Too Much Light?! | How to Control Sunlight on a Film Set
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
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In this episode, Valentina shows us how she shapes and supplements natural sunlight when she is shooting a bright, happy montage sequence. She scouts the location, rigs overhead lights, uses negative fill, and employs steadicam movement to get the look and feel of a cheery morning work routine. This look is very versatile and can apply to most commercials and romantic comedies. At the end of the day, we're looking at the difference between what looks flat, and what looks cinematic.
Instead of a real store location, we shot the episode on a studio backlot so that we have the most control over the production design and time of day that we want to shoot. Valentina decided to shoot in the early afternoon because she knew that the set wouldn’t get any direct sunlight streaming in. Because of that, she’s able to shoot her own sunlight through the windows, which was accomplished with two Aputure 600ds outside shooting through sheer curtains. We rigged two Aputure 300dII lights overhead to act as a backlight and fill light while keeping it off the ground for our actor and steadicam operator. Lastly, Valentina placed floppies and duvetyne on the windows closer to the foreground because she didn’t want the indirect sunlight to spill in the foreground and flatten the image.
We shot with the Canon C70 and Rokinon Xeen lenses with mounting and matte box from Smallrig. The shots were done on steadicam to create a light and airy feeling. Neutral density and Black Pro Mist filters were added for balancing out the exposure of the scene and softening the look, while creating a pleasant bloom around the edges.
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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Story/Concept
2:16 - Camera
3:10 - Exposure/NDs
4:32 - Production Design/Color
5:13 - Lighting
8:39 - Negative Fill
10:19 - Breakdown
10:40 - Lens Filters
11:21 - Steadicam
11:51 - Final Result
12:28 - Outro
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Summary:
Aputure's CZcams channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
I tend to light a lot of POC. Our skin absorbs some of the light and when lighting POC indoors, one of my favorite techniques is to use some sort of moisturizer or oil (preferably coconut oil) paired with small soft LEDs to add a bounce or reflection off of their skin and create depth to the shot.
Do POC like being called POC? Seems way too bureaucratical to me.
@@TinLeadHammer we like being called by our names or by referred to by our cultural groups as a whole BUT to make it easier for others since it seems to be difficult to give us that, here we are with "POC" 👍🏾
@@TinLeadHammer yea i dont care personally. plus its an easy term to distinguish
are you talking about darker skinned individuals? or even lighter skinned POC including south east asians also absorb light?
another tip is to light them using reflections. Bounce your light off of something onto them. Funny enough it's the same principle with cars.
Please never stop creating these videos. This is so helpful! 🙏🏼
We'll never stop!
@@aputurelighting
the production quality on these videos is WOW!
Am telling you
lol. got ya
LOOK MOM! MY HANDS ARE IN A 4 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL! 3:28
LOOK MOM! MY COMMENT IS IN THE REPLY SECTION OF Dunna Did It’s COMMENT! Yay!
LOOK MOM! MY COMMENT IS IN A COMMENT COMMENTING ON A 4 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL COMMENTARY
LOOK MOM! MY COMMENT IS IN A COMMENT COMMENTING A COMMENT ON A 4 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL COMMENTARY
MOM?
PLEASE JUST LOOK AT ME, MOM. AND DAD, WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK FROM THE STORE? IT’S BEEN 7 YEARS.
Valentina Vee and Wandering DP are making lighting entertaining, pretty sure they're single handedly leading the convo away from "buy this new camera" to "practice with your lights".
I'd have to say my favorite lighting technique so far is upstage
*THE FRAMEWORK*
Hahaha
Thank you Valentina, crew, and everyone at Aputure. These videos are a wealth of knowledge!
Thank you for watching!!
This video is amazing! I really appreciate how you talk through your entire thought process out loud, it really helps me learn rather than the lights just being where they are.
Love this! People always focus on dramatic scenes, not enough focus on high-key lighting, thanks Valentina! One of my favourite techniques for interior daylight scenes is to shoot on an overcast day. That way you get a nice even soft light coming in from outside, that is consistent throughout the day, making you less worried about things like the position of the sun, but still able to use natural light to motivate your scene.
Always impressed by Valentina's cool composure and fun energy while hosting these segments and working the sets. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Just last week I got the most basic, oddly flat looking shot when I was aiming to get a cinematic look. This is super useful, hope I can create more depth in my next try. This CZcams channel teaches me more than the actual film school
Thank you for the detailed visuals. One favorite technique I find satisfying is book lighting. So soft!
