Lighting on Scarlet

[ObiMcD]

Curious as to whether anybody knows what lighting systems/kits/tricks are likely to work best with the Scarlet? Mostly I guess I'm asking what seems to have worked with the RedOne and thus will PROBABLY work well with Scarlet, or if you can make any predictions based on what we know about the Scarlet.

[fretwork]

I'm going to check the RED forum, and see if anyone has posted on there.

But it's a good question, since going to HDCAM/XDCAM was a bit of a jump from DV :)

anyone have suggestions?

[Peter Majtan]

I have seen on average two different opinions:

A) You need about 50% of the light You would use for 35 mm film because digital cameras are more sensitive in the shadows...
B) You need pretty much the same amount of light as 35 mm film unless You are using an extremely fast lenses and even more so if shooting higher speeds...

After my last test with Red One I tend to incline with B)

So my advice - don't think about "special" lighting for Scarlet. I think there is never enough light and it is always much easier to darken then the other way round, so use as much light as You can afford for any given project...

But just to clarify - people have shot some great footage without any extra light - using only the available daylight, so don't be scared... :D

[fretwork]

I haven't had the opportunity to shoot on 35mm, but will assume that lighting for HDCAM would be somewhat similar (please correct me if I'm wrong)

can't wait to try this gadget out :)

[Peter Majtan]

You wouldn't be far off, but film does require little more then HD... :D

[Cedric_Akins]

You wouldn't be far off, but film does require little more then HD... :D
You must be talking about movie cameras? Because 35mm SLRs don't need a huge amount of light.

[Peter Majtan]

Of course Cedric, thanks for clarifying it... :D

[fde101]

You must be talking about movie cameras? Because 35mm SLRs don't need a huge amount of light.


This is a function of the lens and the film, not the camera.

More sensitive films like ISO 800 film will generally require less light than ISO 200 film (for example) using the same lens, for example.

[DefStef]

One's ISO is about 320, I think

[Peter Majtan]

FDE101 - the "film" in this case is the sensor, and as DefStef correctly pointed out - Red One's sensor is optimized for best performance (sensitivity) at ISO-320. You can change it, but the quality will slowly degrade as You go further away from the 320 ISO... Having said that - Red One with Build 16 is doing great job even at higher ISO's - the grain is really acceptable... Also we don't yet know the exact sensitivity of the new Mysterium X sensor... :D

[DefStef]

Perhaps we should start an "ultimate cheap lighting" thread.

I'm off to lunch

[Isaac Brody]

Same rules apply. If you have a DSLR with adjustable ISO, test it at 400 or 500 and shoot some test scenes. I think the difference we'll see is more usable higher iso's from Scarlet. I like the idea of being able to shoot at 640 or 800 iso and have usable footage.

[Chris Newman]

Another common point RED users make is that RED One does better with daylight (5600K) vs. tungsten (3200K) color temperature. Unfortunately, daylight lights (e.g., HMI's) tend to cost more.

[fde101]

Perhaps we should start an "ultimate cheap lighting" thread.

That would be a short thread.

Just shoot everything outside during the day.

Preferably not a rainy day...

[Yannick Hagman]

There are several options covered in my buying thread. It's not really something you should save on, pretty similar to audio.

[Joe Walker]

Curious as to whether anybody knows what lighting systems/kits/tricks are likely to work best with the Scarlet? Mostly I guess I'm asking what seems to have worked with the RedOne and thus will PROBABLY work well with Scarlet, or if you can make any predictions based on what we know about the Scarlet.


It really depends on what your subject is, how you want it to be seen, how much your budget is, what the genre is, what the director wants, what you feel needs to be conveyed, etc. I have to agree with David Mullen on this subject, lighting is the same whether you're shooting on film or video, you don't light one way for one and one way for the other. Now with video you almost always have to protect for the highlights overexposing but by-and-large its still the same concept. Most video cameras have a fairly high ASA but usually lack the latitude of film negative. Film is "somewhat" the opposite, in that you usually have a lot of latitude but your ASA's are most often limited to no higher than 500.

A month ago we wrapped a commercial shooting on a RED One that involved using an entire grip truck of lights. I mean we used EVERYTHING you can think of...daylight kino banks, reflectors, HMI's, large tungsten lights, everything. And then just a couple of weeks ago, we shot some stock footage for GM on the same RED One that involved no lights, just what mother nature was willing to give us.

So to answer your question, any light kit is going to give you light, it's what you do with the light that really counts. If that makes any sense. I mean you could go buy a used Lowell kit on ebay and for a scene in a small room, it would probably hold you pretty well. But I wouldn't expect it to be able to hold you through an assignment where the director wants you to light up an area the size of a football field! So my advice would be to analyze your needs and pick the lighting kit (kits, truck, etc.) you need based off of those.