• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Is this shot lit well?

Sort by date Sort by votes
It's definitely 10000% better than most indie films, shot with DSLR's. Kudos to you paying attention to lighting.

I think that his eyes are a bit to dark, and that the shadow on his neck and from his nose might be a bit to harsh! Try defusing that light! But that's just nitpicking :)
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shadow.png


Yes, that is nicely lit. :yes:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What sort of feeling are you going for?

If you asked me to guess what it's about, I'd say some 40 something year old discovering to relive his life again after being diagnosed with cancer and having to face his own mortality.

But then again I might just be reading into it too much :P
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm with Phil. I noticed the shadow on the neck and the shadow of the nose. Unless you want me to notice that, you should diffuse the light.

But I'm no expert. I'm just giving you the viewer perspective.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here's what you can do:

Diffuse your key light. I don't know what kind of light you are using, but it looks extremely hard. If i was using an Arri Fresnel, i would put some frost gel in the front to diffuse it. Then I would either put a reflector behind the subject, just out of frame to fill the rest of his face with light, to get rid of the shadows, or I would use a 150 Watt Fresnel and diffuse that as well to light up the rest. To give some separation from the backlight, i would maybe place a backlight behind the subject and give him a nice separation. I wouldn't want a rim of light around his head though!
Depending on how you light it, you might want to light up the background as well!

I am far from being a pro, but that's what i would do! Oh, and i would want to have a small light, even if it's just an iphone flashlight or small, defused LED behind the head of the person he is talking to, so he has a nice sparkle in his eye and doesn't look so dead!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Put the light a bit higher, further away and soften the hell out of it. Stick it in front of a scrim. Flag/cut any unwanted hot spots and shadows.
I'd also ND gel that exit sign as it's really distracting.
I'd also add some sort of catch light for the guy's eyes to make them look like they're full of life, rather than depressed. Unless that's the vibe you're goin for ;)

Can't really give too much advice without details on what lights you have and the vibe of the scene.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think several folks have hit this nail on the head... the key light has too much "Presence"... it's a little hot ( although we can't see the other shots that may have them standing next to a large light source that makes the lighting look perfect for the environment)...

As a one off shot, height, diffusion, distance as mentioned by jax_rox are the fixes here. Start with the positional changes and see if that gives you the look you're going for. Raising the light will open up the pool of light under the far eye on the actor, making him look a bit more alive, the collar shadow will disappear, and there will be a chin shadow across the neck giving a bit more shape to his head. Moving it back from the actor will spread out the light a bit and get rid of its "hotness" on his face. It will also lower the amount of light in relation to the background slightly making the actors seem more "in" the environment... I usually try to put my background lighting on a dimmer if possible so I can watch the monitor and dial the background up or down to look "real" compared to the foreground lighting I've done.

Then diffuse to taste. Adding a touch of fill (on a dimmer for easy style control) on the opposite side will help a bit with the shadows as well. The position of the fill can help with the catch light for the eyes to add a bit of sparkle and life.

A rim light could help separate them from the background a bit (spatially), but isn't absolutely necessary. I like to set one opposite the key and behind the actor.

Technical stuff, the key light is on the same side as the camera which makes it "broad" lit. If this is a more dramatic scene, you could move the key so that it's coming in over the foreground actor's screen right shoulder (where the fill would be in the shot you've presented)... this would move the shadow side of the face toward the camera and show a ton of definition and shape in the face... the current key position would then be the fill... this would be a "short" lit scene then.

If you draw a line in space from actor to their opposing actor, placing your key on the camera side of the line is "broad" lighting, on the opposite side of the line makes it a "short" lit scene. Do a search on this forum (upper right) for portrait lighting. I've posted some links in the past to resources that show some of the standard setups.

You're really close here, just needs some tweaking to make it slightly more natural... or a bright soda machine that they're standing next to in the establishing shot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top