Search Results for 'no'

[Max A.]

Hello Jeff, I’m not Roger Deakins of course (not even if I worked as hard as possible could I reach 10% of his level), but If I can join in your topic, I think most is about what you want to achieve and what you are looking for.
Before starting to talk about the technical aspect (and I’m curious to read answers from Mr. Deakins, Mr. Mullen, and other experts dp’s here) I think is a matter of “look” and “taste”.

For instance, I love “naturalism” so when I’m on a location scout, I tend to see how the location will impact in a natural way with my lighting, so if a room has only a small window and the story “call” for a “high -key” day interior scenario, my consideration with the director is that maybe that room could not fit for which we are searching for the story.

In the technical aspect, I think you have to consider some aspects: First of all, how the window is located in the location, do you have the ability to control that window/s? Will you light that window artificially or do you rely on natural daylight? There is direct sun or bouncing daylight coming from the building in front of you, or the window is facing North and you will have “only” soft daylight coming? The angle of your Frame, do you shoot square and in front of the window? If so, do you need to be connected to the outside landscape or you will “blow out” your window?

For example, a solution, if you could have control of the light outside, and maybe you don’t have to shoot straight to the window is to rely on the inverse square law for the fall-off of the light and then place your lamp/s at least 3/5mt. away from the window (but then you have to figure out if you will diffuse the light and how much you diffuse it to “recalculate” the fall-off), so that the difference in the lighting of your subject near the window and the other at a distance (but depends on the distance) will be not so extreme.

In “the past” I often struggle with this kind of scenario and as you said bouncing light from the ceiling sometimes helped me but “destroy” the “natural” feeling and made me frustrated, in the last years I’m more serene, and I gladly accept the naturalness of things so that if a man is distant from a window and this is the only light source in the room, this man will obviously be less bright than the one near the window.

This is only my thought, and I will follow with pleasure other answers for this topic.

I wish you a peaceful day, and I apologize for my not perfect English.

Max.

[TimoVanLierop]

Hey Roger!

I was wondering what you think about using haze & lens filters. Because I know you like to shoot as clean as possible regarding to lens choice.

Do you like to use filters on your lenses? And what about haze?

[rama lingam]

Master David i saw this still photo already somewhere in this site. I was thinking it’s day for night work. It’s really looks nice. What camera and ISO you used? But now a days young film makers using very artificial color moon light. It’s not look like blue. Well you know very well couple of films like that.

[jeff791107]

Hi Roger,

A situation really troubled me for a few times. Before the actors come in, the gaffer and I have to finish setting up the lightings- which lights puts here and there; diffusion or no diffusion; dimming up or down; exposure level…etc. It often embarrassed me when the actors come on set with makeup ready, I have to re-dial the exposure level or put a diffusion in front of an LED.

It makes me unprofessional because everyone is waiting for me. However, I really face a dilemma. You know we couldn’t have the real actor to stand on mark while we set up lighting to see the right level and effect. That’s the job for stand-in. In most cases, the production doesn’t have enough budget for stand-in, so I will have my assistant to be the model. You know not every person have the same skin tone, so the exposure level might look different. Even if we have stand-in with the same skin color, I still have to adjust light position a tiny bit, because the light cast a shadow on the real actor’s hook nose or different hairstyle from the stand-in.

I’ve heard of that a really famous actor gave the DP a scolding in a big movie. The situation was that the DP open the eyebrow of one of the light during the rehearsal, and the light flares the actor’s eyes. That’s how the actor is pissed off.

What’s your lighting setup workflow with your gaffer? Not all the gaffers are experienced. There might be certain situation that might take brain storm even with an experienced gaffer. What’s your workflow before actors come in? Would like to hear from your advice.

[jeff791107]

Hello Roger,

We tend to place actor close to the window to get proper exposure. However, it would become more tricky if we are dealing a wide shot with one actor standing by the window and the other one is at a distance from window. You will see different exposure level of the two.

I tired to put source from above for enough ambient light. However, it feels unnatural like there is a source coming down. Sometimes it gets more tricky as the window is too small to get enough exposure from outside.

In this case, How did you work out lighting attenuation in this large interior scene?

Best,

Jeff

 

[Max A.]

Hello Mr. Deakins and all the forum members. I hope you Mr. Deakins and Mrs. James are well.

I would like to ask you, if it is possible, how you planned to shoot and scheduled the sequence of ‘Empire of Light’ in luna park.
Looking at the saturation and the angle of the sun seems to me that it was early morning during the first part of the scene (after the characters play on the carousel that seems to be near high noon looking at the carousel’s casting shadows on the ground) and during the tracking two-shot dialogue and the two OTS.

During the tracking two-shot, the two characters are side-lit, passing through casting shadows of tents around them.
In the two OTS, ‘Stephen’ has the angle of the sun to give him a side-lit, and ‘Hilary’ has the angle of the sun to give her a side backlight.

