From the book "Cinematography" by Kris Malkiewicz (chapt. 4)

Hard light casts sharp deep shadow. Direct sunlight. A light with no diffusion.

Soft light casts weaker, washed out shadows. A blue or overcast sky. A light source that is bounced off a reflector. Diffusion placed in front of a light.

The three most pronounced styles of lighting:

Before the shoot the style or approach should be discussed. It should depend on the mood and character of the story. Drama is usually low key, comedy is usually high key.

You should know what each light is doing for you and why.

Key light -- The main source of light. Traditionally it is placed 45° off the floor. Also, if the actor is looking off camera, the key should come from his side further from the camera, so he is looking between the light and the camera. (but really the possibilities are endless)

Fill light -- Soft light used to fill in the shadows created by the key light. For dramatic low-key effect the fill light is frequently ommitted.

Back light -- Above and behind the actor. Separates the actors from the background. Adds three-dimensionality. This light is often omitted by cameramen who believe in realism and don't want an unmotivated source of light.

Kicker light -- Usually placed on the opposite side of the key light. Often lower to the floor than the back light.

There are two types of light meters: incident and reflected.

An incident light meter is objective and measures the light source regardless of how dark or light the subject is. But a reflective meter reads the light reflected off the subject. A white person's face will read differently from a black person's face. You might want to take a reflective reading off of an 18% gray card placed in front of the actor's face. Be sure to angle the card halfway between the light and the camera to get an accurate reading.

Testing for lighting and exposure is important to get to know a film stock. A test for different lighting ratios should include four set ups: 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 16:1.

For ten seconds shoot a woman dressed in black against a white wall, be sure a gray scale and color chart are in the frame. Expose it correctly. Do it again but underexpose a 1/2 stop. Do a series of takes to cover three stops underexposure and three stops overexposure in half-stop increments. At the end shoot with the correct exposure again. Instruct the lab you want two prints. The first print should be made at a one-light printer setting, set for normal exposure. The second should be timed by changing the printer lights to correct the under & overexposed shots back to normal. The lab reports should indicate the printer lights used on the printer for the three primary colors: red, green, and blue.

Below, the exposure is set for the guy's face. The practical lamp looks convincing in the shot. With a spot meter we know that the lamp is 2 1/2 stops brighter than the face.

Practical lamps in a scene look best if they are 2 to 4 stops brighter than the face. You might want to use a practical light in the shot as your key light. To do this you might have to cut down the light aiming toward the camera, use a scrim or a neutral density gel. Also, you might want to increase the light on your subject by cutting out part of the lamp shade on the other side.

For a candle light scene:

 

A common lighting problem is when an actor moves towards or away from the key light. To keep the light levels the same, use half-scrims on the light. The lower part of the beam is reduced and the light on the actor remains the same as he moves around.

Kodak Lighting setups

Amistad (AC mag. 1-98)
Director Steven Spielberg
D.P. Janusz Kaminski

$40 million
2 weeks of tests for preparation

There were about 10 different lighting situations, like a football team calling plays. One setup took 7 minutes. No matter how big the scene, they could get good soft light in 7 minutes. A Muslin bounce, in front 1/2 Soft Frost diffusion frame. They aimed fay lights or other light units into the frame. The 1/2 Soft Frost directionalized it and stopped it from spreading everywhere.

They used the ENR process and sometimes used black nets behind the lens for filtration. It was okay if light hit the backgrounds because the sets were dark colors.

Normally without the ENR process Kaminski likes to add contrast, such as by flagging. But contrast is inherent to the ENR process so it wasn't necessary.

He also combined ENR with flashing.

With a black net filter behind the lens, added smoke, and ENR, the most simplistic lighting was usually sufficient. A light aimed into a bounce card in front of a face at a certain angle was sometimes all it took.

ENR can be so high-contrast there are no mid-tone ranges, it becomes either black or white. You don't necessarily have to flash to take care of it, but have to fill out the shadows a bit.

