How do i get lighting right?

[foztee]

Okay so this is a video where we tried some different lighting

However clearly i don't think it worked, so really i need tips on how to light correctly compared to how it was done on this video... I hate when i see like the pixels from the darkness (i hope i described that correctly)..

[enc]

thing is, you set out to achieve a certain look with lighting which i think you pulled off .... more likely its an issue with your camera's low light handling capabilities or camera settings.

[Midnight Blue]

Seeing the pixels in the darkness or noise is often a camera setting issue. You will usually see this when someone is shooting a dark scene with the camera set to auto exposure or have turned the gain up to compensate for the lack of light. Some cameras are better than other in darker conditions.

When you light your scene a lot depends on the look or feel of the piece you are shooting. I'm sure you have heard of three point lighting well this is not the whole story. The art of lighting a scene is really and art as well as a lot of technical know how. People can be doing this professionally for years and still learn new things. I'm not a lighting expert so all I can do is give you a couple of examples of my best effort I'm not saying these are perfect just the best I can do.

I think you saw "The Flame" which was shot in my back garden at night. I used a basic three point lighting set up but wanted to have a stronger back light than normal to pull the story teller out of the background. This is important for shooting dark scenes or your video will look flat. Set the key and fill light and camera so that your performer is correctly exposed. This should then give you a nice dark background without the noise as the camera is set for the subject not the background, if that makes sense.

A different set up but in the same location was the talking head in my "Try Dive" video. Although this looks like it was a nice summer evening as the sun is getting low in the sky and going reddish. It was not at all like that. It was a very dull late evening. So I set up a strong key and fill light. Used a couple of halogen work lights as a back light so it looked like the sun was shining through her hair. I placed these low down as that seemed to look better than the usual high placement of a back light. I then had to light the background so it looked like daylight and not late in the evening. The colour temperature of the work lights helps to sell the late sun look. Which is a whole different chapter about lighting and is really going way over my head.

I hope this gives you an insight into lighting a scene.

[foztee]

Seeing the pixels in the darkness or noise is often a camera setting issue. You will usually see this when someone is shooting a dark scene with the camera set to auto exposure or have turned the gain up to compensate for the lack of light. Some cameras are better than other in darker conditions.

When you light your scene a lot depends on the look or feel of the piece you are shooting. I'm sure you have heard of three point lighting well this is not the whole story. The art of lighting a scene is really and art as well as a lot of technical know how. People can be doing this professionally for years and still learn new things. I'm not a lighting expert so all I can do is give you a couple of examples of my best effort I'm not saying these are perfect just the best I can do.

I think you saw "The Flame" which was shot in my back garden at night. I used a basic three point lighting set up but wanted to have a stronger back light than normal to pull the story teller out of the background. This is important for shooting dark scenes or your video will look flat. Set the key and fill light and camera so that your performer is correctly exposed. This should then give you a nice dark background without the noise as the camera is set for the subject not the background, if that makes sense.

A different set up but in the same location was the talking head in my "Try Dive" video. Although this looks like it was a nice summer evening as the sun is getting low in the sky and going reddish. It was not at all like that. It was a very dull late evening. So I set up a strong key and fill light. Used a couple of halogen work lights as a back light so it looked like the sun was shining through her hair. I placed these low down as that seemed to look better than the usual high placement of a back light. I then had to light the background so it looked like daylight and not late in the evening. The colour temperature of the work lights helps to sell the late sun look. Which is a whole different chapter about lighting and is really going way over my head.

I hope this gives you an insight into lighting a scene.

Ahhhh yess.. I think i understand now!

Thank you!!! I've always really really appreciated your replies and guidance!

[jimbob2k]

The way I understand it, you have to 'cheat' with lighting. Setting up lights to highlight the subject and action to as much as you need or want to see but to make it look as close to the actual environment as you can get away with.