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flat lighting outside.

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

Shooting next weekend outside, but knowing seattle weather there will be heavy overcast.

Im worried about getting too flat looking shots (trying to improve my lighting setup).
my first thought was to use 200w tungsten lights with ctb gels and keep it close for tight frames and play around with that, but then i start worrying about rain, so maybe its not a great idea.

any suggestions on improving possibly boring flat looking dreadful amateur look? Would bounce boards be my best bet then?

unfortunately cant afford HMIs :(

ps. i ll be using 28mm 2.4 and 50mm 1.8 lenses with nd filters to get some depth of field, wonder if that might bump up the overral look.
 
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I highly recommend a real reflector. White foam core is good if you can't afford anything else, but I find they don't really reflect enough light to create more dramtic shadows. I use a 5-in-1 collapsible one (something like this one) that has different color covers to use, depending on the look you need. Under undercast skies, you'll likely get the best reflection from the silver side. This is all I used for my last outdoor shoot. Worked well.

Depending on how cloudy it is, I'm willing to bet a 200w lamp isn't going to do much. I used a 600w lamp with CTB on a relatively bright day and it was barely noticeable.
 
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thank you for advice!
i didnt think 200w light will do much as well, but worth asking :) I ve seen those 5 in 1 reflector sets in some camera store (kit camera, i think?) at the mall, though they could be handy.
will do some experimenting today after work.
 
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Oh, I haven't even thought about that! Just put some big piece foam above the actor, and maybe use reflector from the other side to break it up more. Or even use some cutouts above the actor, maybe?
thats a good idea, i ll see how that looks.
 
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All great suggestions if you can't use any lights.

Here's another thing you can do on the cheap. Take a large piece of cardboard and tape the shiny side of silver foil over it. Reflect away.
 
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Ernest Worthing said:
Here's another thing you can do on the cheap. Take a large piece of cardboard and tape the shiny side of silver foil over it. Reflect away.
Click to expand...

Heh, I had this same idea many years ago when I first started making films, forgetting for the moment that I lived in the PacNW. I was soon reminded when I arrived on location and the wind immediately started blowing across the foil, creating the most heinously annoying racket you ever did hear, picked up loud and clear by the microphone. Needless to say, my el-cheapo reflector quickly found its way to the nearest dumpster. :lol:
 
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BTW, I learned years ago that you can go to an auto parts store and pick up a pair of silver reflectors that are meant to be placed in your car windshield in order to help keep the interior cool. They're usually designed to be twisted so that they fit into a storage bag. They're basically identical to Flex-Fills (though rectangular instead of circular), except they cost about one-tenth as much.

FWIW
 
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2001 Productions said:
BTW, I learned years ago that you can go to an auto parts store and pick up a pair of silver reflectors that are meant to be placed in your car windshield in order to help keep the interior cool. They're usually designed to be twisted so that they fit into a storage bag. They're basically identical to Flex-Fills (though rectangular instead of circular), except they cost about one-tenth as much.

FWIW
Click to expand...

Yep, used them several times.
 
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My first reflector was white foam core with aluminum foil glued to it. Not sure if it was just the type of foil I was using or not, but the light reflected from it had a noticeably blue tint to it. It's fine in a pinch, but be prepared to fight with color-correcting it.

I use my collapsible reflector for every shoot (works great as a shoot-through soft light too), so it was well worth the purchase.

This is a still from my last film. Lit only with the single reflector bouncing ambient light in the shade of a porch. It was about 2.5 feet away from the actress.

barrier_test4.jpg
 
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2001 Productions said:
Heh, I had this same idea many years ago when I first started making films, forgetting for the moment that I lived in the PacNW. I was soon reminded when I arrived on location and the wind immediately started blowing across the foil, creating the most heinously annoying racket you ever did hear, picked up loud and clear by the microphone. Needless to say, my el-cheapo reflector quickly found its way to the nearest dumpster. :lol:
Click to expand...

:lol:

I used them quite a few times when i didnt have reflectors. The larger the thing, the more trouble you have with it but nothing as serious as ur thing happened. We just sometimes had a hard time holding it without it waving when there was a bit of wind.

But from having no reflectors to having that makes quite a bit of difference so if it's between using that and nothing else bc ur on a tight budget, use it.

Oh and the car sun protectors seem like another good idea. Never used them myself but sounds like it would be the same thing.
 
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If you do go lights, dont forget that CTB on tungsten cuts your output in half!

No joke about the PCNW.. Last weekend it was gloomy and I had to "reinforce" the sunlight KEY coming in the window so it could keep up with my 500W CTB softbox fill light.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
If you do go lights, dont forget that CTB on tungsten cuts your output in half!
Click to expand...

That's being generous. It actually cuts it by nearly two-thirds, which is why HMIs are such a blessing. A thousand watt tungsten fixture is cut to 360w equivalent with a full CTB. I personally wouldn't bother with anything less than that in a daylight exterior (unless it's gonna be six inches from the talent's face :D).
 
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