Without flashing, ENR becomes slick and elegant and beautiful. With 10-15% flashing, it looks like the sun looks when you are on drugs. It becomes grittier, which is what he wanted for the movie.

They used a Panaflasher to pre-expose his stocks from 7-15%.

Kaminski is a fan of Philippe Rousselot ("Queen Margot" & "Interview With The Vampire")

Prison scenes

For a courthouse scene during the testimony of a British naval officer who has found discrepancies in the Spaniard's account of the Amistad's journey:

At sea, pretty much natural light and bounce cards.

A Universal soundstage and a Van Nuys airplane hanger were used to recreate ships.

Night exteriors of the Amistad in the airplane hanger:

Homemade Chinese Lanterns

Eyes Wide Shut (AC mag. 10-99)
Dir.: Stanley Kubrick
Cinematographer: Larry Smith (had been gaffer on Barry Lyndon and The Shining)

Production started in November 1996, finished March '98. Released in July, 4 months after Kubrick died.

In Barry Lyndon a scene in a manor was lit by Mini-Brutes on towers outside through windows with tracing paper.

Kubrick preferred plaster, cement or brick materials for a set, rather than paper or wood.

On Eyes Wide Shut they used existing light fixtures and a minimum of "movie lights." (same on The Shining & Barry Lyndon.)

On Barry Lyndon they used a pair of F.07 Zeiss lenses (36.5mm & 50mm) to film candle-light scenes with virtually no supplemental lighting. They were modified still camera lenses from NASA's Apollo moon-landing program.

Eyes Wide Shut was framed in the standard 1.85:1 format.
Lenses:

They used two Arriflex 535B cameras.

Force-developed (underexposed) two stops.

They used Kodak's old EXR 5298 500-ASA stock instead of Vision 500T, even though the 5298 has been discontinued.

At the Christmas party:

Nearly everything was shot at T1.3. Pushing everything gave a warm glow.
Used a Tiffen LC-1 (low-contrast) filter for night interior scenes. It made the lights glow, gave everything a slightly surreal edge.

For the night street scenes they used available light.

For Tom Cruise walking along Manhattan streets (usually when he's facing the camera), sometimes the backgrounds were rear-projection plates. The plates were shot in NY, sent to London, force-developed and balanced to the right levels. On the street sets they had Cruise walking on a treadmill.

 

JFK (AC mag. 2-92)
Dir. Oliver Stone
DP Robert Richardson

Shot:

16mm was Garrison's reality
35mm was the Warren Commission's version of events.

B & W footage:

Kodachrome:

For the assassination plot scene with Oswald, Ferrie, & Shaw:

Eastman EXR 5248 film:

 

APOLLO 13 (AC mag. 6-95)

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (6-95)

RED (Sobocinski & Krzysztof) 6-95

THE CINEMATOGRAPHER'S MASTER WORKSHOP - LAKE ARROWHEAD 1994 (AC mag. 6-95)

Laszlo Kovacs, ASC

Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC

Day-for-night

 

PHENOMENON (AC mag. 7-96)
Director: John Turteltaub
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael

High narrow ceiling -- they hung an overhead bank of "custom coops" (each wired to a dimmer board) for soft top light, designed and built by the gaffer Ian Kincaid.

Papamichael used tungsten units on dimmer boards for all night exteriors.

Papamichael's lighting is naturalistic and logical. He will never backlight someone's close-up and then add a rimlight to the other person in reverse, even if it makes for beautiful photography.

At night Travolta walks down a local street - instead of a big source light that would backlight the street and wash out the pavement, they established pools of light motivated by the streetlamps in the shot.

Papamichael shot with a Panavision and the company's E-Series anamorphic lenses. Film stocks of choice were 5298 and 5293.

Throughout the movie, Papamichael used 4 stages of filtration:

In the forest, to add a golden glow around the characters they used a row of 12 big Dino lights, which read warm in daylight because they are tungsten. It was a misty overcast day, but they managed to create a sunset effect.

