I think this could be done by making sure the lights are directed at your talent from an angle and not at the doors. Also you can adjust the exposure on your camera to change how much light you 'let' in.

Rob - UK

Maybe also use a polarizer lens to reduce reflection on the window. Use a bounce board outside to light the background action. This can be a large white piece of cardboard off screen "bouncing" light onto the action.

Inside, use a standard 3-light setup. If the (i'm assuming 2) actors are in profile, get a good key light so they look decent and use your other two lights to bring out detail in their faces.

Also watch your shooting angle to the sliding door. You don't want to catch the camera crew and audio operators in the reflection.

Dave

David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions

quote:

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Originally posted by gugon

Hello - I'm relatively new at this and I'd appreciate any advice I can get with the following:

I will be filming several scenes that take place at a kitchen table. The table is located in front of a sliding door. This will be during the day, so I will have a lot of light coming in the sliding door.

I want to be able to clearly see the actors sitting at the table, so they will be well lit from the front to counter the backlighting coming in the window.

But I also want to avoid glare on the window and be able to see some occasional background action that will take place outside.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this?

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You've got multiple issues to contend with here. Time to shoot, contrast ratios, desired look, and budget which will likely drive the choices you make.

I don't know your scene, so I can't know how long it will take to shoot it. This is important because as the sun travels across the sky, the light will change in various ways outside your windows, not only in terms of quality of light, but the danger exists of having sunlight coming straight into your set. Without knowing the layout of your set and where the sun will be and how it will track, it's impossible for me to suggest any specific way to deal with it. BUT, ideally, you'll plan to shoot any shots that will look out the window at the time of day when the light outside is "best" for you.

Now, what is "best"? That depends on your resources. Ideally, you'd cover the window with large sheets of Neutral Density gel. This can be done without wrinkling so that the camera doesn't even know that it's there. This ND gel knocks down the light coming in the window in various amounts depending upon which strength of ND you put on. It comes in .3, .6, .9, and 1.2. Which one you need depends on two factors: How bright is the light outside on your background and how much light can you pour on your set inside?

This is the contrast ratio issue. Our eyes can "see" a greater range of latitude than any film or video can. Most filmstocks have a greater range than video does. I don't know what camera you're using (if it's video) or filmstock you're using (if it's film) so I don't know what kind of latitude you'll be lighting with. In general though, a standard video camera would need to close down the iris to about a T11 or T22 without any internal ND thrown in. Take the same camera inside with normal house lighting and the camera will want to open up the lens to something like a T4 or T2. Your mission is to close that gap.

So, if you can shoot out that window when it isn't getting beat on by the full sun (like in early morning or later when it's almost dusk), then you've already done most of the work. If there is significant light falling on your exterior background, you'll likely want to put a .9 or a 1.2 ND gel on all of your windows that you'll look out of. THEN you also will need some powerful lighting inside without compromising the quality (the look) of what should just be soft warm interior kitchen light.

To accomplish that, you'll ideally want the biggest (most powerful) lights you can get because you won't just want to aim them directly on the set just to get the proper exposure. You'll likely want to shoot those lights through diffusion which will take the edge off but also you'll lose a bit of light. I'm guessing that you don't have the budget (or space in there) to light with a 5K or larger, which is what it would take to really do it right. So, what to do? Again, it all comes down to knocking that background down to get it's footcandle reading down closer to the lights you do have to use inside. I don't know what you have available, lighting-wise, so I can't adequately suggest where you put them.

In general though, for table-scenes, you'd help your scene and your production day a lot by hanging a large soft source over the table to provide a consistent ambient level throughout the shooting day. It has to be softened or else you'll have harsh shadows on your talent. If you don't do this, your ambient level will change throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky, then again when it eventually goes down at night. You'll then add in your key lights on the singles and two shots as needed. Placing them so you don't have glaring in the windows shouldn't be too difficult, although you may have to compromise a bit on light and camera placement. Don't be afraid to "cheat" the set and talent a bit if necessary on the coverage. As long as you've mapped out your shots and screen-direction and eye-lines correctly, it'll all cut together fine.

You can get ND from various film supply companies (like FILMTOOLS in Burbank or STUDIO DEPOT in Hollywood).

Oh, one last thing is to watch your color temperatures. Assuming you won't be using daylight balanced HMIs inside to match the color temp outside, if you don't correct for it somewhere, you'll have a warm "normal" interior and a very blue exterior. The ND gel I suggested also comes in a corrected form so that it warms up the light at the same time that it's being knocked down.

Good luck and please post some production "behind the scenes" photos of your setups to share with the class. 🙂

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

Wow - thanks for all the great responses. Your suggestions are going to be enormously helpful.

Particular thanks to Brian for taking the time to post your extraordinary and very detailed response. This is a HUGE help and it's going to save me a lot of time and headaches.

Fortunately, the exterior is mostly shaded so that should help to control things a little better - and hopefully diminish the effect of the moving sun.

You're welcome. A thought that I forgot to add before was to use CHINABALLS hanging from the ceiling over the table for that soft key. You can't put really powerful bulbs in there for fire danger reasons, but they are a nice and easy way to light something like a table scene.

http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?query=china%20ball&catalog=cinemasupplies&go.x=0&go.y=0

You can use blackwrap attached to the outside of the ball to flag off the side(s) that are throwing light where you don't want it if necessary. http://search.store.yahoo.net/cgi-bin/nsearch?query=blackwrap&catalog=cinemasupplies&go.x=0&go.y=0

Also, as long as you don't have to gel the windows to cut down the light and if you really want/need to see outside, maybe you can remove the glass to remove potential glaring and give yourself a cleaner shot. The Sound Mixer won't like you very much though. 🙂

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

Wow, these were all really useful responses and I didn't even ask for them! Thanks to everyone.

-Charley
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