I wanna light outside at night and I want it to look great, with a blue-ish or green-ish tone to it. On a low-budget (and preferably with simple items). How do I do this?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Lighting at night.
- Thread starter Sweeney Jet
- Start date
Were you guys ever taught the production triangle? Good, Fast, Cheap. You can only have two. If you want it good and fast you have to throw a lot of money at it. If you want it fast and cheap then it isn't going to be good. If you want it good and cheap (Which sounds like what you guys want) you are going to have to spend a lot of time working out the solution. This means lots and lots of pre-production and test shoots. Grab what you have and go out and shoot a test shot. If it isn't the desired effect study the shot and pick out what made it not work. Then try the same thing again with modifications. This is going to be a long process to get the lighting perfect.
As far as what I can tell you, without knowing anything about the shot, this is what I can tell you. Moonlight is pretty harsh so make sure you take that into account. Moonlight is also a huge source light, so try to keep the shots as tight as you can or make sure you have a big source. You can always consider shooting day for night but again do some test shoots. There are certain conditions that you need for night shooting. If your out in woods and there is no electricity then you are going to need some kind of generator. Consider practicals that might give your light some kind of motivation (Headlights, streetlights?) Good luck, lighting outside at night is a difficult task without the proper equipment.
As far as what I can tell you, without knowing anything about the shot, this is what I can tell you. Moonlight is pretty harsh so make sure you take that into account. Moonlight is also a huge source light, so try to keep the shots as tight as you can or make sure you have a big source. You can always consider shooting day for night but again do some test shoots. There are certain conditions that you need for night shooting. If your out in woods and there is no electricity then you are going to need some kind of generator. Consider practicals that might give your light some kind of motivation (Headlights, streetlights?) Good luck, lighting outside at night is a difficult task without the proper equipment.
"Were you guys ever taught the production triangle? Good, Fast, Cheap. "
Good one Brooksy.
I always phrase roughly the same thing as the time = money equation. A shortage of time can be made up for with money. A shortage of money can be made up for with time.
Good one Brooksy.
I always phrase roughly the same thing as the time = money equation. A shortage of time can be made up for with money. A shortage of money can be made up for with time.
To begin with, don't worry about the blue/green tone during the shoot. You can grade the shots in post. If you try to color your lights on location, the blue or green gels will cut your light intensity by 60 percent or more.
Beyond that, you need to explain exactly what you intend to see in the frame before any more specific answers can be provided.
You can also solve the blue tint issue by using daylight balanced lights and nudging your camera wb slightly towards the tungsten range to emphasize the blue from the lights. Bear in mind that this shifts color response and can sometimes do funny things with skin tone, but not always.
Thing is though, that most outdoor artificial light is that funky sodium vapor almost-amber-but-not-really-because-of-the-narrow-band-that-the-light-emits color, so if you are going for naturalism you may want to take that into account.
Are you looking for an overall color tone (blue-greenish) or are you trying to pool colors in different parts of the scene? I'd be more inclined to do this sort of stuff in camera, but if you just want an overall color tone, then not a big deal to do in post. Color pools are a little different.
Wait, just re-read the question. If you just want an overall blueish tone and can't run big enough lights that you can gel them, then I'd shoot a test under HMIs with a white balance south of standard daylight balance on the camera and see if the result works for what you want. For example, in college I did a night-for-night shoot in 16mm on Kodak 7279 (500 ASA, Tungsten balance). I used tungsten sources to boost the artificial light of the location (more of those sodium vapor things) and the occasional HMI without gel to give the effect of moonlight as fill, or where there was no artificial light from the building security lights. I have no idea if this approach works well in video, but it works great on film.
Come to think of it, I may have placed a straw (or similar) gel on the tungstens just to boost the color a bit more towards the sodium vapor lights. Also granting that I had access to a good range of lights through school and rental house discounts. Pretty sure we had a full complement of 1Ks a couple of 650s and a 300 or two as accents.
Really need a lot more info to give either the OP or the 2P any additional and/or specific information how to get there:
What sort of scene is it? Emotional content? What do you want the lighting to evoke in the viewer?
What is your location? What are your shots? How many actors in scene? What is the blocking? (Do they walk down a sidewalk and under alternating moonlight/streetlight/moonlight/etc pools as they go along?)
How about your access to gear? What do you have to work with, what resources are available to you on your budget? Are the other parts of your shoot that where you are overspending and can shift that coin to make the night shot work?
And so on.
Thing is though, that most outdoor artificial light is that funky sodium vapor almost-amber-but-not-really-because-of-the-narrow-band-that-the-light-emits color, so if you are going for naturalism you may want to take that into account.