Papamichael says 50% of the look is the textures and surfaces and colors.

In the shaving scene they used just one light, coming in from the outside and it wraps the characters perfectly, with minimal fill provided by the bounce off of their own bodies.

Papamichael tries to find a way to let the light wrap the actors' faces without using a lot of fill. He doesn't light to 'ratios', he lights by eye. He'll use a fill light with a dimmer and bring it down until it looks right. He generally used one source, and rarely any fill. He tries to find natural light and places things within it. Then he works on creating natural light and maintaining it throughout the day.

For close-ups he will set the position of a light and see how it wraps around the actor's face.

 

Bluescreen/Greenscreen 101 (AC 12-96)
by Christopher Probst

To put a talent in an environment too impractical to shoot. 3 techniques:

Choice of screen color should be the greater difference from the front subject.

When shooting bluescreen, the blue layer of the film should ideally be exposed only by the blue backing and would contain little or no exposure or info in the red and green layers of the film. But in reality there is some red and green info found on the film negative of the blue screen.

Important to achieve the greatest separation in the negative between the foreground object and backing. Try lighting the background screen and foreground object separately.

Make sure the foreground object is lit to match the composited background.

 

"Swatch Books & Gels" (A.C. mag. 9-97)
by Andy Sobkovich (p.90)

When considering a gel for use:

In a simple living room set with windows in the background you might want daylight (5600° K) in the background and a much warmer 3200° K on the subject in foreground, but that's a big jump in color. Try a gradual color transition, less visually jarring.

Example A: (see diagram) Unfiltered 3200° K key light on actor's face, "white reference."
Add ¼ CTO to the fill light (1/4 warmer than key)
Add ¼ CTB to actor's backlight (1/4 cooler than key)
Add ½ CTB to the b.g. light (1/2 cooler than key)

Example B: (see diagram) If background light is from a window (5600° K) try using that for your starting point with the same gradual color transition.
Add ½ CTB to the 5600° K window
Add ¾ CTB to (3200° K) tungsten backlight (1/4 warmer)
Add ½ CTB to key light (1/2 warmer than b.g. light)
Add ¼ CTB to fill light (3/4 warmer than b.g. light)

Though this gives you a good color transition, your keylight is too blue. Either add an 85 filter or the lab can adjust it.

Before the scene, shoot the color reference card lit by the key light, the only light that you want to appear white. The timer can balance the colors to that reference to create the desired skin tone and light transition (see Vilmos Zsigmond's approach 11-95, 11-96)

For video, hold your white reference card in the keylight, only the light you want to appear white, then do a white balance. (see 3-96, ref. charts for telecine)

It's also possible to modify the colors the camera sees by using gels on the lens to affect your white reference. Use swatch book samples as a source for this subtractive filtration.

For video, put a white card in the light source, and a swatch book gel in front of the lens. The gel should be the opposite of the desired color. If everything should be ¼ CTO, white balance through a ¼ CTB gel.

The same with film, but remember to compensate for the light loss from the gel.

The lab can make this reference "white," making the following footage warmer or cooler as a result.

3-color meter reads color temperature as a red-blue shift and either + or - green.

The MIRED System is one method of describing what a gel does to the color temperature of a light. MIRED is an acronym for Micro Reciprocal Degrees.
A MIRED measurement equals 1,000,000 divided by a source's color temperature in degrees Kelvin.
1,000,000/3200 K = 312.5 MIRED
Gel changes are called a MIRED shift.

¼ CTB gel should have a MIRED shift of -34.5, so color temp. of a 3200 K light plus a ¼ CTB gel is 1,000,000/(312.5 + (-34.5)) = 3597 K, a change of +400 K.  

 
A ½ blue gel on a 3200 K light should be 4100 K. But usually they're not, so check them.  
   

