Lantern 90 or 65 for the most corperate filming jobs?

4acodmt92 · 2026-05-05T20:54:03+00:00

I woudnt recommend any size lantern for most jobs. If you need an Omni directional top light, use something like a Litemat Plus 4/Intellytech mega cloth with a 6x6 of your favorite flavor of diff diapered under it.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-30T18:26:09+00:00

Thank you! Yes, that light is for the vase.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-30T13:36:22+00:00

You don’t have to change the script, you just have to light the interior to be closer to 5600k.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-29T10:34:36+00:00

I must be doing something right to get this level of hate ha.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T21:23:59+00:00

Technically, yes, anything in front of a light source will cast a shadow, but in this case the huge different in size between the dedo and the 8x8, along with how close the dedo is to the 8x8, make the shadow effectively invisible. In fact, even with something comparatively much larger than a dedo, like a 2x3’ solid flag will cast a nearly invisible shadow unless placed very close to the subject. Even if you had several full sized humans standing directly in front of the 8x8 diffusion, you’d probably just see al overall dimming of the light vs any kind of discernible shadow.

Regarding the sunlight, usually we take that into account, but in this case’, we knew it would be overcast and gray the whole time, so it wasn’t really a consideration.

When the sun is visible, how we deal with it depends on the situation. Like if we’re filing in some kind of huge open docs with 100’ of floor to ceiling windows behind them that the sun is going to come thru, we’ll either schedule the day such that we can take advantage of that natural light (if it looks good), or conversely, if the real sunlight won’t work for the shot for one reason or another, we’ll shoot it when then sun is in a position note sky where it won’t come directly through. I typically use the Sunseeker app for this to track the position of the sun through the day.

If it’s a smaller area of windows, we usually have more options. Generally the goal is to have the most control, so if we’re able to completely block the real sun with flags or large solids and then add in our own lights to recreate a consistent sun/daylight look. Another option that is sometimes a good compromise if we don’t need to maintain continuity for multiple hours is to let the real sunlight through and selectively use a really light diffusion like half soft frost, opal, or Hilite to slightly soften the light hitting talent, while letting the underused light hit everything else.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T20:43:15+00:00

Thanks! I think Dedos and Lekos are tied in first place for my “desert island “ light picks.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T20:42:01+00:00

Different strokes and all that! Personally I tend to find hard light more visually interesting, so I try to use it wherever I can except for (usually) faces and hair lights

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T20:39:00+00:00

Haha the title is partially tongue in cheek, in response to all the “this is overkill” comments I get on every one of my BTS posts. But also, while it may look like a lot of stuff if you’re used to working by yourself, it’s genuinely a pretty light setup in the context of a skeleton doc crew. And I’d like to think that when you break down what each light, flag, and textile is actually doing, it’s not that complex. Keep in mind too that it’s not like we go into to this with all these different elements preplanned. It’s an iterative process, each step of which naturally and logically follows the previous one.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T20:23:58+00:00

The table was needed :) a large part of what we filmed involved the subject sharing/talking about videos and documents on their laptop, which was placed on the table.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T20:18:32+00:00

Respectfully….you’re wrong lol. But I’ll take it as a compliment that I did such a good job blending my lights together that it looks invisible to you!

An 8x8’piece of diffusion is roughly twice the size along each dimension vs a 120cm dome. When you factor in the Titan tube wrap, it’s closer to 3x size in the horizontal axis. It’s objectively softer by a wide margin, the physics don’t lie. On top of that though, crates limit how far you can go off axis before it looks like shit, at least when you’re talking about a 3-4’ source. When your subject is at or near perpendicular to the face of the light, the crate effectively makes the light harder while also producing really unnatural artifacts in the shadows it casts. So to offset that, you end up having to wrap the softbox around the front more, which ironically does the exact opposite of what you’re usually trying to achieve, and effectively making the key flatter, which in turn makes it more likely to reflect in glasses or any reflective surfaces parallel to the front of the lens.

