Lighting Question

[Andy Anderson]

Hello, I'll be shooting a project with a Steadicam in a couple of weeks and most of it will be a facility tour in a lot of hallways. Since the camera is always moving I was wondering how I should light the subject in the hallways? A light mounted on the camera would be a weight issue so I was considering having a grip stand beside me with a hand held light and follow me around. Any tips or suggestions? Thanks.

[Jon Beattie]

Hello, I'll be shooting a project with a Steadicam in a couple of weeks and most of it will be a facility tour in a lot of hallways. Since the camera is always moving I was wondering how I should light the subject in the hallways? A light mounted on the camera would be a weight issue so I was considering having a grip stand beside me with a hand held light and follow me around. Any tips or suggestions? Thanks.

 

if there are alot of windows in the hall i would suggest using a pocket par. otherwise if the walls aren't to dark you can probably get away with the overhead lights or a kino.

 

Do I know you Andy? did you go to school in florida

[Mike McGowan SOC]

if your lighting a person or a few people and they will not be too far from you, a lite panel is a great tool and it works on batery power.

http://www.s131567196.onlinehome.us/

 

ive used them before with great success. you can buy them or rent them at most major lighting houses.

[William Demeritt]

Andy,

 

The Litepanels are pretty fantastic, have some decent punch and are very portable (low enough weight that you could rig them on camera and still fly I think).

 

More ideas might come from more info regarding the job. Facility with lots of hallways, so how are the hallways currently lit? Fluorescents? Sconces? Any windows mixing color temps? Walked through with a light meter?

[Charles Papert]

Depending on size of corridor, your gaffer could carry a battery powered HMI like Jon mentions or a Joker with a Chimera, an inverter and a battery belt.

 

I too use a Litepanel with a direct cable to the rig so you don't have to carry the onboard battery, it's pretty reasonable (under a pound I think) in weight. Another option would be the relatively new Zylight 90, which has the bonus of being able to dial in color balance which can be helpful in industrial applications.

[Robert Starling SOC]

I too use a Litepanel with a direct cable to the rig so you don't have to carry the onboard battery, it's pretty reasonable (under a pound I think) in weight. Another option would be the relatively new Zylight 90, which has the bonus of being able to dial in color balance which can be helpful in industrial applications.

 

Charles, have you seen or demoed the Zylight yet in-person? I use Litepanels a lot but the FOV photos on the Zylight website really do look pretty nice considering the shape and size of their head. Thanks!

[Charles Papert]

I played with it at NAB and thought it had some amazing attributes (remote control of functions, ability to ramp in color temperature etc) but it does not allow for 100% dimming, which is a deal-killer for me. Traditionally, just about every time I have been asked to mount an obie light there is a point in the shot where it would reflect in something, and we end up not using it. The Litepanel mini was the first I've used to have the ability to shut down completely (I have it rigged with a Preston motor so the DP can use the single channel iris controller). However someone else told me recently that the Zylight can do this also, so I'll have to look into it again to make sure of all this. They were alleging that the spread of this unit was wider than the Litepanel due to the design of the LED's, which is impressive given the size of the head, so I'd love to do a head-to-head test of this but I do think it would need to be diffused to use as an accent light and their Chimera speed ring is clunky. Anyway, it's a product to keep an eye on; very cool.