   

 
   
   

 

Bringing Out The Dead (A.C. mag. 11-99)
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Cinematographer Robert Richardson

Sets built by designer Dante Ferretti

Scorsese & Richardson wanted a monochromatic, desaturated look. Less colorful. "Skip-bleaching"

Shot in the anamorphic (2.35:1) format. Used Panavision's older C- & E-series anamorphic lenses. (Less contrast. Primos have more contrast.) Richardson likes anamorphic better than spherical Super 35. He says unless a zoom lens is critical, there isn't a big difference between the speeds of the lenses. Likes anamorphic wide open at T2. His 1st assistant could keep focus at those apertures.

1/8 to 1/4 black ProMist filter for less contrast.

No constant light inside ambulance cab. Lights from outside, driving by various light sources.

Shot on Kodak Vision 500T 5279, & some Vision 200T 5274. Some ambulance-mounted shots were shot on Vision 800T 5289 (good for night).

The few day exterior shots were shot on tungsten Vision 200T and not corrected for daylight with lens filtration to keep the cool feel of the rest of the film. (It was supposed to be dawn.) Also, they tried to shoot in the shade. And underexposed by about a stop to give a bit of a day-for-night look

 

"Sunshine" in Hawaii (A.C. mag. 11-99)
Dir. Darren Grant
Cinematographer Aaron Schneider

Music video for Coko's song "Sunshine" shot in Hawaii

Shot reversal stock: Ektachrome, 160-ASA daylight-balanced 5239 stock.

Shot with anamorphic lenses

Used a Tiffen Soft F/X filter for close-ups.

 

Fight Club (A.C. mag 11-99)
Dir. David Fincher
Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth

In normal reality situations they wanted it to look bland and realistic.

Panavision Platinum cameras with Primo prime lenses.
Kodak EXR 5248 and Vision 250D 5246 for daylight exteriors and some day interiors. Vision 500T 5279 for remaining interiors and night sequences.
Some night exteriors flashed about 5% in the lab.
Rated the stocks at their recommended ISO specifications, printing lights in the high 30s to low 40s.
The lab will treat some prints to an 80-IR level of ENR.
2.35:1 aspect ratio
Super 35

Much toplight, many fluorescents in the ceiling.
Light on actors' faces were usually:

Interior of an old, decaying house - played the lighting down, usually underexposed the walls by 2 to 2 ½ stops, could barely see them.

T2.3 for most of the movie, shallow depth of field.

For a basement scene used many small, clamp-on aluminum work lamps you can get from Home Depot for $2, with 60-watt household bulbs in them. Used them everywhere in the film.

 

The Last Picture Show (A.C. mag. 3-99)
Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
DP Robert Surtees
Interview with Robert Surtees (1972)

Also shot: The Graduate, The Bad & the Beautiful, Ben-Hur, Intruder in the Dust, Mogambo, Oklahoma, Doctor Dolittle.

Bogdanovich is a big fan of Citizen Kane.

Wanted "The Last Picture Show" to look like it was shot by an experienced amateur who could hold the camera steady and who liked to drop in on people and photograph them.

Walls were lit soft, flat, lights hidden on the floor.

Shot it in 8 weeks.

When Gregg Toland shot Citizen Kane he really exaggerated the depth of field, which meant using a lot of light. He also removed the irises and replaced them with metal slides with small holes drilled in them.

B & W is more difficult than color.

Shot almost all of Picture Show at f8 or f10, extreme depth of field (600 foot candles).

Outside used Eastman Plus-X negative, ASA 80.

Inside used Double-X, more grain, but rated at ASA 250 and can be pushed to ASA 1500 if necessary. (Didn't push the film.)

Would have got better quality using Plus-X indoors but would have required more light. Quality wasn't as important as looking real.

He doesn't use backlight anymore unless it's established as coming from a source.

Doesn't break up the walls with shadow patterns - that's old-fashioned (but for a glamour picture is OK).

Used a 28 mm lens for the entire movie!