The look is very nice. I like this diffused and soft light. Seeing the before and after and following you step by step is instructive. To get a soft effect I often use bouncing the light. Congratulations also to the model who is really spot on for this type of spot (face, gestures, colors). Brava Valentina, very good!
💛
@@anastasiakatina good work Anastasia! 👍
I love how the dreamy feel was created!! These videos are so helpful, thank you!!
Thanks for the step-by-step instructions, the explanation of gear used, and the segment near the end where we can see the additive contribution of each light. A great final product, as well!
I absolutely love lighting with practicals. I feel like they give depth and a more dynamic look to the film. They are often a bit too weak for daylight though, so I have to "boost" them, but I love having practicals in the frame.
Keep these videos coming, these are perfect!
Same, been trying a practice a lot with practicals and your right they add so much depth, once the sun is in play though they are just not enough to provide the right levels in the scene but love practicing with them.
This is so amazing, and so so sooo helpful! Valentina, you inspire me so much! You're insanely talented and know the craft so well, thank you for sharing all this information.
Side note to the editor - I love your editing style so much and loove the small little details like the "Striking" text, you make the episode so much fun to watch! Keep up the incredible content A team!
Thank you!!
Great! Thank you Valentina and the whole Aputure crew. I’ve learned so much with this video and I can’t wait until put it in practice!
Thank you. Very informative, and love how you did the drawing showing where the different lights are located, and what they do. Super!!!
I think you hit the nail on the head with the added light through the window with sheer diffusion. I like using windows like that as my motivating source as much as possible and setting my camera to that exposure. Then I add a soft key, hair light, and bounce for fill if needed to make the talent pop. What I loved about your approach was the use of color in wardrobe and set design to really tie the piece together and make your subject stand out. Thank you for sharing your method.
So believable the final product. Had I been an extra on set, I'd have gotten fired within minutes after reaching through the window for that cake. Great tutorial. One thing I enjoy about these vids is how you break them down showing why you did something which helps answer questions in my head.
I love this look!! For me I have often just used a couple of lights, one with a softbox, and the other bouncing off of something. I think this was way more beautiful and something that I would want to do if I had more gear. Thank you for these masterclasses. I'm studying film at a university and I've learned more about lighting from these videos than from my professors!
Glad to know these are helping you!
My favorite technique for lighting interior daylight scenes is bouncing a light at the ceiling or wall to boost ambience with the iso/ND as low/dark as possible without being moody. Then adding a key and back light. Typically it’s because of DSLR, and I don’t have access to as many lights as you all, nor the dynamic range to create directional sunlight outside the window like this. However, as my projects and budgets increase, I’ll be adding to my arsenal. These videos are helping me land more work, as I’m increasing my quality. By the way, she is a great host...and her personality makes the videos so easy to watch and understand! I’ve subscribed! I’d love to win this 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Glad we're able to help you out!
I personally really like the more moody (early) daylight interior scenes where you use some haze, imitating the sun with COB lights or LED panels outside the window and then you just use some light curtains to diffuse the light a little bit. And use negative fill on the other side to make it a bit more dramatic.
duvetyne, floppys, blinds and bounced lighting is simply the best way for daylight. Really cool walkthrough
This is a great training, although from a grade standpoint, the final result seems kind of overexposed/lifted too much. Would have been nice to see the final corrected result.
Where would you set up the lights to bounce, without being in the shot, and why do you prefer bouncing over diffusion? :)
Yes, I have to agree. Also, the filtration is a bit too much. The problem with filters like these is they blur everything and not only the highlights. But loved the video. :)
Absolutely love watching these videos! So much amazing info + techniques, thank you guys for making them!!!!
Glad you enjoy them!!
creating a beautiful image and a compelling story is such an intentional process - thanks for sharing these insights
This was very helpful. I am currently in film school and last semester I was lighting a lot with Godox and Mole Richardson lights, but this semester I have been using an Intellitech to emulate sunlight, then using LED panels as the fill and key.
Thanks Valentina and crew this was extremely helpful. I usually have some astra tubes rigged to the ceiling, a 300dii with a dome for key light, 300d with a light dome for fill and I always have my trusty Philip hue light bulbs for practicals in the background 🙂
Thank you Valentina and Aputure! This helped me a lot!
Thank you for sharing! I absolutely love playing with the bounce off of various objects to create dimension in a scene. Very fun to play with especially filming deeper skin tones.
Thank you for watching!
