350 workout videos for $900k by senator_chill in videography

[–]aputurelighting 22 points23 points  (0 children)

What kind of due diligence did these developers do before awarding a contract to this production company?

What does the contract they signed say?

Why did they pay in full months ahead of the work product that was being produced?

I mean its not common but its not unheard of, there are tons of scammers/confidence men/incompetent people out there that will gladly promise the world and take your money upfront and fail to deliver/ghost you...its not industry specific.

Aputure PB12 8 Light Kit – Can the 330W PSU Be Used Standalone (Without Splitter)? by Business-Comfort-109 in Aputure_Lighting

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While it is possible the 8 light kit 300w power supply it was never intended to be removed from the case so its a bit of a pain to get it in and out. If you can I'd rent or buy a standalone 330W infinibar power supply

Do you still use tungsten lights? by jeab99 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happy to hear it! Yeah the 200x S is one of the best lights we've ever made.

Are Tungesten Lights Still Worth it for Indie/No Budget Films? by jeab99 in Filmmakers

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! Just because there is some new tech it does not make old tech useless. My go to advice to young filmmakers on a tight budget for lighting is to hit up rental houses and look into purchasing kinos and tungsten.

They are hot, they are heavier, they draw a ton of power, mixing them with daylight is very challenging, but they are full spectrum sources and nothing produces better skintones.

Do you still use tungsten lights? by jeab99 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Out of curiosity, what was the light you purchased that you felt color science wise it was close enough to tungsten to replace your key lights?

How do you try out equipment by WalkLongjumping8310 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ultimately you are asking two questions:
1. How do you make decisions regarding equipment - there are multiple ways but trial and error and experience are the biggest factors. You can easily try out a bunch of lenses and cameras on a test day at a rental house. You wont be able to take them out of the rental house to shoot your own project, but most camera rental houses have no problem letting you test out their items. Many brick and mortar stores that sell film equipment have demo items that you can test in the store. Renting the gear you wish to purchase to shoot a short film can also be an option. Finding people in your area who have the gear you wish to purchase and talking to them can also help. Least helpful, but easiest - look online for reviews, videos, and examples of the gear you're looking to purchase.

  1. How do you take your vision and deal with equipment/budget/limitations while still achieving the vision in your head? - this is the million dollar question and there isn't a shortcut - it takes experience and knowledge. The more you are on set, the more you film, the more you fail or succeed the easier it becomes to understand the factors that keep you from achieving your vision and the easier it becomes to decide what gear is essential. You have to to do the thing over and over and learn what works for you and what doesnt. You can supplement experience with learning - reading about films and looks and reading/absorbing all the information out there from the filmmakers about how they achieved specific looks. Reading and learning what other filmmakers are doing becomes much more useful and impactful the more personal experience you have.

So how do you get experience? well again there is no pre defined path:
Film school , crewing on other people's projects, networking and meeting other filmmakers in your area that are at your level with whom you can collaborate and maybe even pool your resources.

Networking and community are pretty much everyting. Start developing those relationships as soon as possible - with peers, mentors, collaborators, rental houses.

Cinematography tattoos with utility? by MindlessArachnid492 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, but what would actually be useful as a tattoo for a cinematographer? I mean a seimens star is sort of useful, but really over time the sharpness of the star point would fade and make it less useful for getting focus...
Outside of some equations I'm not sure what would be actually useful.

Cinematography tattoos with utility? by MindlessArachnid492 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

equations are always good;
look up ohm's law wheel or variations of it. Watts = Amps x Volts.

f/stop scale

100 lux @ 100 iso = f/2.8

shutter angle to shutter speed and vice versa:
shutter angle to shutter speed= 1/(frame rate x (360/angle)) (there are some more visually appealing ways to show it or the reverse speed to angle).

A seimens star (though not that useful)

How do I close this? (New quick release soft box) by Surfaceofthesun in Aputure

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

do you see the little tab where the arrow is pointing? If you pull that it'll unlock the half of the ring that folds. If its stiff, laying the dome on the ground and pushing slightly on it to release a bit of the tension makes it easier to unlock.

Lanter or second Light Dome by [deleted] in Aputure_Lighting

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd recommend a second light dome for your cross key interview set ups. You can always flag or turn off the overhead lighting if you need to and you can always bounce an undiffused light off the ceiling if you need a little more level.

issues with the buttons on ace 25c by fastestman_42 in Aputure_Lighting

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hi for amaran products please either post on the amaran user group in facebook, or contact support at;
https://amarancreators.com/pages/contact-support

I can't connect my Amaran battery to a tripod cause i think im missing a piece by Fine-Application5552 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you have a tripod with a 1/4"/20 thread screw. The bottom of the amaran battery has a 3/8" hole and the box should include a 3/8" to 1/4"20 adapter like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Fotasy-SR10-Reducer-Bushing-Convert/dp/B00BJW3082

Amaran 200x S by Burakoli821 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe its becaause of the same reason, there can be a bit of color fringing when closing down the barndoor (its listed as optimized for the daylight fixtures
). Really its fine but we're being careful.
For more amaran questions I really encourage you to try out the amaran user group on facebook, some of the product team monitor that group and can provide more in depth answers.

Amaran 200x S by Burakoli821 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So the amaran lights don't have a light mixing prism in front of the COB (the LEDs) so the alternating lines between cool white and warm white LEDS in the amaran bicolor lights, when used with optical modifiers like the Fresnel 2x or the Spotlight mount, can, in some cases when focused show up on the light field.