Orson Welles told Bogdanovich that a zoom lens creates artificial movement. It's a magnification of an object. Dollying gives you a different perspective.

 

Lighting the firelight scene (inside of teepee) from "Dances With Wolves" - Dean Semler (video tape)

3 sets of 3 tota lights hidden under the fire. Full 85 gel to help match the warm color temperature of the firelight. Tota lights plugged into flicker boxes with different pulses.

A 5k overhead with ½ blue to contrast with the warm firelight. Black skirts draped on sides of light.

2 mizer lights with full 85 gels on both sides of inside teepee doorway for backlight as he enters.

The exposure of the flicker varied from T2 toT5.6, so he exposed at 4 1/3, which will expose only a little bit over to quite a bit under.

When you have a hero in the scene you should give him just a little bit of his own lighting to help pull him out of the scene.

Dolly-in shot (in teepee) of two actors hugging.

 

IMAGE CONTROL by Gerald Hirschfeld, A.S.C.

Chapt. 1

This book gives the visual results of what happens to a color negative when certain techniques are applied.

Reduce normal print contrast by using low contrast print stock specifically designed for making prints for film-to-tape transfers.

The colors of a picture appear more saturated when surrounded by a black border.
Light flesh tones against a black backdrop seem more pale than in front of a white backdrop.

An original color negative is almost never used to make release prints. It must be protected, so a duplicate negative is made, and it might be slightly different - such as contrast and color saturation.

Chapt. 2

Color response is:

Wall color affects the scene and the subject in front of it.

The most beautiful exterior scenes are filmed in bright overcast or hazy sunlight.

If you have direct sunlight and no overhead silk to reduce the contrast ratio, fill light can be used by:

In bright sunlight with no lighting equipment, use the sun as a backlight and set the exposure for shadow detail. (Opening the lens makes the background more out of focus.)

For a more dramatic feeling, let the sun crosslight the subject.

Soft light creates slightly muted colors, whereas direct light gives more saturated color: the difference between a cloudless day and a bright overcast.

By adding a low level of fog or smoke:

A similar effect can be created with camera filters.

Chapt. 3

For many years Fuji color was more soft, muted, less saturated than Eastman. After some cinematographers complained about blacks apearing dark gray in night exteriors, Fuji adjusted the emulsion losing some of the more muted colors. "This wasn't justified - could have just switched to Eastman when rich blacks were required."

Eastman EXR films have a greater underexposure latitude.

Exposure indexes that indicates the film's sensitivity of light:

This exposure guide is based on creating a normal-density negative relative to flesh tone. Lab printing equipment has a light range of 1 to 50. The lab's "normal printer light range" is approx. 30-37 on their printer lights. The higher the number, the greater the intensity of light needed to print a dense negative. Actually the color negative is printed by an additive light proces with sources of magenta, cyan, and yellow light that, when blended together, create white light. A lab report might say 30-33-28, that means 30 magenta, 33 cyan, & 28 yellow. The more dense the negative, the higher the printer light number required for a normal-looking print. A less dense negative will print on lower numbers. Overexposing 1 stop requires 8 higher printer lights. For a normal-looking print; underexposing 1/2 stop requires four lower printer lights.

When underexposed and the lab tries to produce a normal print:

Good black density is a product of the printer lights, not exposure. When overexposed and the lab prints on their normal lights:

Overexposure (lower ASA) produces:

Underexposure (higher ASA) produces:

If you want a normal density negative, contrast can be increased by stopping down (F/11 to F/12). Less contrast with wider stops (F/4 or F/5.6).

Using NDs can give you normal exposure in bright sunshine with the lens wide open.

Chapter 4

Early B & W film emulsions were orthochromatic - not sensitive to red (women's lips looked black).

The first color features were made by the Technicolor process.

Then Technicolor introduced mono-pack color film, which recorded a color positive image on one piece of raw stock. The positive was used to make 3
b & w color separation negatives that were printed by the standard Technicolor process.