Amazingly great tutorials, thanks for sharing these real life instances on how we can be able to work to achieve cinematic results with affordable gear. Valentina I love the way you present the task and how to solve it meticulously. I have been using the sun light to bounce off the mirror board, as the natural light travels through the window and diffused by silk on to the set where I wrapped unbleached muslin to the left of the camera and to the right a negative fill with mover's black blanket to give the set contrast. Sure I would love to own any of those lights to add to my gear which will help me achieve better results when lighting a set.
Great informative video! I love your step-by-step lighting tutorials. My favorite way to light these types of scenes is by using bounce from white walls or bounce cards. I like to keep a soft look that really brings out the happiness of the scene.
Thank you to the team Aputure for making such a detailed video. I learned a lot from it ^^
Definitely learned a lot from this video about indoor lighting for daylight scenes! I usually use diffusers and bi-color lights, but I’m thinking about a lot of other factors now. Love the videos thank you 💕
Excellent tutorial. Sharing with my Facebook groups. Thank you Valentina!
Beyond amazing work Valentina and the crew!!! What a high level product you guys put out. 👌🏽📽🎞👏🏼
My favorite Indoor lighting is when I can put a silk on the window to let in a bit of natural indirect light, add light where I want it with a light dome, and have a couple of practical lights with some color. Sidus link makes that a fun thing to set up.
Always learn a little something from these videos, thank you!
killer work! thanks so much valentina & co, keep hustling!
My favorite is the either the good old clamp light with a 300w bulb inside for those very dramatic nighttime shots, or a collapsible lantern softbox for high key situations.
Great budget techniques!
Love this. Watched it four times so far and learned something more each time
Wow! Thanks for watching!!
Your sets just look like they have a good vibe. Love some good positivity and collaborative sets. The ending mini dance and laughter was fun. Along with the "Its a wrap" moment with the crew. Oh ... obviously your lighting setups are killer. :)
Adding the second 600 outside was a bold touch. It's a luxury to have access to that much firepower, but knowing how to use it is still the key.
I've been using a lot more flags and screens lately, and it has stepped up my game.
I was a bit confused by this decision... Was there a reason that she couldn't just turn down the power of the back-light? It sounded like the only issue was that the 300D was too hot, so is it not overkill to solve that by adding the extra 600D?
I'm really into natural or motivated lights for indoors. There's an almost magic quality when you see a scene play out in an interior and you get lost in the scene, in the moment and you're not thinking about the lights because they've gone through great lengths to remove any feeling of artifice. Think Joker, The Farewell, Prisoners. Allowing theme to dictate the location and the location to dictate the lighting and trickling that down. I was floored particularly by Roger Deakin's self-made rigs for lighting the Bond Bar scene in Skyfall, and then just a super scaled up version of the same DIY rig for lighting fire in the exterior. Just impressive work all around!
Another great video, Valentina! I use very different lights to yours for indoor lighting out of budget constraints. I recently started shooting lights through large diffusion silks which has been working in dark rooms really well. I as bounce lights off the same silks to get the results I need.
SUPER HELPFUL video. I look forward to more! Combining diffusion and multiple fill lights (decreasing as you wrap around) allows you to get some REALLY nice falloff on the talents face, it's my go-to.
Great video Valentina . Excellent tutorial. I love using cove lighting which gives such a beautiful look for interviews.
Awesome video! One useful technique that for lighting daylight interiors (especially close-ups) is the book light. I love the soft falloff and the cinematic look it creates. Sometimes a bed sheet and a some foam board is all the modifiers I have, but even those simple pieces of “gear” can create some amazing light.
Book lights are so soft!
A nice and simple setup. I like those. I often use big soft sources for this high key look, but try to keep some directionality to it with grids and flags to create more depth. Very similar to this setup.
I'm a HUGE fan of backlighting. Big soft source behind (echo/mimic a large window behind as the possible source), and a large bounce back to the actor (just a large reflective surface - bleached muslin, or even large foamcore - whatever you've got that is a large even surface so that it's soft). In general, I like lighting "spaces, not faces" but this looks SO good to me when it's a more intimate setting rather than a big open space. Add lighting for the room as desired - this isn't an interview, so we obviously need to appropriately see the surroundings as well.
Valentina is a beast! Such a great host and drops so much knowledge. Big fan of this series. Keep ‘en coming.
She's amazing, but I would like to see her do videos where she uses less, powerful lights. She used about, what, 5 powerful LED pro lights in this video? That gives you a lot of options. Sometimes less is more.
