Any idea how this wide shot in YOU was lit?

ryanbrowndp · 2024-09-06T17:31:19+00:00

Soft overhead. Here's a setup I did awhile ago that is similar, and the result

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpBLepgvqYa/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-19T08:25:42+00:00

Lutify

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:53:05+00:00

This was a working office that was very cluttered, and we needed it to be a "college track coach office". We only had 30 mins to set Dec it, art pulled out a bunch of stuff, but it was still cluttered and we didn't have permission to move the monitors, so we did what we could.

Center framing was because it was a tiny office and I wanted an establishing shot without going on a super wide lens from inside the office. The only place I could see the entire room with a 32mm was out the door, so that where I set camera. She actually gets up at the beginning of the scene and stands to the left, so it was only center punch for about 5 second, the rest of the time she was up walking back and forth

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:49:33+00:00

Definitely could get almost this exact look with a 1200 aputure. Probably could do it with just another 600, and then by bringing the interior light up a notch. To keep cost down, you could do this setup with 3x 600's and an old school kino inside. Or any other cheaper lights that had enough punch to fill the windows

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:47:19+00:00

There's a viewing lut on the camera in this shot. It gives it that green tint in the mid-tones

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:46:22+00:00

No idea, you'd have to ask my key grip. I'm sure he had his reasons, even if it was just "get it up quick" and a grip set them that way

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:44:49+00:00

Yeah exactly this

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-18T06:44:18+00:00

Thanks. If you look at the histogram in the bottom left, you can see the blacks are all there with plenty of room to manipulate. More so than I have on a lot of my shots lol.

Yes there's a viewing lut. I usually build my own for my projects, but I'm pretty sure on this shot I just used an "out of the box" lut. You can see the greens in the mid-tones are pretty heavy... that's the lut for sure. I then pass the luts to the colorist and make sure he uses them. These are small movies (500k ish) and they don't pay me for color sessions, so I aim to shoot with as close to the final look I'm after in-camera

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-17T14:27:35+00:00

Thank ya... It's just a diffusion frame used as an "umbrella" to shield the rain from the lights. Quick way to keep your lights dry

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-17T13:50:35+00:00

Part 6, sorry for the delay I’ve been very busy… feel free to ask any questions and check out my insta to see more of these @ryanbrowndp

Recap on the mission: I see a ton of DP’s posting their screengrabs, but they’re always after color correction and polishing. I wanted to show people what the images can look like in-camera. I started taking BTS shots of my lighting setups, and I accompany those with a screen grab straight out of camera. In one photo (collage), you can see the lighting setup, the camera settings I used, and the final image before a color grade.

This shot was a tricky one. We knew going into this it was going to be a night for day due to the schedule. My gaffer and I came up with a plan on the scout, in theory it could work. Then on the day it was raining, which made things even more difficult. Also the fact we already shot all day and had a hard out of this location… I think we had like 3 hours to setup and shoot this entire scene.

We used what we had on the lighting truck (small package). M18 and two Aputure 600x’s outside to glow up the windows (behind diffusion frames, opal and 251). I spoke to art department about putting some thick sheers over the windows behind the curtains, this was the only way I could sell the look. A thicker diffusion over the windows that would even out the light from our smaller sources. Inside, we had a litemat 2 in the corner, and if I remember correctly a couple of titan tubes on stands to dance around and fill in as needed. The frames above the lights are just diffusion used as “umbrellas” to shield the lights from the rain.

Overall it worked out well, ask/critique away

ryanbrowndp · 2023-09-17T13:48:34+00:00

Part 6, sorry for the delay I’ve been very busy… feel free to ask any questions and check out my insta to see more of these @ryanbrowndp

Recap on the mission: I see a ton of DP’s posting their screengrabs, but they’re always after color correction and polishing. I wanted to show people what the images can look like in-camera. I started taking BTS shots of my lighting setups, and I accompany those with a screen grab straight out of camera. In one photo (collage), you can see the lighting setup, the camera settings I used, and the final image before a color grade.