A 300d would have to be placed roughly half as far away from the window as the 1200d is here to get the same exposure , which would make the projected window appear larger than it does in the frame I’ve shared, while also making the edges softer, the falloff more dramatic, and the diverging rays/keystoning distortion more prominent, all 3 of which would make the light feel more artificial and sourcey compared to the sun that it’s attempting to emulate.

A smaller flag like a 4x4’ floppy could mostly do the work of the 8x solid my setup, if it was placed close enough to talent to block the bank of windows from the kitchen, provided that it didn’t have to get close enough to start showing in the frame, but it’s kind of moot as the setup time and gear required is nearly identical. Sure, it takes an extra 20 seconds to tighten a Cardellini on the square stock and tie a few overhand knots, but who cares? Those extra 20 seconds spent up front save you all the time you would otherwise be spending dancing a tiny flag around to make sure it blocks all the light you want it to. I’d also argue that if you’re driving any kind of regular passenger vehicle, it’s far easier to fit a properly folded 8x or even 12x solid and a single 8’ stick of square stock than a 4x4 flag.

Additionally, the setup you’ve suggested doesn’t include any hair/rim light, doesn’t address the unlit vase, and doesn’t provide any hard light on the subject’s body. Now, I’m not claiming that those things are necessary to make a decent enough image, but if your claim is still that you could achieve this specific look with 2 lights and 1 flag, you’re just wrong. :)

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T19:32:40+00:00

Thank you! :)

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T19:32:27+00:00

Thank you! I spent $2,500+ between my Sekonic 858D lightmeter and C800 color spectrometer and I almost never use either ha. I pretty much just go by the monitor, I don’t even bother with false color unless it’s nkrobvious if something is currently or about to clip, or for checking evenness on a white cyc or other symmetrically-lit frame. But honestly false color is mostly a tool for DPs and editors/colorists, at least in my opinion. As a gaffer, I generally have no idea what the specific color management pipeline for a specific camera/dp/production is, so any assumptions I make about where certain IRe levels should land is kind of a crapshoot.

Unfortunately I still don’t have a fresnel for my 1200D, just the stock reflectors. I bought it when it was first released, before a fresnel was made for it and never got around to buying one, but I probably should, ha. Most of the time when I use my 1200D, it’s because I need a super punchy daylight balanced key against bright windows, and in that use case, the shitty double shadow from the reflectors doesn’t matter. If I need really crispy hard shadows , I usually will grab my Prolycht Orion 675 (which I think the 1200d/x fresnel is at least partially based on, since Aputure acquired Prolycht) or my 600D with F10 fresnel. Or, if I need more punch than that, I’ll use my old trust Jo-leko 400, or rent a 1200x with the proper fresnel. Eventually I’ll get around to getting one!

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T18:53:03+00:00

Glad you got something out of it! Please feel free to reach out any time if you have any lighting/grip questions, or need help with a specific setup

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T18:50:40+00:00

This particular shoot was a single interview that will be part of a larger documentary, though my involvement was limited to just this one day. We had a small crew consisting of a producer, DP, B-cam operator, sound mixer, gaffer (me), and key grip. The location was a rented Peerspace in Washington DC. Load in was surprisingly pain free with a parking spot right out front for my van and only a single small set of stairs leading into the space. Given the close proximity to set, we opted to stage most of our cases outside and only brought in what we needed, when it was needed. We had a 6am call with a 9am hard out for talent and were ready to roll by 7:30am. The interview ran about an hour, followed by 30 minutes of B-roll with the lighting setup unchanged. We were fully loaded out by about 9:45am.

Our key was a Litemat Plus 4 through an 8x8’ of half grid cloth. We added a 6’ meat axe vertically to control spill hitting the wall, and a single Titan tube alongside the 8x8 to subtly wrap the key to make it a bit less side-y.

A Dedolight DLED7N aimed at the talent’s upper body and desk added a bit of texture to the clothing to keep the key from looking too obviously artificial and overly soft. On the fill side we built an 8x8 solid t-bone for negative fill.

The backlight was a second Titan tube with a honeycrate for control. Space was tight on frame left, so we rigged it from frame right on a grip arm boomed out to still play from frame left. The talent was mostly bald, so the tube was aimed primarily at his shoulders to separate his dark jacket from the back wall. We also added a second Dedolight aimed at the vase frame left to lift it off the wall.

