Search Results for 'no'

[Roger Deakins]

I totally agree with David’s advice there. If you have no need for additional light sources you should have no problem timing out the excessive green tint – or you might just like it! As David says, if you see green outside you might expect the inside to reflect the same source rather than something that is purely ‘white’.

[gcconnelly]

Hi Roger!

Hope you are well. Recently I’ve been coming across issues when lighting through windows and I was curious to get your take on two different situations I’ve come across:

1. I was recently shooting in a hospital location that had big windows in each of the patient rooms. It was a daytime scene and required the windows to be in the shot, however the windows were made of lower quality glass that had a green tint which was very unflattering. Obviously, replacing the glass was not an option. Have you come across this issue before and how did you handle it?

2. I have an upcoming shoot at a one floor house location which has a lot of big windows around the home that get a lot of natural light. We’re shooting multiple daytime scenes in this house. My issue is that the home is surrounded by green grass and foliage that bounces a ton of undesired green light into the home. How have you dealt with this in the past?

[vaughan_dop]

Awesome, thanks for the advice! I’m returning to the school for a tech scout this afternoon so I’ll figure out what I can implement. I’m shooting in a couple of weeks time, and it’s the largest room anyone’s needed me to light so I’m quite looking forward to the challenge!

[hughscully]

I loved Empire of Light. Olivia Colman’s performance is amazing. I find that the stillness of the camera in this piece creates a lot of emotional tension and suspense, right from the opening montage. I also notice how much more important each cut is. The momentum and rhythm come from the cut instead of camera movement. It seems a more generous conveyance. I hope for more movies like this.

[TinTin.Wang]

Hello Roger,

I have watched Empire of Light and have a few questions about lighting control in the future as a cinematographer.

Based on your interview about this film, I found that the lights you chose to use and the way you light the scene isn’t traditional. Such as lots of cove lights and the combination with natural lighting, the remote control with the controller to make entire set more flexible and fluid, and talking with the art department and making the practical light as a key light in the scene, also lots of the lights you used are LED. You made the lighting control more flexible and shapable, which is very important and useful.

What do you think about the lighting in future cinematography, what kind of new lighting strategy or technology do you think you will have a try later?

Thank you.

[Tyler F]

I look at it this way– You are investing in yourself and if it’s something you plan to make a return on by creating an end product, it should pay itself back relatively quickly. I’m not sure what level you’re at, maybe your day rate is $500-1200/day f0r example and your kit fee is $300/day, you can expect to pay off that camera in a few videos. There is a saying that if you do it right the first time, it will be cheaper in the long run as you won’t be needing to upgrade again and again.

And if you really want to pay it off quickly, throw it up on a rental site or house or rent it out to your friends and you’ve got yourself passive income.

[The Byre]

Panasonic FZ1000.  Cheap and has a good Leica zoom lens that goes from 29 to 400 without ghosting or flares.  If I do not want to schlepp a box of lenses and stands and recorder, etc., etc., I have two of these and they are my “grab-n-go!” cameras.  They only do Rec709, so no log, but we are talking about a really cheap camera here – ideal for YT videos and with a UHD/4000 image that is more than good enough!

[halfgrain]

Interesting question and I’m curious what Roger will share. I wonder though: How would you really define a consistent look throughout a movie, when ONLY talking about the lighting aspect? Clearly, every movie features drastically different locations and times with different vibes, looks and feel to it. The sun baked outside with harsh shadows and no additional lighting, a huge, cold glass office room, the tunnel in night vision in Sicario. These are drastically different settings with completely different lighting, so there can’t be an overarching feel in the way to light them, right? I would argue it is way more the overall color scheme, framing, lens choice and color grading that makes them “match” for you? Just my two cents…

[dmullenasc]

For an editor to change the cinematographer’s work without a very good reason shows a lack of respect — a cinematographer wouldn’t come into the editing room and start changing cuts after all.  Sometimes there is a good reason though — but an editor would usually tell the cinematographer what was going on and why they had to crop into the shot, etc.

I only once worked with an editor who routinely recomposed and even re-colored footage I shot, which was crazy. But the movie was not very good and the director was crazy, so I just let them do what they wanted to the footage.  But it was really annoying — the editor only wanted to use close-ups so took all the medium and wide shots and zoomed into them to create even more close-ups and told me I wasn’t shooting enough close-ups!

