Think Crewdson or Erwin Olaf. Cinematic and probably more complex than it needs to be...
I'm planning to photograph a night street scene - around blue hour so I have some separation from the building edges - of three characters in front of a mid-20th C theatre and marquee. There is one street lamp, lots of light bulbs under the marquee, and an abundance of neon leading up the building. The three principals are a ticket taker, and a disheartened couple who split up on movie night...
The last time that I made a photograph like this it involved a cumulative 7k w/s of strobes. I don't have those kinds of resources anymore. So my conundrum is with lighting a night scene with enough light that I can shoot it at f/16-ish with a preference of iso 100 (that way the street lamps that I can't control will be less likely to blow out the highlights). I want this to be in color, so color temp is a concern. I've been considering some less expensive LED flood lamps that are advertised to be 5000 or 6500K and 10000lumen output each.
I'm thinking that 20000 lumens of flood light to raise the overall lighting of the scene and the few strobes that I have left to add highlights and shaping light to my 3 principle characters for directional light and highlights.
So the questions:
1- How can I estimate how much light will be needed to light a street night scene with the estimates of lumens from the flood lamps? Would they need to be converted to lux then into EV? (Is there an online calculator for that...please say yes...)
2- Any recommendations for LED work lights? Previous experience working with them and your feedback would be much appreciated. Can I run an inline rheostat/dimmer to a standard LED worklamp?
3- Anyone in N. Colorado that can assist with this shoot in the future?! (Never hurts to ask.)
As a reference to the lighting style that I am aiming for, I've included my previous venture into cinematic lighting below. (Shot on a rented Cambo 4x5 w/ a 150mm Rodenstock -- I think-- on Kodak Ektar 100. Exposure was about 2 seconds at f/11. This left a few places soft, like the words on the mailbox. I want avoid this in this next attempt. The optical print was great and I have a 30x40 framed that is quite the conversation starter for anyone who visits my family's home...sadly, that ability went the way of the dodo once I left grad school...)
I'm planning to photograph a night street scene - around blue hour so I have some separation from the building edges - of three characters in front of a mid-20th C theatre and marquee. There is one street lamp, lots of light bulbs under the marquee, and an abundance of neon leading up the building. The three principals are a ticket taker, and a disheartened couple who split up on movie night...
The last time that I made a photograph like this it involved a cumulative 7k w/s of strobes. I don't have those kinds of resources anymore. So my conundrum is with lighting a night scene with enough light that I can shoot it at f/16-ish with a preference of iso 100 (that way the street lamps that I can't control will be less likely to blow out the highlights). I want this to be in color, so color temp is a concern. I've been considering some less expensive LED flood lamps that are advertised to be 5000 or 6500K and 10000lumen output each.
I'm thinking that 20000 lumens of flood light to raise the overall lighting of the scene and the few strobes that I have left to add highlights and shaping light to my 3 principle characters for directional light and highlights.
So the questions:
1- How can I estimate how much light will be needed to light a street night scene with the estimates of lumens from the flood lamps? Would they need to be converted to lux then into EV? (Is there an online calculator for that...please say yes...)
2- Any recommendations for LED work lights? Previous experience working with them and your feedback would be much appreciated. Can I run an inline rheostat/dimmer to a standard LED worklamp?
3- Anyone in N. Colorado that can assist with this shoot in the future?! (Never hurts to ask.)
As a reference to the lighting style that I am aiming for, I've included my previous venture into cinematic lighting below. (Shot on a rented Cambo 4x5 w/ a 150mm Rodenstock -- I think-- on Kodak Ektar 100. Exposure was about 2 seconds at f/11. This left a few places soft, like the words on the mailbox. I want avoid this in this next attempt. The optical print was great and I have a 30x40 framed that is quite the conversation starter for anyone who visits my family's home...sadly, that ability went the way of the dodo once I left grad school...)