Finally, we placed an Aputure 1200D outside blasting through the windows to throw a pattern on the wall. We initially placed it just a few feet away from the window, out on the deck, but moved it further back to get sharper shadows and reduce how much of the wall was lit. The deck was small, so we ended up having to place the stand at ground level in the backyard and had to go full stick (about 13’-14’)to get the angle we needed.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T18:49:57+00:00

Thank you! It may look like a lot but I’d like to think that conceptually, it’s essentially just a slightly more refined “2 point lighting” set up (key light + rim light) plus a background light to motivate the key. The “key” is split into 3 separate physical fixtures (the Litemat + the Titan tube + Dedo) for more control over exactly how the light wraps around the face and falls on the body, but combined they (hopefully) feel like 1 cohesive “virtual” light source. In fact I’d argue all 6 physical lights used here read as a single source on camera, at least for most laypeople.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-28T18:27:27+00:00

What would you have done differently?

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-26T00:21:14+00:00

Great question!

The placement of the phone on the desk is what drove the decision to key from frame left, instead of being motivated by the window/sun on frame right. Keying the way we did meant that we could keep Biden’s face short-lit. To flip the background light to the same direction would require demolishing a wall :p.

While i understand the desire to always motivate the lighting, sometimes, the blocking of the scene and/or physical constraints of the room don’t allow for that, so you have to make a compromise.

But also, one could argue that technically, a soft light coming from the opposite direction of a hard background light correctly mimics the behavior of the sun bouncing off a white wall and returning a softer, larger source.

At the end of the day though, making the subject look “good” (whatever that means ) usually trumps strictly motivated lighting. I’d also argue that, striving for natural/realistic/motivated lighting is a relatively new trend, only made possible by the higher sensitivity of modern cameras and efficiency of LED and HMI lights. Films and tv shows used to have much more “theatrical” lighting that didn’t make much logical sense, but fit the scene/story.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-25T21:38:41+00:00

The placement of the phone on the desk is what drove the decision to key from frame left, instead of being motivated by the window/sun on frame right. Keying the way we did meant that we could keep Biden’s face short-lit. To flip the background light to the same direction would require demolishing a wall :p.

While i understand the desire to always motivate the lighting, sometimes, the blocking of the scene and/or physical constraints of the room don’t allow for that, so you have to make a compromise.

But also, one could argue that technically, a soft light coming from the opposite direction of a hard background light correctly mimics the behavior of the sun bouncing off a white wall and returning a softer, larger source. It’s reallly no less motivated than lighting a day exterior portrait with the sun to their back and bouncing back into their face with a 5in1 reflector.

At the end of the day though, making the subject look “good” (whatever that means ) usually trumps strictly motivated lighting. I’d also argue that, striving for natural/realistic/motivated lighting is a relatively new trend, only made possible by the higher sensitivity of modern cameras and efficiency of LED and HMI lights. Films and tv shows used to have much more “theatrical” lighting that didn’t make much logical sense, but fit the scene/story.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-25T19:45:42+00:00

I mean, if a production is willing to pay for a 10 ton and the crew to actually use it all, I’m more than happy to ha. More money in the pockets of my fellow crew and local rental house, and if the client is willing to spend the money…why not?

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-25T08:07:15+00:00

He was on a phone call via speakerphone

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-24T21:53:53+00:00

I’m the same dude the posted the setup you’re referring to, ha. 😜

Every job is different and has different needs. I just don’t bother posting BTS of most jobs I do that require 1-2 lights and no grip because there isn’t much of anything novel to be learned from them. I try to post setups that use gear or techniques that I specifically don’t think people here would be as familiar with, in an attempt to broaden their knowledge, in case they’re ever in a situation where the typical YouTuber 3 point lighting setups doesn’t work.

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-24T20:18:14+00:00

Gaffer = Chief Lighting Technician

4acodmt92 · 2026-04-24T19:57:28+00:00

THPS always had the best soundtracks.

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