, when I tried my naive settings they worked just fine – I was successfully able to use the iPhone Light Meter to obtain a sensible camera configuration for good exposure level and (given the ND filters) the kind of shot I want (e.g. degree of DOF). When tested on the camera, they all worked out as expected. Cool!
- EX3 has ND1=1/8, ND2=1/64
- The Light Meter app optionally displays EV400, EV100, Lux, FootCandle. Latter units are explained in great detail at at [johnlind…] link below.
- The app can also “log” readings – in the form of jpg images of the screen and overlays including geographical location – to a DropBox account. For example, when I clicked the [Log] button, a jpf file appeared on my MacBook in the folder [ /Users/davidesp/Dropbox/Photos/Pocket Light Meter].
Exposure Values & Exposure Theory:
- http://johnlind.tripod.com/science/scienceexposure.html
- <<The full name for Exposure Value, or EV, is the Additive Photographic Exposure System. Exposure Value has two equivalent definitions. The first defines how much light will be admitted to the film by the combination of lens aperture and shutter speed. The second defines how much exposure is required by the combination of subject luminance (e.g., how bright it is) and film speed. Setting a combination of aperture and shutter speed on a camera with an EV that equals the EV for the subject luminance and film speed should result in a properly exposed photograph>>
- (The article continues at length. For example the “Additive” element reflects the fact that this system operates in the logarithmic domain. The article also distinguishes luminance from illumination, explains units such as point-source intensity in candelas, flux in lumens, light illuminating a surface in foot-candles, light radiated from an area in foot-Lamberts, luminence in candelas per area (square foot or square metre)
- An EV (Exposure Value) table is presented. I guess (?) this is useful for the iPhone app, where EV can be shifted up/down by a control, to estimate what would be needed should the lighting conditions vary:
- -1 EV: light sand or snow
- 0 EV: bright or strong hazy sun (distinct, sharp shadows)
- +1 EV: weak hazy sun (soft shadows; distinct sun outline in clouds)
- +2 EV: cloudy bright (no shadows; sun creates bright area in clouds)
- +3 EV: heavy overcast, but not “black” (no shadows; sun location cannot be determined)
- +3 EV: open shade (in shadow but 60% sky not obscured)
- +4 EV: deep shade (in shadow with obscured sky; under forest canopy)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value
- Exposure value is a base-2 logarithmic scale
- (This article has a more comprehensive table of EVs and weather conditions etc. than the above)
f-numbers
Sony XDCAM-EX3: ISO Rating(s)?
Monday, September 26th, 2011ISO is about sensitivity. Useful to know when using a lightmeter – e.g. the iPhone’s “Light Meter” app, where if you enter ISO it tells you the required aperture f-stop. For the EX3 the ISO depends on several factors, such as Gain, Gamma, Recording Mode (definition and interlaced/progressive). But a reasonable rough conservative working figure is 400. More specifically:
- 400 for 1080p
- 500 for 720p
- 800 for 1080i
- (some say this surprising result derives from the interlaced lines each being derived from the sum of a pair of neighbouring lines)
Links:
- www.dvxuser.com/V6/archive/index.php/t-217123.html
- Gives the above ISO figures for the different recording modes.
- I verified that at least the relative order was correct, based on %IRE in the on-camera LCD monitor.
- Gives the above ISO figures for the different recording modes.
Mood-Lighting of a Head: Examples
Saturday, January 8th, 2011Shutter Speeds – progressive (24p,25p,50p) and interlaced (50i)
Friday, December 17th, 2010On an EX3, what’s best for indoor shots of lectures etc?
- Normally film runs at 24fps, with a 180° shutter – which is 1/48th second.
- Hence for 25 fps, ideally use 1/50 second, or nearest available match to this.
- Uncertainty: For 50i, each field is at 25fps, so presumably still use 1/50 second ? Depends on how camera works?
- For a shot of someone talking, it would be hard to see the difference between a 1/48th shutter time and a 1/60th shutter time.
- To avoid (conventional) light flicker, frame rate should divide by integer into twice the power frequency.
- EX3 has no 1/50 shutter speed, at least when specified by Time – nearest equivalent is 1/60. This may risk some degree of light-flickering in 50Hz mains countries.
- For 1080i50
- Initially, used “No Shutter”, to maximize exposure with least Gain. But gave noticeable motion-blur.
- For 50p or 25p
- 1/50 or nearest equivalent (on EX3 is 1/60)
- For 50i, opinions vary:
- UseEX3’s nearest equivalent time-based shutter time of 1/60
- Use 180 degrees (assumes this angle relates to frames-per-second, namely 25fps for each frame – but is this valid when interlaced)
- Use No-Shutter (assumes 50i shoots each field alternately, at 50fps, hence no-shutter is inherently 1/50 – but is that assumption true?)