Film can handle a tonal range of about 140: 1; TV only about 40: 1.

Regular fog filters are made up of light-deflection particles.

The double fog filter is like the regular fog without its objectionable characteristics. The lower the number, the weaker its effect (#1 thru #5). They also make fractional fog filters, such as 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, & even 3/16.

Regular fogs soften the resolution of the lens very slightly compared to double fogs, so he generally uses a 1/2 double fog, which slightly reduces the contrast while preserving the sharpness when filming for television.

Newer color negative & color print stocks were better, but more contrasty. So a low-contrast filter (low-con) was created - it reduces the tonal range of a scene by making the shadow areas slightly lighter.

Exposure and printing play are important in both fogs and low-cons.

A light source in frame will often reduce contrast by itself, and hitting a low-con of fog can make the scene milky.

Another way to match color desaturation is to have the negative flashed.

Fogs spread white light to all colors, the effect is of slightly increased exposure. By increasing the exposure 1/2 stop the desaturation effect is intensified.

If you increase exposure with a medium-density low-con filter and the lab prints a bit darker than normal, the increased effect you wanted might be eliminated. The same filter, with no overexposure, if the lab prints lighter than normal, desaturation is increased.

Medium to heavy low-cons mute both colors and black when printed on normal lights. However, if the printing is made 3 or 4 points darker than normal, the muting will not be apparent, but less contrast. This is called "printing through" the low-contrast effect.

An example: Clear sunshine creates contrasty dark shadows.

Fog filters affect dark and light areas.

Low-con filters lighten dark and shadow areas, but don't affect highlight areas.

Both are influenced by the brightness of the background. The background light strikes the filter particles and lightens the darker areas.

On a bright day, judge the filter effect at about F/5.6. Indoors, if the exposure is about F/4 or F4.5, judge at about F/3.2

Low-cons or fogs can destroy the image sharpness of a telephoto or a very long lens. Instead, possibly try flashing or net material in front of the lens to reduce contrast.

A net of white threads with course openings will closely match a low-con filter. The wide mesh permits most of the usable light to pass unaffected, and the light that bounces off the white threads scatters into the colors and dark areas to reduce the contrast.

Tiffen now has other filters to reduce contrast:

In general, the 3 types of filters are:

Fog filters. A graduated fog filter is usually oversized so it can be shifted until the right position is found. A normal overall density fog filter, such as a regular fog #2 or #3, can be combined with a graduated fog filter to create many different effects.

When tungsten-balanced color negative (3200° K) film is used in daylight conditions, a #85 or #85B filter is used. Tungsten illumination is set at 3200° K for type B color films (35mm color negative) and 3400° K for type A color films (Kodachrome and Ektachrome).

Color temperature meters:

Conversion filters:

Light-balancing filters shifts the light source color temperature in small degrees to balance the color of the light to the color sensitivity of the film.

Color-compensating filters(cc) absorb excess amounts of undesirable color. There are six increasingly absorbant densities:

Light balancing filters comprise two series of two different colors, one bluish, the other amber. On a heavy overcast day try a coral #1 or #2 with the #85 to warm the overcast light.

Color-compensating filters come in different densities:

Fluorescent lights have no Kelvin rating. Has a high level of green.

Optimum 3200° K is a tungsten balanced fluorescent tube.

Chroma-50 is a daylight balanced fluorescent tube.

The coral filter is popular. It has a warm brownish amber tone. Primary function is to add the warm atmosphere of candlelight or firelight to a scene.

Learn to judge by eye, but fluorescents are impossible.

In early daylight or late afternoon CTO gels can be used on HMIs, arcs, or daylight blue FAY lamps.

Always tell the lab which filters you used.

Corals can replicate oldtime photographs, which were made in sepia or bronish tones.

Denser coral filters remove more of the blue and green portions of white light and create a sepia tone.

Sepia tone is often used for flashback scenes.