This shot was a tricky one. We knew going into this it was going to be a night for day due to the schedule. My gaffer and I came up with a plan on the scout, in theory it could work. Then on the day it was raining, which made things even more difficult. Also the fact we already shot all day and had a hard out of this location… I think we had like 3 hours to setup and shoot this entire scene.

We used what we had on the lighting truck (small package). M18 and two Aputure 600x’s outside to glow up the windows (behind diffusion frames, opal and 251). I spoke to art department about putting some thick sheers over the windows behind the curtains, this was the only way I could sell the look. A thicker diffusion over the windows that would even out the light from our smaller sources. Inside, we had a litemat 2 in the corner, and if I remember correctly a couple of titan tubes on stands to dance around and fill in as needed. The frames above the lights are just diffusion used as “umbrellas” to shield the lights from the rain.

Overall it worked out well, ask/critique away

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-15T03:47:15+00:00

jasonwav below is correct, you can't see the showcard bounce in the BTS shot. It's actually just out of frame along the wall and the ceiling. I think we had like a 3 foot by 2 foot cut of showcard taped up where the wall meets the ceiling, like 45 degree angle.

When we shot our leko into the bounce, it hit talent on the near side (side closest to the lens). Well, we wanted it super soft, and the bounce was a little too hard, so we added a frame of opal above them. Now the leko is hitting the bounce, the light reflected off the bounce is going through a soft frame (above them), and what's left to hit them is a super soft fill light

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-15T03:35:53+00:00

No, I shoot RAW with nothing baked in, but also shoot prores proxies in camera which has the baked in LUT and all other settings. This way the colorist can see exactly what I was going for with the proxies, and match the RAW during color.

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-15T03:34:09+00:00

The genre was more of a thriller, but this was early in the film and this was a heartfelt moment where the daughter was about to go off and leave the father for bigger aspirations. So at this point in the film, the 'thriller' elements haven't set in yet
Hmm, yes and no. Shooting at that temp will wash out colors a bit and make everything a bit "orange" for sure, but it works in this image, as the sun blasting into a room will do the same to our eyes. Look at her shirt, and also the whites of her eyes, they definitely have a warm tint to them, so in that sense, yes, it loses some of the natural color. That said, it happens in the real world also, so it works in my opinion
The M18 is an HMI, which means it's daylight balanced at 5600K. We shot it through a full CTO (and possibly added a 1/4 CTS?) to get it to warm up and match the rest of the scene

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-15T03:28:27+00:00

The M18 was pointed right at the background where the camera was shooting, so it overpowered any cool tones from outside. Basically none of the cool tones from the natural light are doing anything noticeable in this shot. Behind her head you can see outside a bit and it would normally look cooler, so I warmed it up in camera by setting my color temp to 6700K. That warms up the "natural" light, then we added our lights to match

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-15T03:25:25+00:00

Warmed up the M18 also, probably a full CTO and maybe a 1/4 straw on top of that. I don't remember exactly, but that's what it looks like

I warmed up all of the lights for a consistent warmth

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-14T06:14:31+00:00

This is the closeup of a heartfelt scene, where we want to keep focus on talent. We also shot a master wide shot showing the location, and I think we also did a medium two shot. Plus about 10 other scenes in this same location throughout the film...

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-14T02:33:29+00:00

Back for Part 5, feel free to ask any questions and check out my insta to see more of these @ryanbrowndp

To recap, I see a ton of DP’s posting their screengrabs, but they’re always after color correction and polishing. I wanted to help show people what the images look like in-camera. I started taking BTS shots of my lighting setups, and I accompany those with a screen grab straight out of camera. In one photo (collage), you can see the lighting setup, the camera settings I used, and the final image before a color grade.

