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Low Light Filming???

Henry Spencer

Henry Spencer

hello

I'm currently making films using a HVR A1 Sony

now, it doesnt really perform well in low light conditions, but I would still like to create scenes that appear to have been created in a low light environment

does anyone have any tips on how I would go about doing this?? Is this something that I would need to try and create in post production??

I have a feeling that if I was to try and go about doing it afterwards it would look cheap and contrived

anybody got any pearls they would like to share?

thanks in advance

:yes:
 
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Get some lights with barndoors, so you can use "shafts" of light in the midst of the darkness. You can even do this without barndoors. Let's say you are shooting someone walking in a hallway. Put your source lights behind partially open doors, window blinds or closet shutters. Outside you can put lights behind trees and bushes. Be sure to expose for the light, so that the dark stays dark.

It helps to use enough backlight or light from above to simulate ambient light, which will outline your actor, even though their face is in shadow. Putting a light on one side of an actor will create shadows on the opposite side of his face. You can fill in with a softer light...or not at all. You can get a dimmer from a hardware store, so you can do very subtle fills.

You can even take a clamp light and cover it with cardboard. Cut a slit in the cardboard, first, so a shaft of light can shine out. You can use this to just light the eyes, but not the rest of the face.

If you can add a little fog, this will catch rays of light, as well as spread out some ambient light.
 
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I agree, I used a "noir" type lighting, lots of light shafts, light pools. See what you have in the monitor, and light the area outside the pooled light enough that are just picking up some detail. You don't want the unlit areas to be a total void. Do what you can on set, then augment in post, don't try and do it all in post.
 
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It's actually possible to shoot in the daytime and use programs such as Adobe After Effects to make it look as though the scene has been shot in low level lighting, of course if you're filming at daytime with the intentions of making it look like a night time scene, you have to be aware of shadows and the sun itself or it ends up looking odd.

Its surprisingly simple though I've never put this method into practice.

Theres a good video tutorial on CreativeCow about how to do this if you have Adobe After Effects:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/Day_to_Night/video-tutorial.php
 
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CDCosta said:
I don't see why you can't shoot at night, and use lighting.

Dimmers, barn doors, scrims, diffusion, snoots, and black wrap will be your friend.
Click to expand...

I agree. The "do it in post" philosophy is a bad one IMO. You should do everything possible to create the effect you want at the time you shoot it, then augment that in post when needed. "We'll fix it in post" = laziness/lack of creativity for the most part.
 
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