Are you looking for an overall color tone (blue-greenish) or are you trying to pool colors in different parts of the scene? I'd be more inclined to do this sort of stuff in camera, but if you just want an overall color tone, then not a big deal to do in post. Color pools are a little different.
Wait, just re-read the question. If you just want an overall blueish tone and can't run big enough lights that you can gel them, then I'd shoot a test under HMIs with a white balance south of standard daylight balance on the camera and see if the result works for what you want. For example, in college I did a night-for-night shoot in 16mm on Kodak 7279 (500 ASA, Tungsten balance). I used tungsten sources to boost the artificial light of the location (more of those sodium vapor things) and the occasional HMI without gel to give the effect of moonlight as fill, or where there was no artificial light from the building security lights. I have no idea if this approach works well in video, but it works great on film.
Come to think of it, I may have placed a straw (or similar) gel on the tungstens just to boost the color a bit more towards the sodium vapor lights. Also granting that I had access to a good range of lights through school and rental house discounts. Pretty sure we had a full complement of 1Ks a couple of 650s and a 300 or two as accents.Really need a lot more info to give either the OP or the 2P any additional and/or specific information how to get there:
What sort of scene is it? Emotional content? What do you want the lighting to evoke in the viewer?
What is your location? What are your shots? How many actors in scene? What is the blocking? (Do they walk down a sidewalk and under alternating moonlight/streetlight/moonlight/etc pools as they go along?)
How about your access to gear? What do you have to work with, what resources are available to you on your budget? Are the other parts of your shoot that where you are overspending and can shift that coin to make the night shot work?
And so on.
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You can also solve the blue tint issue by using daylight balanced lights and nudging your camera wb slightly towards the tungsten range to emphasize the blue from the lights. Bear in mind that this shifts color response and can sometimes do funny things with skin tone, but not always.
Thing is though, that most outdoor artificial light is that funky sodium vapor almost-amber-but-not-really-because-of-the-narrow-band-that-the-light-emits color, so if you are going for naturalism you may want to take that into account.
Are you looking for an overall color tone (blue-greenish) or are you trying to pool colors in different parts of the scene? I'd be more inclined to do this sort of stuff in camera, but if you just want an overall color tone, then not a big deal to do in post. Color pools are a little different.
Wait, just re-read the question. If you just want an overall blueish tone and can't run big enough lights that you can gel them, then I'd shoot a test under HMIs with a white balance south of standard daylight balance on the camera and see if the result works for what you want. For example, in college I did a night-for-night shoot in 16mm on Kodak 7279 (500 ASA, Tungsten balance). I used tungsten sources to boost the artificial light of the location (more of those sodium vapor things) and the occasional HMI without gel to give the effect of moonlight as fill, or where there was no artificial light from the building security lights. I have no idea if this approach works well in video, but it works great on film.
Really need a lot more info to give either the OP or the 2P any additional and/or specific information how to get there:
What sort of scene is it? Emotional content? What do you want the lighting to evoke in the viewer?
What is your location? What are your shots? How many actors in scene? What is the blocking? (Do they walk down a sidewalk and under alternating moonlight/streetlight/moonlight/etc pools as they go along?)
How about your access to gear? What do you have to work with, what resources are available to you on your budget? Are the other parts of your shoot that where you are overspending and can shift that coin to make the night shot work?
And so on.
Meh, come on, can't you give him more detail?
I swear, these one sentence answers......
Meh, come on, can't you give him more detail?
I swear, these one sentence answers......
Ya, I never really talk enough.
re
innovation would help. If you have any lights of any kind, round em up. Even if you put flashlights at a certain angle or use several it can make some decent lights. Ask around for family, friends, neighbors, etc. Even if it does not seem comfortable, surely they will be glad (esp. with mentioning it is for a film) and you'll be grateful. Then testing them in various ways, (also there are tutorials on youtube, etc. for setting them up) and somewhere something useful is bound to occur. Just remember to -
Think OUTSIDE the box and be creative. You'll be impressed by your own talent without spending loads of money.
innovation would help. If you have any lights of any kind, round em up. Even if you put flashlights at a certain angle or use several it can make some decent lights. Ask around for family, friends, neighbors, etc. Even if it does not seem comfortable, surely they will be glad (esp. with mentioning it is for a film) and you'll be grateful. Then testing them in various ways, (also there are tutorials on youtube, etc. for setting them up) and somewhere something useful is bound to occur. Just remember to -
Think OUTSIDE the box and be creative. You'll be impressed by your own talent without spending loads of money.