More things I have learned about lighting
October 24th 2002 -
More things I have learned about lighting
I’ve got a couple of fairly high-powered lights for film-making. In some senses, they’re usually a bit too high-powered. If I point any one of them directly at the subject, from close-up and without filters, the light looks like the sun. I usually get around this with filters and distance and by bouncing the light off reflectors. At the film-shoot last Saturday, I was forced to try some other solutions for some stuff.
There was a reception desk with a receptionist behind it. At one point, she gets up. The lighting in the room was just enough to give her huge shadows under her eyes. How to light this setup? She was sitting too close to the desk to put a reflector in front of her – and besides, then she gets up as well.
In the end, we simply turned two of the lights upwards to reinforce the existing lighting. The reflection off the roof was strong enough to further bounce off the reception desk, and voila, problem solved. This might sound a little ridiculous, but it was a real eye-opener for me. The lights are powerful enough that I don’t have to point them at the subject or even a dedicated reflector. Sometimes just pointing them at the wall or the ceiling is enough to light the room.
Another nice thing we haven’t done much before, was use the polystyrene boards as blockers instead of reflectors. The office was full of glass and posters, so we had to be very careful of hot-spots (areas where the lights are reflected into the camera). Strategic use of the poly boards fixed it very nicely.
Juggling
I went to juggling last night, for the first time in a while – Paul came with me, and it was pretty good fun. The only problem was, I’ve lost most of the skills that I could previously do, and it’s a bit frustrating working to get them back. I managed about 20 catches for 5 balls, which was an OK start after the kind of break I’ve had, but still a long way from the giddy heights of what I used to be able to do. I guess the most fun part of juggling is still the socialisation. Julian, the organiser, is excellent company. We all headed off the the usual cafe afterwards, and I watched jealously as people hogged into chocolate cake and were unable to finish it all. Bastards.