When lighting a still photography set the standard practice is to use strobe still lights. These are basically high powered flashes that when tripped spread light, sometimes in a controlled fashion, sometimes not. You might notice many photographers use these type of lights with umbrellas or softboxes that will "soften" the light. Additionally, some lights photographers use are called monolights while some are power pack driven with light heads.
Monolights allow you to control each light by itself but require a separate power source, while the power packs allow to control the lights (heads) from the pack. Both have their merits and provide nice light. I use Bowens monolighs when I use this type of set up. If you're on a budget try some lights from Alien Bees. I have many colleagues that use Alien Bees and have nothing but good things to say about the company, their excellent service and they're made right here in the U S of A. In many situations, such as to stop action, a strobe is your perfect solution. But we're here to discuss another type of lighting set up. Movie lights.
Before working as a full time still shooter I worked in the film, television and commercial tv industry. I worked in a variety of roles. Everything from..."hey Chuck get me a coffee" to "Chuck..grab me an Elvis, a Kino and a c-stand." I worked as a production assistant, an art department assistant, a camera assistant, a grip and even a jib assistant. What was great about this experience I had the opportunity to work with some talented directors of photography and lighting directors. Lighting up a movie set so it sets a mood is quite a skill set, that requires intimate knowledge of light or in some cases lack of light to tell a story. This is where movie lights can really..err...pardon...SHINE on a still set.
The photos above are from a student lifestyle shoot for the University of Kansas. When selling a school, things like students hanging out, having fun and enjoying themselves in a pleasant atmosphere is a highly desirable sales tool.
Inside the ground floor of a dorm on campus you can find a great student hang out place, it's modern, it has cool furniture, a neat floor...it's trendy and hip. To set this as an after hours chill spot I wanted to establish this place as a late night hang out. So, I wanted a cool moonlight effect, that would show moonlight streaking thru some windows inside on the students.
Outside we put two 1200 watt Cinepars on high stands shooting thru the windows. To make the light look interesting we took some large sheets of foam core and cut out various shapes and patterns and taped the foam core to the windows. Instead of just blasting a large light source thru a window it's always more interesting to establish some type of pattern. To make a "tree branch" effect many times a an actual tree branch is found and put in front of the light to bring inside the outside world. This time I just wanted some neat looking random patterns.
Since lights like this require a good clean power source we had a Honda generator outside powering the Cinepar lights.
What about the inside lights?
After establishing the outside world coming inside I also needed to place some nice lights in the room that would make the set look interesting and set a mood. If you look closely on the left side of the photo you will notice there are these panels that basically separate the room. They are made of this cloudy plexi material with a great pattern and it makes for an ideal diffuser for some lights. Notice these panels are lit. To get this effect I place four 4Bank Kino Flo lights on stands behind the plexi. This gave just enough ambient light to soften the room. The rest of the light in the room was available sources already wired in the building.
Camera questions on this: I used my trusty Olympus E-3 on a tripod and both the 14-35 f2 and the 35-100 f2 zooms. Various shutter speeds, ISO's and apertures were used during the shoot.
So basically, if you have time and the budget you can get a "movie like" set atmosphere while still using your still camera. Even with a small budget you can achieve the same type of look with lesser lights you can purchase from Home Depot..but that's another discussion. Until then...have fun and have a good shoot!
Any questions feel free to email:
chuckfranceis@gmail.com
Or find me at these places:
www.chuckfrancephoto.com
www.facebook.com/chuck.france
www.twitter.com/chuckfrance
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