Chapter 16 Lighting Applications 347
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Practicals
How you handle the lights that appear in
the video frame depends on the lighting style
you have chosen.
Naturalistic or Expressionistic
Oddly, the opposite extremes in lighting
styles can use the same technique: replace bulbs in
practicals with screw-base CFL, LED, or halogen
lamps and use them for actual video lighting.
The resulting light will be “contrasty,” but excess
contrast is acceptable in these styles (Figure 16-24).
Realism or Pictorial Realism
With these more common styles, you
may want to establish the practicals and then
simulate their light with video lights.
Adjusting Intensity
To balance visible light sources with the rest
of your lighting, try fi tting larger or smaller lamp fi
bulbs, as needed. Halogen and LED replacement
lamps can be dimmed to reduce intensity, but
ordinary lights are already too orange to permit
much further color shift through dimming.
On the other hand, if you light a scene entirely
with household bulbs, you can simply set the
camera’s white balance manually to match their
2700K–2800K color temperature.
Moving Light Sources
Subjects often carry light sources, such as
flashlights or lanterns. When the practical light fl
is not on-screen, you can simulate its light for
better control.
• Flashlight. A small spotlight with a handle
makes a good simulated fl ashlight. Focus fl
the beam in the spot position to create a
hard edge, Figure 16-25.
• Lantern. To make a convincing “lantern,”
clip sheets of diffusion and orange filter fi
material (for “candlelight”) to a broad.
• Candle. For a candle effect, omit the
diffusion for a harder light. Wearing a
leather glove, wave your hand and move
your fi ngers slowly in front of the light to fi
create a fl ickering effect. fl
Figure 16-24. Today’s sensitive cameras can record
good images in candlelight.
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher
Focusable spotlight
with Fresnel lens
Filter ring
Variable dimming
trigger
Battery
Lowel Light, Inc.
Flashlight beam
Hand-held LED spotlight
Figure 16-25. The practical flashlight is established
by showing it on screen. But the light from the
flashlight is provided off screen by a hand-held LED
spotlight.