Page 85 - Lighting the Un-lightable 2015

 In the second room, there was a print over the bed. This was a potentially

reflective surface I didn't need to worry about in the other room.

As Figure 3 shows, I decided that I would place the lights as though I simply turned the sec-

ond room on its side. Effectively, I rotated the first room 90 degrees to the left (see Figure

4). As carefully as I could, I moved the equipment to where it would be had I done just that.

Again, as Figure 3 shows, I did run into a problem, minor, but still a problem. The B4 that I

was going to place to the left of the reflector was right in the shot no matter where I stood.

The only solution was to move it until it left the viewing angle.

The images of Akira in the darker outfit with wings demonstrate quite clearly that I was able

to achieve what I set out to accomplish. As the photographs on pages 108 an 109 demon-

strate, the lighting configuration served well enough to create monochrome images that

were as good as the color ones. For me, this is always a true test of how well a scene is lit.

So, does this mean that once you light a room, all you need to do is move your gear to the

same place in another room? No. Not at all. There are far too many variables to make a

statement like that. Before I can offer you specific guidelines as to how to make transport-

ability possible, I shall need to do much more experimentation. At the moment, I can tell

you is that the following must be true:

 The rooms must be of similar size and shape.

 The furniture and other decorative elements must be similarly arraigned.

 The placement of windows, doors, and other sources of ambient light must

be similar as well, both in terms of location and intensity.

As we stress in all our seminars and workshops, the key is always rendering the volume of

light as consistent as possible. The closer to one F-stop, the greater the dynamic range of

color, the more emotionally powerful the images.

| 85