cinematography illuminated face in pitch black

[dlevanchuk]

I have a scene that I was trying to achiece last night, but could figure out how to do it properly.. need some advice
Its pretty much pitch black in the room, a persons face (half lit) appears from the dark. That's it. But it has to be pitch black around the face..

Now on my camera the only manual control that I have is ISO. (Yes, its a cheap miniDVD hitachi)...

I turned iso all the way down, and put one light (40w tungsten), but kept getting the half dark room on the background.. should I have black board on the otherr side of the light to minimize the reflection of light??

 

[chilipie]

Yep, you've got the right idea - flag off the light, preferably with something black, to stop it reflecting off the walls of the room. Shooting in a room with dark-coloured walls (or at least not white ones) will also make your job substantially easier.

 

[dlevanchuk]

Hm.... what if I ll the shot at night, outside (park for example), with a flashlight (and gel) where there is no street lights or something.. then create a room ambient sound, and dub over the video....
Would that work?

 

[dlevanchuk]

Hm.... what if I ll the shot at night, outside (park for example), with a flashlight (and gel) where there is no street lights or something.. then create a room ambient sound, and dub over the video....
Would that work?

 

[sina12345]

Yep, you've got the right idea - flag off the light, preferably with something black, to stop it reflecting off the walls of the room. Shooting in a room with dark-coloured walls (or at least not white ones) will also make your job substantially easier.

Hmm, I'm not sure what you mean exactly by flagging off a light, sorry I'm new to the whole scene, but I can't picture how this works. It's still confusing to me

 

[dlevanchuk]

Flagging the lights is having the control of the light. For example in my original question the light from the lamp bounces off the walls, illuminating an entire room. I need to put some kind of black material on the other side of the light, or wherever i want the light to be blocked off so the black sheet catches the light, and not so much bounces off the walls, and making the environment much darker..


i think lol.

PS i'm new to this scene as well! Good luck on learning.

 

[chilipie]

Hm.... what if I ll the shot at night, outside (park for example), with a flashlight (and gel) where there is no street lights or something.. then create a room ambient sound, and dub over the video....
Would that work?

It would probably work, but I think you're making things more difficult for yourself. Experiment with some black card and black velvet/duveteyne/thick cotton sheet, seeing how you can control and shape the light, directing it where you need it.

Hmm, I'm not sure what you mean exactly by flagging off a light, sorry I'm new to the whole scene, but I can't picture how this works. It's still confusing to me

According to Wikipedia's definition, a flag is "used in a shot to block light, provide negative fill, or avoid light flare". Basically, flagging a light is blocking part(s) of it so that it only reaches the areas you want it to. Find some black card, and have a go at flagging lights in your house, taking note of how the position and distance of the flag affect the light in a shot, and what different moods and feels you can create. Hope that was at least vaguely useful

 

[sina12345]

It would probably work, but I think you're making things more difficult for yourself. Experiment with some black card and black velvet/duveteyne/thick cotton sheet, seeing how you can control and shape the light, directing it where you need it.

According to Wikipedia's definition, a flag is "used in a shot to block light, provide negative fill, or avoid light flare". Basically, flagging a light is blocking part(s) of it so that it only reaches the areas you want it to. Find some black card, and have a go at flagging lights in your house, taking note of how the position and distance of the flag affect the light in a shot, and what different moods and feels you can create. Hope that was at least vaguely useful

Ah, so those flap things are called flags. Ok so I understand that flags help control the direction and other variables of a light, and also reduce lens flare, if that is the case, what does a camera matte do? I noticed they look very similar.

 

[chilipie]

Ah, so those flap things are called flags. Ok so I understand that flags help control the direction and other variables of a light, and also reduce lens flare, if that is the case, what does a camera matte do? I noticed they look very similar.

The black flaps on the light head itself are called barndoors. A camera matte box is used to hold filters and reduce the chance of lens flare - they are often used with a "French Flag" to stop flare even further, but sometimes they're simply not the right size or shape to block the light, so a flag might be put on a C-stand by the camera, or a grip will walk alongside it holding (or "hollywooding") a flag between the flare source and the lens.

 

[sina12345]

The black flaps on the light head itself are called barndoors. A camera matte box is used to hold filters and reduce the chance of lens flare - they are often used with a "French Flag" to stop flare even further, but sometimes they're simply not the right size or shape to block the light, so a flag might be put on a C-stand by the camera, or a grip will walk alongside it holding (or "hollywooding") a flag between the flare source and the lens.

Ah I see what you mean, it's a lot of stuff to digest. I think 4 months ago I didn't know the difference between a lens and a pack of batteries, but I'm trying to keep up.

 

[knightly]

The goal speficially is to overlight the face compared to the background... I did a shoot not too long ago where the goal was to have the actors in a void. We shot on a theatre stage with the surround curtain down, so we were in complete blackness.

We spent most of our lighting time making sure none of the light got onto the background. Flags (In this case, black pieces of foamcore on stands), barndoors, black foil on the lights to pick up little bits of light that wouldn't cooperate with the barndoors.

You can get the same effect in another environment by simply lighting the subject with enough light to cause you to close down the iris so the background goes black... again, no light can go anywhere other than the subject.

 

[knightly]

The goal speficially is to overlight the face compared to the background... I did a shoot not too long ago where the goal was to have the actors in a void. We shot on a theatre stage with the surround curtain down, so we were in complete blackness.

We spent most of our lighting time making sure none of the light got onto the background. Flags (In this case, black pieces of foamcore on stands), barndoors, black foil on the lights to pick up little bits of light that wouldn't cooperate with the barndoors.

You can get the same effect in another environment by simply lighting the subject with enough light to cause you to close down the iris so the background goes black... again, no light can go anywhere other than the subject.

 

[wheatgrinder]

Ah I see what you mean, it's a lot of stuff to digest. I think 4 months ago I didn't know the difference between a lens and a pack of batteries, but I'm trying to keep up.

I like that ! Keep it up!