@@bluefilmsltd I have videos on this channel where I use lights that total less than $400 (beauty lighting on any budget, fashion cinematography) and a video where I use no lights at all (natural lighting, lighting for reflections). There's a lot of variety for every budget.
Small space, huge history, well done!!
I love that you used THAT clip from Mandy for colored lighting. For interior day lighting I love using shadow to create depth.
Absolutely love these videos, keep making them!
I love these scene set up videos!
well made, great descriptions
Sweet, thanks sharing
Wonderfully made video Valentina. You explain everything so well. You are the best
Hello I am from Portugal and I want to thank you for all the knowledge you transmit through your videos, thank you very much, continue the good work you have done
Woo you guys nailed the timing on this video for me. I have a shoot like this on Friday!
I dig this series so far. Very educational. My last daylight lit scene gave me two issues to solve. 1. Clouds were moving through the area, changing the amount of light coming in constantly. 2.There was traffic noise from the intersection outside. My plan of attack was first to address the audio by placing a thick moving blanket on a stand in front of the window. Another one placed in front of the perpendicular wall out of shot. That brought the noise down enough. Then I stuck a reflector with the white side over the the blanket to simulate the now blocked window.Two of my LED light panels were set up to bounce off the reflector onto the spot where I was playing guitar. My ring light acted as a fill on the other side of the room. The key light was another LED light panel with barn doors to control the spill. Having the light stay consistent and the noise under control, allowed me to focus on playing music in the video.
Great insight! Thank you for this
WoWw there are so much to take in from this video. Thank you Aperture and Velentina always love to see your happy face. I wish I could see the final video with the color grading.
This becomes my new favorite bts series on how to shot. Thanks so much for this. Great presentation. I absolutely love to watch this
I like a bit of warmth to compliment the cool daylight tones. So I like having warm practicals inside. Sometimes I'll ND my exposure down to where the practicals aren't blowing out too.
I use much of the natural sunlight (also because of budget) and many reflectors. Most of the time I add some hard lights for rim light. Great video, thank you so much!
I have learned a lot. Thank you for this great content.
Very cool, helpful and useful! Many thanks to Valentina and Team! 🙏
C70 has build-in NDs on 2,4,6,8 and 10 stops. You may turn it in settings
Awesome Video ! Super thanks to the A Team for making these videos ! When doing a run and gun shoot, I prefer to light interior scenes by bouncing the lights 45- 90degree to a ceiling to emulate everyday lighting. Hiding the light at a good wall intersection and bouncing the lights to a ceiling helps in bringing up the exposure a little bit and evening out shadows. Further more to create depth, cutting out unnecessary lights using a negative fill can really create contrast and add more interest to the shot.
Awesome work as always!! Very clear and easy to learn! Thank You Valentina V!
Thank you!!
Ive been studying light setting here alone and use it for small viral commercial for a year. So much helpful!
Glad it was helpful! Keep up the great work!
Great content! I always struggle getting things to look more subtle. I usually will bounce the light from the celling or adjacent wall.
Great tips! I always like to blast light into the white ceilings to make a massive bounce source. Helps lift the total exposure of the room when needed.
Completely agree, had the same thought. Spending the time hanging a light in a white ceiling with a softbox does seem a little counter-intuitive... A fresnel on on a turtle base on the floor into the ceiling would give even more control!
@@thelightpainters very true, I like that method when you are working with low ceilings that dont have a place to mount lights to. The trade off is you lose the light intensity when you bounce out off the ceiling and it becomes harder to control the spread. But this kind of problem solving is part if what I love about the whole thing!
@@BrentHagyVideography Very good points, the spill especially!
@@thelightpainters hard to control spill from a ceiling bounce. And A much less directional light too
@@jeffbrass2351 very true, in this instance the softbox wasn't gridded so there wasn't a huge amount of control, a couple of pieces of strategically taped pieces of cine foil on the ceiling would have rendered a very similar result without needing to rig an entire light :)
This is really great. I liked everything was well described and really helped get your ideas accross.
I love book lighting high key interior scenes. I’ll key with light bounced off a large (6x6 or larger if possible) muslin or ultra bounce and break it with silent full grid. I’ll double break the light with another layer of 1/4 silent grid if the light has enough push. I’ll use 4x4’ floppies to contain the spill from the open ends of the book light set up, and I’ll cut the top and bottom of the book light’s front element with duvetyne to contain spill on the walls and floor around the subject.
I’ll use a similar set up right behind the camera as front fill if it’s needed. And I’ll backlight with something like a covered wagon behind the subject.
