Help with lighting advice for doing HD video shoot

[davyboy]

I will be doing my first of many video shoots with a Canon XH A1s camcorder soon and would like advice concerning lighting indoors when videoing. Ideally I would like to work with natural light, videoing through the day time, though privacy has to be respected so obviously blinds or curtains will be used which in turn will have a impact on the quality of light available, so I want to know do I need to set up some lighting equipment to compensate for this ? And what are the pros and cons of using lighting equipment in comparison to just using natural light ?

[andy at handiwork]

Cant argue with that. I tend not to use tungsten lights anymore because of the heat they give off in the cofinded space of a lot of porn locations, not to mention the curtains will be closed. Much more comfortable for the models and you are fluorescent units which you can pick up these days for anything from ?200 to ?2000 apiece. Have a look on ebay, there's usually a lot of them for sale on there. You can change the tubes to accomodate the prevailing colour temp as well. Good luck with your shoot.

[SpannerProductions]

Another possibilty along the fluourescent lighting option is a few small tube Light fittings from B&Q/wickes etc (cost about ?20 quid a piece) get a Sparky mate (most people know somebody !!!) to wire them up on a couple of MDF boards(make them look pretty) and plug straight into a Extention lead - Smaller tube boards make them more portable but the effects can be pretty good , you can also make smaller frames that fit over the front to take Gels if you wish - Studio lighting on a budget but it should work.

[andy at handiwork]

There is always the economy version of course. Just be careful of the colour temperature of domestic tubes against the more expensive ones that are used in commercial units. Make sure any tubes you might buy have a high CRI (colour rendering index) of over 90.

[freddunbar]

I agree that fluorescents are a good choice for porn shoots because they don't generate any significant heat and their soft light can be more flattering than hard tungsten key lights and makes it easier to light a space for unpredictable action!

But as someone who lights mainstream films for a living when I'm not shooting porn, I'd like to back Andy up that you have to be careful with DIY fluorescents. Some fluorescent tubes are absolutely awful for shooting under - in fact on feature films we sometimes go to the trouble of replacing all the tubes in a large building like a supermarket because they look so bad.

Some fluorescents only give out light in parts of the spectrum so create weird colour casts (e.g. magenta or green) that look ugly on skin and can't be fixed by white balancing and are very hard to even fix in post.

Kino Flo are the top brand of fluorescents designed for film and video. They're great and a good choice for porn shoots if you can afford them. I haven't tried the cheap Chinese equivalents you can get on eBay but I would certainly warn against making something yourself with domestic tubes unless you know what you're doing!

p.s. If anyone wants to shoot high-end porn with proper film-like lighting, give me a call. It would be fun to combine those two aspects of my work!

[andy at handiwork]

Kinos are great but expensive. Though if you've spent 5K on a decent video camera (for porn), what's another 1500 for a good light. I've got two much cheaper lights, a wafer thin Videsence Koolite 4 tube that gives a gorgeous wrap around illumination and cost 150 on ebay (still got the old Picture Canning stickers on it), and an Ianiro Ice light, much bigger and has a lot of punch. That only cost ?200 new. Tubes are around ?5-8 each and last ages as long as you dont break them putting them in and out.
You aren't far down the road from me freddunbar, we should compare notes sometime in the Red Lion.

[andy at handiwork]

Was any of this some help then, davyboy?

[Sarah Kelly]

"More comfortable for the models".. which is how youd get the best out of them! Andy, your almost too good to be true.... x

[andy at handiwork]

I'd answer that Sarah, but I'm too busy polishing my halo.
Congrats on your win by the way. Get my text?