My questions are:
1) At what hour did you start to shoot that sequence and how long did it take you to conclude it? There are a lot of extras in the scene so I think it was a bit time-consuming to manage all the action in the background.

2) When you cheated for the position of the characters (if you cheated a bit to have the right sun angle on each shot) did you have to reposition also all the elements in the background (carousel behind ‘Hilary’ and red tent behind ‘Stephen’) according to the composition?

3) Did you use bounce material (Muslin/ultrabounce etc.) for the shoots? Maybe especially for ‘Hilary’ that is the backlight. If yes did you use big bounce sources like 20X20 at a distance, or something smaller?

My consideration is that you started to shoot the shots with the cotton candy, then you move for the tracking two-shot and OTS, and lastly the characters on the carouse.

I apologize for all these questions, Just my curiosity to know how you managed that exterior sequence to have the angle of the sun “always” in your favor for an extended amount of time.
I’m sorry if my English is not good enough and as always I want to thank you for your patience and availability to share with us your knowledge. It’s not taken for granted at all, it is priceless!

I wish you a peaceful day.
Max.

[Roger Deakins]

There are no rules. When do you think it distracts? You c]an see from my work when I have used a ‘blue moonlight’ and where I have avoided it. Its about personal taste.

[rama lingam]

Dear master Roger once you said there is  style before content. But now a days people’s using moon light without considering context. Not all kind of story need moon light source. Particularly what is your thinking about peacock blue moon light. They are thinking it’s gives modern style. But it doesn’t make sense. It’s distract the story. Some movie makes sense when they use artificial peacock blue moon source. For instance “nightmare alley”. How do you choose moon light. When should avoid moon light sources?

[James Parsons]

Of all the wheelchair dollies I built on no-budget shoots, my favorite set up that surprisingly worked was sitting in the wheelchair on a hardwood floor, wearing thick socks with the camera nestled on my feet sliding along the hallway, for an eye-level, low angle view of our mortally wounded protagonist crawling away from his assailant.

[Stip]

” Is there any benefit to doing this versus a correct white balance in digital?!”

No. You could make tests but I don’t see this resulting in anything desirable.

[quijotesco24]

Even shooting RAW I try to get WB as I want on camera. It can be “correct” to the lights on set or not depending the effect we want to achieve. Same as green/magenta. I try to get as much in camera as I can.
It means everyone is watching a “final” image on set and it also means post will have less work and less chances to ruin it. As it has been told before, not every DP has the chance to sit down during color grading sessions. So the most final image you can get in camera the better.

[gabj3]

So you’re suggesting shooting daylight under 3200k and correcting it in your NLE?

White balance is gain in your B and G channels (dependent on filtration). In a typical Bayer CFA-type signal process, you amplify both red and blue channels dependent on the white balance; if you’re shooting at 3200k, a higher factor of gain is applied to the blue channel and so on and so forth.

Note, this doesn’t happen in the analogue domain but after demosaicing, when shooting non-RAW type codecs like ProRes or DNx.

Adjusting white balance in post is applying another level of gain to your R and B channels. I guess if you like the look, sure, but it’s an unnecessary level of gain and would lead to chromatic noise in some instances.

 

 

Infinityvision.tv
Gabriel Devereux - Engineer

[umbrella]

Many prominent DPs in the “film days” didn’t use an 85 filter when shooting outdoors, whether for the sake of visual consistency (Alcott) or because they didn’t want to interfere with image quality (Elswit). They would instead correct the white balance in post.

My question is: Would shooting in digital LOG with your white balance kept to 3200 be the equivalent of doing this? Is there any benefit to doing this versus a correct white balance in digital?

I imagine you end up with less overall color information, so a slightly less rich and saturated image. I’ve heard some vague arguments for either way. Obviously not relevant if you’re shooting RAW and can re-target white balance in post.

[quijotesco24]

It depends the person more than the age in my opinion. Some people gets used to set rhythm some are not. Also not every set Is the same. Small crew and multitasking? Or 8 people on camera dept and a chair on video village?

Also the circumstances. Spending all night long on a shoot after a long day when you earn 4k per day is more bearable than when you get paid 400 isn’t?

Also not all cinematography work is the same. Commercial gig on a studio is not the same as 12 hours in the middle of the bush on a tiny African country shooting doc.

[The Byre]

Roger Deakins wrote:

In my opinion being a cinematographer requires a high level of fitness.

I am about the same age as you and it’s not just the cinematographer that has to be fit – and age DOES play a role – but in reverse.  I really notice that many younger crew members cannot handle long days.  When it gets to 11 or 12 at night and we’ve all been on our pins all day, they seem to wilt.

I’m sure someone will tell me why this is, but I have noticed it happening many times!