Fred Murphy used this technique to light The Good Wife and it creates a really soft look. It’s really similar to cove lighting. I ACed for Fred on Good Wife and he used this technique in almost every scene. It created consistency throughout the series. I love this technique, especially with punchy lights like the 600d and 300d II.
Wow, that was an amazing tutorial. Thanks!
So inspirational! Thanks for this vid. Simply amazing!
This is SO COOL!!!!! Oh man I can't wait to be in this scene!!!!!!! Less than a year to film school. SO hyped
absolutely fantastic video and information..... THANKS FOR SHARING!!!!!!!
Our pleasure!
i learn more watching you here than ive learned from anyone, anywhere else
That means a lot!
Greate work thank you Valentine! and the actreess was also amazing
Great job lighting that scene. That pro mist filter gives it a dream quality that I appreciate. For myself, however, I generally don't like shooting happy scenes. Not that I'm a dour person all the time, but I like moody scenes with soft light, negative fill to give the subject shape and a lot of practicals.
So you turn down all the happy jobs
@@queefreak666 I don't turn down any jobs :D I just don't particularly like shooting happy scenes for myself LOL
Love how you explain everything. You're awesome
Thanks!!
this was super helpful, thank you! i'm a big fan of highkey daylight shots using natural light as the source but i have 9 windows on the sunny side of my apartment so shaping all that light is proving very difficult for me! but these videos always give so much insight. thank you!
Lucky to have so much natural light!
@@aputurelighting it's a dream!
This is what I love seeing. Most people who are just starting off feel limited to putting lights on stands. They aren’t used to studio spaces & mounting lights to the ceiling.
Just wow, an info packed video. Thank you
Thanks so much, Valentina you are so dang inspiring and super helpful!!!
Great videos lots of info, great lessons that seem very natural and not buy, buy ,buy though I want all of it.
About the question, I recently shot something messing around and the main point was using a small 160 bulb 40w led panel to replicate the sun light coming in through a window so that it naturally replicated the suns direction, made sure that if the light moved I still had that source on the face. It also added a couple stops to the exposure on that side and evened the shadows. It was subtle if not looking for it, but worked better than I ever planned. Inspired by your videos and some about Deacons work. Wanted to it that way since it was light and portable.
Otherwise what I have currently is 6 pack of daylight balanced tube lights I got on a site called Rebatekey. They are meant to light a workshop on the ceiling. They are not dimmable and I have to set up things like negative fill and diffusers since its not made to mount modifiers. I had some wax paper on it, then replaced that with a shower curtain. Then I made an bootleg Kino Flo set up with 2 sets (4 bulbs. I haven't been using as much besides a test, as I've been trying to use more portable lights for fill to balance the ambient light I have for portability.) I'm still learning and trying to make it work for less money and for portability, but my main plan with this set up is more even light for chroma key I can work with later.
Probably the cutest informative video!
Yay! Thank you!
Keep doing what you are doing!!! BIG THANKS
This was lit! Such great content. The algorithm knows me well!
My fav technique right now is to just utilize as much natural light as I can. Adding less of the artificial ones.
Btw you guys have really amazing quality of videos
for daylight int I usually try to work with the windows as much as possible: punching very strong lights from them to create shapes in the rooms, if the scene needs to be diffused I try to only diffuse with curtains that also have shapes on them, really brings a lot of texture into it. lastly I usually flag some walls that are not in the frame to bring down the bounce from them as much as possible. but all of this is more for narrative and less for commercial stuff.
This was great! I like to somehow include a light flare or two especially if it's early in the morning.😁👊
All of these techniques are far too advanced for me but in every video, I learn at least one little thing that is useful. Thank you so much Valentina, looking good! For indoor lighting, I love to use my Almaran M9 as a backlight.
That's good! We always try to distill these setups down to the basics
Great content! I like to use natural light mixed with practical lighting in order to have a realistic look with low budget and lights directly on set!
So much work to be put just for one camera angle. Imagine resetting everything for another few 🙂 thanks, guys! Great video
We love doing it! Haha
Excellent video for lighting, it also goes to show the framing and camera positioning really help. There where some harder shadows on the table which the sun would do but the composition of the shots eliminated that and your left with the intended scene which also help because sometimes we try too hard not to have these harder shadows but shot selection really plays its part
Love lighting and different approaches. It's a two punch technique, 1 getting the correct exposure then 2 creating the right image.
Great work all.
Great video. Valentina is an excellent teacher!
"Now that we are lit" I felt that