For sepia tone scenes:

Exteriors for a Las Vegas, hot desert feeling, he used:

Interiors:

The underexposure eliminated the slight flare effect of the fog filters and enhanced the coral effect.

The combination of stronger filters made the exteriors appear hotter.
F/5.6 less contrasty than F/16.

Don't use two glass filters in front of the lens or a double gel filter behind the lens.

A graduated filter is a filter that is 1/2 clear and the other 1/2 is ND or color, or both.

ND-to-clear is primarily used for overexposed skies due to smog.

Viewing on the ground glass at the correct F stop will show if the demarcation between the ND and the clear glass will be visible.

If the sky is gray or colorless try:

Made by Pancro-Mirror, Hirschfeld uses their filters for all ND requirements.
Blend lines not as apparent when the lens is stopped down.
Neutral Blended Ratio Attenuators (NBRA)

Available in ratios of 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 and 3 stops.

A Polarizer filter

The effects created on the original negative are usually better than those created in post, unless they are special optical effects.

TESTING FILTERS

For every specific increase of exposure there is an increase in emulsion density - (the optical density of the negative emulsion.)

No exposure would result in a clear negative base with no density.

Overexposing to increase the negative density of the low exposure area also increases the densities overall. But fog & low-con filters add a bit of controlled whiteness to the darkest areas of the image, and reduces overall contrast. They increase the negative density, therefore, you can decrease the exposure by about 1/2 stop & still get a normal-looking print with reduced contrast. By overexposing a 1/2 stop, you also get more color desaturation with normal printing.

Recent Tiffen filters that can also reduce contrast:

Diffusers cannot be duplicated by a film lab. Should be an invisible effect.

Homemade diffusers shoud be made with optically clear, water-white glass. Try petroleum or plastic wrap, or spit.

The H & H regular diffusion filter reduces contrast substantially as it diffuses, and that combination can be flattering.

Tiffen's black net diffuses without affecting the contrast.

The white net affects both sharpness and contrast.

Nets of black thread don't affect the contrast or color.

Nets of white thread soften the image and reduce contrast.

Tiffen makes Softnet - has various weaves of colored netting.

Glass in front of a long focal-length lens distorts, a net works better.

White nets of various densities can match a long lens to a normal prime lens used with a fog or low-con filter.

Wide-mesh white net reduces the contrast of the image and affects the sharpness only minimally.

The net becoming in focus can be a problem, mostly with wider lenses and increased F stops.

Generally, the larger the close-up the heavier the diffusion. Check the diffusion effect through the ground glass at about the same lens stop you will use. Check for sharpness in the eyes. A small, sharp highlight often heightens the sharpness of the eyes.

812 Filter (Tiffen)

Double Fog Filters (Tiffen)

 

RANSOM AC (11-96)
Director Ron Howard (Apollo 13)
Cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski (Red)

The faces are lit much more prominently than the backgrounds.
The actors appear and disappear out of and into the darker background.

The light originates from the windows. 1,000K Dinos & Maxi-Brutes were placed far away with heavy frost diffusers near the set's windows. Sobocinski uses soft light often because he wants natural shadow, so the light doesn't feel artificial.

A long distance between the lamps and diffusers makes the light softer.

When floor-level lights were used a 6' x 4' egg crate cap on the soft light created key lights for two actors from one light.

Ransom was shot primarily on 5298, with some 5293.

No filters used at all.

The higher speed 98 lets you film natural reflections (tail light or cigarette) without being washed out by movie lights.

In "Red" Sobocinski used a little filtration, mostly black Tiffen ProMist, 1/8 to 1/4.

The main background is the color brown, the color of the woods. Brown is the gentlest version of red, and those two colors play together well.

 

16MM DEBATE (AC mag. 2-98)

For HDTV 16mm is acceptable if transferred with the Philips Spirit DataCine, a multi-format, multi-standard film scanner which can handle film resolutions up to 2K (1920 pixels/line). [see Post Process in A.C. mag. Sept. 1996]

Part 2

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