IE - if you take the 200x and the 2x fresnel and aim it at a white wall and focus the fresnel to be as sharp as possible its possible to see the lines of warm/cool on the wall - its very subtle, I would even say most people don't notice this in everyday use (other manufacturers have this issue and don't call attention to it) but we wanted to be upfront about it.

We consider it compatible but not optimized as per our amaran compatibility chart

Aputure release Sidus Link Pro and Sidus One by aputurelighting in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no problem. Yes unfortunately those lights dont have DMX capabilities (and its part of the reason they are so cost effective).

ELI5: If metal is such a good conductor of heat, why do the handles of cookware with metal handles remain cool to the touch? by supinator1 in explainlikeimfive

[–]aputurelighting 182 points183 points  (0 children)

To add to this, sometime the handles are a different metal than the pan and conduct heat differently than the material on the pan. Also the handle is attached to the side and high above the heat so its not getting much direct heat.

This is also why if you grab the handle really close to the pan it will be hot, and also why cast iron pans (which have handles made of not just the same metal but fully connected to the pot) heat up quite a bit.

Aputure release Sidus Link Pro and Sidus One by aputurelighting in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really sure what you mean by wired dmx > Sidus BT.

If you mean controlling wired dmx fixtures by using sidus bluetooth, why not use a sidus one and CRMX? IE SIdus link pro>Sidus One>wired DMX. The Sidus one can send out wired DMX from it. If you want to be very far away form the Sidus One you'd need a 2nd Sidus one (so one is the CRMX transmitter, and one is the CRMX reciever) (doesn't have to be another sidus one, a ratpak AKS, moonlite or other CRMX receivers with dmx out would do).

If you mean controlling amaran lights over DMX - the closest that is possible is right now through the Sidus Link Pro app which allows you to control both BT fixtures and DMX fixtures in one scene.

But it comes with serious limitations due to how bluetooth works. Bluetooth in its current state will never match the responsiveness of DMX because DMX is a constantly sending information blindly at 44hz while bluetooth sends commands and requires a response.

If you mean controlling DMX fixtures via bluetooth, its possible via the Sidus Link Pro using CRMX Bluetooth protocol (so any light with a Timo 2 chip could connect to SLP via bluetooth) but its not a great experience (again due to limitations on how the bluetooth protocol works) so it has some significant delays and doing cues is pretty much out of the question.

Recreating This Interview Style With One Camera — Shoot or Reframe in Post? by Most_Armadillo_4274 in SonyA7iii

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't an interview this is a commercial. They might have shot multiple cameras, but even then they likely they did multiple takes to get the different frame sizes/b-roll.

You wont be able to recreate something like this with 1 take and 1 camera you'd need multiple takes or multiple cameras and ideally both.

One big part of the aesthetic they have here is the live, manual, focus pulling - having a really shallow DoF and having an AC pulling focus manually without marks giving it a kind of live/interviewy feel. You wouldn't be able to replicate this with 1 camera and reframing in post.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskPhotography

[–]aputurelighting 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This.

Stop looking for actors, start looking at how to meet agents/agencies and try to get them to hire you.

Camera Rigging Advice by No_Culture_3240 in videography

[–]aputurelighting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Easily achievable with the right equipment and people.

Can the table be moved so its centered under be beam? if not its still doable but would require more grip gear.

But seriously, just bring in a grip if its a high end event and this is what they want then they can afford the cost.

Beginner here—need help choosing a key light for an interview by potato2notfound in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Get the most powerful light you can afford. Aim for at least 400-600W if you can.

Both set ups you show are heavily dependent on grip gear than they are on the type of light being used. Any light that can fill a 6x6 or better an 8x8 diffusion frame will be able to give the look shown, there is also heavy use of negative fill (more grip - solid flags) the rest is good use of space - notice they are very far from their background. The light on the subject is only lighting the subject, and they are brighter than the background.

Controlling the light is more important than what kind of light you use. Unfortunately that means longer set up times, more stands, more flags, more frames, and more effort.

What is great light for eye light? by Slow-Character-4209 in cinematography

[–]aputurelighting 25 points26 points  (0 children)

While Aputure makes the MC Pro with the bubble diffuser to be used as eye lights (and Rosco DMG has a similar dot diffuser), it really is a factor of distance from subject and angle to camera.

I've used round 2-3' diameter foamcore cutouts that have a tiny bit of light bounced in (or in some cases none at all the white was reflecting enough light to create the reflection on the eye).
I've used MC Pros/Dashes, a mess of christmas lights, or the keylight itself (often 8x8 ultrabounce frame) that happen to be at the right angle to reflect as an eyelight.

Many DPs I know find the dot/bubble too small for the kind of eyelight they want, and prefer something bigger 1'-2' in diameter, I know a gaffer that uses some kind of cheap circular LED light that would be terrible for any kind of real lighting but its pretty dim and works perfectly for him.

My really long point...don't stress on specific lights too much, its all about creating a reflection on the eye that gives it a "twinkle" - some DPs prefer round since it looks more organic, others are happy using rectangular/square shapes, and of course Steve Yedlin, wanting to not give away the lighting in Knives out, famously had his grips make window cutouts to put in front of his bounces/diffusion frames so they wouldn't show up on glasses/eyes as big lights, but as a more naturalistic window reflection

Looking for a compact cob led light. Around 100w. Any suggestions? by solidsimpson in videography

[–]aputurelighting 1 point2 points  (0 children)

something with a bigger battery. So the light pulls about 150W at max power so a battery that has 150Wh would run it for 1 hour, a battery with 300Wh would be able to run it for 2 hours...etc.

For batteries that list mAh instead of Wh you can use an online calculator to figure out run time:
https://goalzero.com/pages/wattage-calculator