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Cheap Noir DSLR Lighting
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  • @AlbertZ: Of course it depends on where in the world you are, but check with your local rental house. A kit of 1x1000W, 2x 650W and 2x300W Fresnels would be somewhere around $100 a day and would provide you with all you need, but you could go down to two 650s and one 300 in worst case scenario.

  • @CRCFilms this is the video, at 2'00" (I hate that terrible music)

  • How about a 1000W light like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110714759597 (but it also has fan which can cause sound problems for internal shots). Or you could use something like this cheap Arri clone http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1000W-Fresnel-Tungsten-Continuous-Light-w-Dimmer-Arri-220V-UK-/150753560059?pt=UK_Photography_Lighting_Units&hash=item23199cc5fb#ht_3130wt_828 It's 1000W and has Barn Doors and a dimmer (I'm considering buying this myself). Bottom line is ... in order to achieve Noir look, with GH1 even at ISO 200, you don't need anything more than 500W or 1000W for the hard light.. But you need the Barn Doors and/or Cookies.

  • The following was shot with two crappy 250watt tungsten Fotobestway lights with parabolic reflectors and barn doors. (not fresnels, no scrims or flags) Lights used: http://www.photocontinental.com.au/attachments/Page/137/ministarcon.jpg

    Film Noir Series... http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/slideshows/film_noir/

    I am primarily a photographer and this is a series of stills shot on a Pentax K7 @ 800iso with shutter speeds between 1/25th to 1/50th sec and apertures from around F2 to F4. In order to get a similar exposure for video say at a maximum of 400iso @ 1/50th @ F4 I would be looking at lights in the 650watt to 1000watt range. As discussed for 'noir' fresnels are the way to go. Of course meter for correct exposure on the face and let the rest fade to black.

    Yes and a smoke machine helps too!

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    799 x 531 - 70K
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  • @pundit Great shots!

  • here my cheap noir film.

    ITs a cannibal love story, not gore, not trashi no badwords, no nudes, big internal drama. ITs not finished yet. I have an old trailer also.

  • @endotoxic greetings! good look with the "old" GH1, it reminds me of dirty 16mm black and white like Schlingensief's film! :) It would be nice to know what LIGHT have used and in what profile have you shooted..(I think smooth in camera + high contrast in postproduction:) let us know! :)

  • Great shots guys!! Anyway- on topic- warning about par-38, par-30, etc medium-base screw bulbs: yes you get a lot of output for not much money, but the distribution of the field of light out of these is awkward and uneven. not great for much of anything else than a focused spot. They give themselves away as household spot and flood lights. Also very hard to shape cleanly. Good for a back edge though. You can manage this light field by putting some very light diffusion over them, something like opal frost or Hampshire frost. So a clip lamp + a par bulb + some light diffusion, tape, and black wrap. Will work, but really not so great. The quality of the light won't really look right either.

    +1 on why the others said on fresnels for a noir look. For rentals and purchases, the cheapest source is theatrical stuff rather than film/video stuff. Theater rental houses are much cheaper. They generally have 500w, 750w, 1k fresnels. Significantly cheaper.

    And don't use much diffusion as often on the lights as you would normally. They didn't have the nice high-tech plastic diffs that we do now.

    Be extra careful to control all the spill on the walls! Keep them really dark. If you can't afford c-stands and flags, which are the right tools for the job, at least have black wrap. Black foam core v-flats are a relatively cheap way to cut light with no stands.

  • thanks @airboxlights for your reply :) I've just made a little short film using only two par-30 light (with narrow spot lighting)...they're pretty good for small set (home) with lots of black clothes and so on ;) I think they're pretty good for Rembrandt lighting...however fresnels rock, indeed...