[Ganesh Venkatesh]

Hi everyone,

I shot with a particular image system and compositions
sometimes the editor changes them (scaling, cropping).

->maybe I think the main problem is working as a director and cinematographer myself. I’m always thinking as a cinematographer and trying to save my compositions from editor. I think it is not right. everybody have their own creativity we can’t restrict them. so, I give editor to make changes. but at the end I had lot of thoughts on changes whether it makes the film better or not.

did anyone have this problem with the editor, give me any suggestions to deal with it.

thank you

[Stip]

Nice!

I wonder, if then the bookshelves/background aren’t “friendly and inviting” enough, would simply bouncing some film lights off the ceiling there work (I can’t see what color it is though)?

[andrewtrost]

I used EL Zone for the first time this past week on a short film and it was absolutely wonderful and intuitive.  A great way to help maintain consistency throughout a project.  It inspired some creative confidence as well.  I used it along with false color and my light meter.

I would love it if ARRI and other major manufacturers would implement it directly into their systems – I know Ed Lachman has been trying to get that to happen for a while now, so it just needs to be adopted by more DPs as another useful tool in the kit.

[quijotesco24]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I rely exclusively on my light meters to light and expose. Why?
Even I’m not that old I started on film so that’s how I learned to look and expose. Also the productions I work can’t have good calibrated monitors all the time and I refused to buy my own monitors, or sometimes it’s not practical to have monitors at all. So the only way for me to keep a perfect consistency on lighting and exposure is to trust my own light meters that I carry with me all the time. They don’t take much space neither.
With today’s tools it’s not mandatory to use them. It’s just another tool. But for example when you are lighting and camera is not still ready not having a lightmeter is a bit of a pain in my opinion.
I find easier to use a light meter for exposure once I calibrate it against the camera/s and look we will use for each project. Don’t get me wrong, monitors, even not calibrated, are very useful, and I’m guilty to vary exposure after I look at one but here experience also plays a big role. But to me the ultimate tool to know exactly what’s happening are my lightmeters.</p>

[Stip]

“For me, an interesting tool, that would be a mix of false color and spot meter, is the EL Zone, by Mr. Ed Larchman, but if I remember it is only for Panavision.”

Panasonic VariCam LT and 35 and the small Sigma FP have it. Also SmallHD external monitors I believe. It should be featured in more and more cams going forward.

I haven’t used EL Zone yet but love the intuitive color palette and distribution opposed to the confusing False Color (which also varies from company to company).

It seems to be great to evaluate contrast ratios around middle grey and thus replace a light meter. But it does not do a good job at showing sensor clipping or noise floor (depending how many stops you distribute above or below middle grey), so it needs to be combined with another tool that does this.

Good overview:

EL Zone Exposure System- how does it work and how do you use it

 

[Max A.]

Hello Jeff, if I can share my thought about this topic I would say that exposure is something subjective and so also the method that you seems it’s better for you is the right for your work.

I use a mixture of: incident light meter, false color, waveform, and also spot meter.

When I started to be fascinated by photography there were already digital cameras and so monitors to judge exposure, but when I “grew up” in terms of knowledge and awareness I understand that, for me, relying only on a monitor is something a bit approximate. When you have to balance lights for a set and you want to be specific about contrast/tone/differences between bright areas and dark areas I think you have to be a bit more specific than seeing on the monitor and dim down the lights while you look at the monitor without knowing at what STOP that light is.

The same for me is for false color, when you look at a false color, you see a scale based on IRE, now there are a lot of people more prepared than me over this forum, but each camera has its own increase of IRE to reach a STOP of value.
I look at false color (as for waveform) only to see if I’m clipping highlights or blacks but everything in the middle I feel is quite complex for me to judge.
If you do multiple tests and understand (with a light meter) how your camera sees a full STOP with a false color, you, of course, can be the idea of which color means in terms of under and over exposure.

For me, an interesting tool, that would be a mix of false color and spot meter, is the EL Zone, by Mr. Ed Larchman, but if I remember it is only for Panavision.

Please note, this is MY own thought, there are a lot of fantastic dp’s over there that expose their image fantastically well only watching at a monitor because they are fixed and solid a workflow and this is the point for me.

Develop your workflow and stay on which you feel better comfortably with.

I wish you a great day.
Max.