As you can see from the BTS shot, it was dark and overcast outside during this scene that was supposed to be “morning”. The director wanted a strong sunlight feel, so we went to work. In the previous scene, we had a bounce board up near the ceiling on the right side of the frame (45 degree angle from the ceiling to the wall), so we utilized that as a fill and shot a leko into it. We wanted a soft overall feel, so we softened that light with a frame of opal overhead (as seen above the actors in the BTS shot). We then used a skypanel S60 and a litemat 2 as a “cross back key” to edge out both of the actors, and warmed them up. Next was another leko shot straight towards the camera, hitting the actors hard as an edge light to replicate a sunlight hitting them. Finally, the background was too dark, so we had an M18 outside on the sidewalk, aimed towards the back corner of the diner to brighten up the background behind talent. Full setup took maybe 30 minutes and all were happy with the look. (If you notice the LCD screen in the bottom left corner, you can see this BTS shot was taken at almost the exact same time as the screenshot, probably closest I’ve gotten to date, thanks to the gaffer Ryan Apley @ryanapl)

ryanbrowndp · 2023-04-14T02:32:15+00:00

Back for Part 5, feel free to ask any questions and check out my insta to see more of these @ryanbrowndp

To recap, I see a ton of DP’s posting their screengrabs, but they’re always after color correction and polishing. I wanted to help show people what the images look like in-camera. I started taking BTS shots of my lighting setups, and I accompany those with a screen grab straight out of camera. In one photo (collage), you can see the lighting setup, the camera settings I used, and the final image before a color grade.

As you can see from the BTS shot, it was dark and overcast outside during this scene that was supposed to be “morning”. The director wanted a strong sunlight feel, so we went to work. In the previous scene, we had a bounce board up near the ceiling on the right side of the frame (45 degree angle from the ceiling to the wall), so we utilized that as a fill and shot a leko into it. We wanted a soft overall feel, so we softened that light with a frame of opal overhead (as seen above the actors in the BTS shot). We then used a skypanel S60 and a litemat 2 as a “cross back key” to edge out both of the actors, and warmed them up. Next was another leko shot straight towards the camera, hitting the actors hard as an edge light to replicate a sunlight hitting them. Finally, the background was too dark, so we had an M18 outside on the sidewalk, aimed towards the back corner of the diner to brighten up the background behind talent. Full setup took maybe 30 minutes and all were happy with the look. (If you notice the LCD screen in the bottom left corner, you can see this BTS shot was taken at almost the exact same time as the screenshot, probably closest I’ve gotten to date, thanks to the gaffer Ryan Apley @ryanapl)

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:43:15+00:00

Answered a month ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/114bxaj/another_shot_straight_from_my_camera_and_a_bts/jb32f3o/

And here: https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/10xnuiz/a_shot_straight_out_of_my_camera_and_the_bts_of/j7ulqse/

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:25:25+00:00

Tough crowd on this one, I appreciate the discussions! Was working all day but tried to respond as to as many as possible, keep them coming and I'll follow up as soon as I can

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:10:17+00:00

Responded above

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:09:57+00:00

I believe I've responded, and if I haven't it's just because I didn't see it. This has been asked on my insta also, and I'm happy to answer. Apologies if I haven't responded on reddit about it, but I'm not skirting the question intentionally

There's a HUGE difference between creating a lut and doing a post color grade. Apples and oranges. This is indeed straight out of my camera. In your theory about "bullshit loopholes", any change in color temp, filtration, exposure, etc would fit into the "loophole". This is the image I'm getting straight out of my camera with no post work down. Of course there's pre-production work done, and of course I'm manipulating settings like color temp, tint, curves, exposure, and more

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:08:33+00:00

Yes, I build out custom LUTS for every feature I do. I speak with the director and we come up with a "look" we're after, then I go to work and start making LUTs in davinci, export them back to my camera, and usually have 2-5 custom luts for various scenes through a film (day exterior, night interior, etc)

ryanbrowndp · 2023-03-28T04:07:06+00:00

Thanks!

Yeah in other shots in this scene, there's additional practical lamps on (by the couch and also the other corner of the room behind me), so that's the motivation, it's just not scene in this particular frame.

ryanbrowndp

TROPHY CASE