Too Much Light?! | How to Control Sunlight on a Film Set

Stay tuned to the end for a chance to win a prize!

In this episode, Valentina shows us how she shapes and supplements natural sunlight when she is shooting a bright, happy montage sequence. She scouts the location, rigs overhead lights, uses negative fill, and employs steadicam movement to get the look and feel of a cheery morning work routine. This look is very versatile and can apply to most commercials and romantic comedies. At the end of the day, we're looking at the difference between what looks flat, and what looks cinematic.

Instead of a real store location, we shot the episode on a studio backlot so that we have the most control over the production design and time of day that we want to shoot. Valentina decided to shoot in the early afternoon because she knew that the set wouldn’t get any direct sunlight streaming in. Because of that, she’s able to shoot her own sunlight through the windows, which was accomplished with two Aputure 600ds outside shooting through sheer curtains. We rigged two Aputure 300dII lights overhead to act as a backlight and fill light while keeping it off the ground for our actor and steadicam operator. Lastly, Valentina placed floppies and duvetyne on the windows closer to the foreground because she didn’t want the indirect sunlight to spill in the foreground and flatten the image.

We shot with the Canon C70 and Rokinon Xeen lenses with mounting and matte box from Smallrig. The shots were done on steadicam to create a light and airy feeling. Neutral density and Black Pro Mist filters were added for balancing out the exposure of the scene and softening the look, while creating a pleasant bloom around the edges.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Story/Concept
2:16 - Camera
3:10 - Exposure/NDs
4:32 - Production Design/Color
5:13 - Lighting
8:39 - Negative Fill
10:19 - Breakdown
10:40 - Lens Filters
11:21 - Steadicam
11:51 - Final Result
12:28 - Outro

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Summary:
Aputure's YouTube channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[MoesesKIIINT]

I tend to light a lot of POC. Our skin absorbs some of the light and when lighting POC indoors, one of my favorite techniques is to use some sort of moisturizer or oil (preferably coconut oil) paired with small soft LEDs to add a bounce or reflection off of their skin and create depth to the shot.

[orangearts-desgs]

Please never stop creating these videos. This is so helpful! 🙏🏼

[bacnic]

the production quality on these videos is WOW!

[MossCoveredBonez]

Valentina Vee and Wandering DP are making lighting entertaining, pretty sure they're single handedly leading the convo away from "buy this new camera" to "practice with your lights".
I'd have to say my favorite lighting technique so far is upstage

[livesongs]

Thank you Valentina, crew, and everyone at Aputure. These videos are a wealth of knowledge!

[GiancarloBiondi]

The look is very nice. I like this diffused and soft light. Seeing the before and after and following you step by step is instructive. To get a soft effect I often use bouncing the light. Congratulations also to the model who is really spot on for this type of spot (face, gestures, colors). Brava Valentina, very good!

[dunnadidit]

LOOK MOM! MY HANDS ARE IN A 4 MINUTE FILM SCHOOL! 3:28

[valdemarcaballero]

absolutely fantastic video and THANKS FOR

[joshkiddfilms]

This is a great training, although from a grade standpoint, the final result seems kind of overexposed/lifted too much. Would have been nice to see the final corrected result.

[SevgiMungan]

Just last week I got the most basic, oddly flat looking shot when I was aiming to get a cinematic look. This is super useful, hope I can create more depth in my next try. This YouTube channel teaches me more than the actual film school

[mrmance]

My favorite technique for lighting interior daylight scenes is bouncing a light at the ceiling or wall to boost ambience with the iso/ND as low/dark as possible without being moody. Then adding a key and back light. Typically it’s because of DSLR, and I don’t have access to as many lights as you all, nor the dynamic range to create directional sunlight outside the window like this. However, as my projects and budgets increase, I’ll be adding to my arsenal. These videos are helping me land more work, as I’m increasing my quality. By the way, she is a great host...and her personality makes the videos so easy to watch and understand! I’ve subscribed! I’d love to win this 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[thundering]

I'm a HUGE fan of backlighting. Big soft source behind (echo/mimic a large window behind as the possible source), and a large bounce back to the actor (just a large reflective surface - bleached muslin, or even large foamcore - whatever you've got that is a large even surface so that it's soft). In general, I like lighting "spaces, not faces" but this looks SO good to me when it's a more intimate setting rather than a big open space. Add lighting for the room as desired - this isn't an interview, so we obviously need to appropriately see the surroundings as well.

[tuckerkanderson]

Love this! People always focus on dramatic scenes, not enough focus on high-key lighting, thanks Valentina! One of my favourite techniques for interior daylight scenes is to shoot on an overcast day. That way you get a nice even soft light coming in from outside, that is consistent throughout the day, making you less worried about things like the position of the sun, but still able to use natural light to motivate your scene.

[mikechmielmusic]

I dig this series so far. Very educational. My last daylight lit scene gave me two issues to solve. 1. Clouds were moving through the area, changing the amount of light coming in constantly. 2.There was traffic noise from the intersection outside. My plan of attack was first to address the audio by placing a thick moving blanket on a stand in front of the window. Another one placed in front of the perpendicular wall out of shot. That brought the noise down enough. Then I stuck a reflector with the white side over the the blanket to simulate the now blocked window.Two of my LED light panels were set up to bounce off the reflector onto the spot where I was playing guitar. My ring light acted as a fill on the other side of the room. The key light was another LED light panel with barn doors to control the spill. Having the light stay consistent and the noise under control, allowed me to focus on playing music in the video.

[VentureGroms]

This is SO Oh man I can't wait to be in this Less than a year to film school. SO hyped

[mistersergey]

Greate work thank you Valentine! and the actreess was also amazing

[gyorfitam]

I personally really like the more moody (early) daylight interior scenes where you use some haze, imitating the sun with COB lights or LED panels outside the window and then you just use some light curtains to diffuse the light a little bit. And use negative fill on the other side to make it a bit more dramatic.

[BrentHagyVideography]

Great tips! I always like to blast light into the white ceilings to make a massive bounce source. Helps lift the total exposure of the room when needed.

[RockPolitics]

Adding the second 600 outside was a bold touch. It's a luxury to have access to that much firepower, but knowing how to use it is still the key.

I've been using a lot more flags and screens lately, and it has stepped up my game.

[jonathancortizo]

I love book lighting high key interior scenes. I’ll key with light bounced off a large (6x6 or larger if possible) muslin or ultra bounce and break it with silent full grid. I’ll double break the light with another layer of 1/4 silent grid if the light has enough push. I’ll use 4x4’ floppies to contain the spill from the open ends of the book light set up, and I’ll cut the top and bottom of the book light’s front element with duvetyne to contain spill on the walls and floor around the subject.

I’ll use a similar set up right behind the camera as front fill if it’s needed. And I’ll backlight with something like a covered wagon behind the subject.

Fred Murphy used this technique to light The Good Wife and it creates a really soft look. It’s really similar to cove lighting. I ACed for Fred on Good Wife and he used this technique in almost every scene. It created consistency throughout the series. I love this technique, especially with punchy lights like the 600d and 300d II.