Creating an Artificial Sunrise: Of Lighting Workshops and Research on LED Strip Lights
The term cinematography is commonly defined as “the art or science of motion-picture photography”. As such, and due to the history of filmmaking being based on the capturing of light on stock footage of chemical solutions, cinematography is equally the art and science of capturing and displaying light.
Regarding this, it is no wonder that light plays such a tremendous role in cinematography. Due to the manufacturing of camera sensors that are still based on the signal conversion of incoming photons, this even holds true for modern videography, as the base principals remain the same.
Thus, my blog entry today will be centred on the topic of lighting, and especially in regard to “The Pillars of Creation”. Since my script requires an artificial sunrise in the beginning of the film in order to emulate the feel of technological advancement within the story and help to bring across the Sci-Fi genre aspect of more artificial and elaborate lighting designs, I decided that I would tackle this task early on to be prepared for the day that principal photography rolls round.
On Creating Artificial Sunrises
Right from the conception of my film idea I envisioned to have an artificial sunrise recreated within the capsule itself. This I intended as a means to illustrate the technological advancement and the retrieved knowledge of space travel. By displaying an artificial sunrise upon waking its passenger, the ship’s A.I. is making it easier for Mark Zane to keep his circadian rhythm intact. As such, I envisioned the source of this artificial sunrise to be concentrated around the windshield itself.
As you can glean from my idea above, this was an ambitious goal that I set for myself. Whilst lighting is of the essence for any film project, this holds especially true for Sci-Fi. Thus, I decided to participate in a lighting workshop and share my learning from it in the following.
The All-Encompassing Lighting Workshop With Brian Hall
During late November of last year, Hannah, Has, and I were fortunate enough to participate in a lighting workshop held by DoP Brian Hall together with the LVL5s at The Northern School of Art. This lighting workshop allowed me to gain deeper insights not only into the nature of light, but also into the very core of cinematography itself. And in the following, I will share some of the most helpful tips and tricks that I’ve learned during this two-day intensive course.
Where Is The Light Coming From?
This is the first and foremost question every DoP needs to ask themselves when either analysing or designing the lighting in any given space. Is the lighting source a natural or an artificial one? How has it been shaped, if at all? Whilst lighting scenarios based in reality can have as many light sources as possible, the go-to lighting scenario for film is usually three-point-lighting.
Revisiting The Basics of Three-Point-Lighting
Although this is basic knowledge of any camera-lighting person, it should still be noted down, as Brian Hall’s tricks of the trade helped make this process much easier to understand.
Three-point-lighting obtained its name from the concept that three sources of light – or three different directions of light coming in – are lighting the subject in question. Since each source of light always also creates a shadow, three-point-lighting allows creating a balanced lighting scenario that shapes the feature of any subject in question whilst giving it a balanced texture by the use of light and shadows.
As such, three-point-lighting always consists of a key-light (which is the main light and of a hard quality, creating a shadow that shapes a face/object), a fill-light (of softer quality and close to the camera that helps balancing the shadow created by the key light), and a back-light (which is usually added to highlight the subject from the background and make it pop in comparison).
If the camera is able to cope with the created shadow of the key-light, a fill-light is not required. However, if the contrast ratio between the lit areas and the shadow is too high, or if information gets lost in the shadow areas, it is advised to add a fill-light.
It was also really helpful to learn that the back light used is – conventionally speaking – of the same hard quality as the key light, but only ¾ as intense, and that this back light is usually placed opposite the key light, whereas the fill light should be of a soft quality or diffused.
It was furthermore helpful to hear that the half of the face which is predominantly facing the camera should be requiring a shadow in order to help guide the audience’s attention from the darker area of the face (with the nose shadow) to the eyes in the light.
In order to make this process as easy as possible, a process of elimination was suggested that would add every light individually, starting from the key-light, to the fill-light and lastly to the back light. The aim is to experiment with each light individually before examining their combined effects in order to find the ideal lighting setting for any given face and complexion.
Lastly, it was extremely helpful to learn that diffused light and soft light are NOT the same and thus do NOT create the same effect. Whilst one creates a softer gradation, the other is more shaped.
Whilst all this is admittedly content from LVL4, there were some new tips that just helped me understand the concept a bit better and reduced the amount of experimentation. As such, it was helpful to learn that lights should be thought of as arranged in a circle around the subject (and not like e.g. in a square as you often see indicated on lighting plans made by Youtube filmmakers).
However, for the second day then we were tasked to put into practice the lessons we learned the previous day by selecting a reference image, creating a preliminary lighting plan, and then attempt to recreate this reference image on our own. As such, this was the reference image that I picked:
And this is the clip that we shot:
Which, ultimately, resulted in this colour corrected and colour graded image:
Now, I’m aware that this is photo not a perfect recreation of the initial reference image. Especially in comparison to the reference image, I realised that the slight yellow undertone of the key light must have been added in post rather than done practically by the use of a gel. Furthermore, the orange colour of the key light and lack of an eye-light is what kills the image’s impact in my opinion, but this exercise – and the difference in the results – was nonetheless helpful in learning how different (and difficult) the application of certain lighting scenarios can be.
Whilst a lot of online tutorials made by Youtube filmmakers claim that recreating lighting scenarios is an easy to accomplish task if you only follow the rules, nothing could be further from the truth. It is – in actual fact – the extensive trial-and-error process that makes or breaks the outcome of the final image. And that process is not simply done in a single attempt (unless you’re the next lighting prodigy, but let’s assume the skills of average mortals for now).
As such, I decided that I would be conducting lighting tests in that fashion in my preparation for our FMP productions.
Additional Notes On Lighting
As I already insinuated further up, the standard lighting scenario is three-point-lighting. Having said that, there are naturally a variety of stylistic choices and reasons available, depending on the specific lighting design and/or mood required. From very dramatic film noir one-point-lighting, to elaborate 15-point lighting setups and more, there are no limits sets.
Natural light, sadly, will very rarely reproduce in film (or on video for that matter) as it will in real life. That is not only due to the fact that our human eyes have a bigger dynamic range (20 stops) and are thus superior to the best cameras on the market (in the case of the RED Dragon 5k, that value is currently calculated at 17,5 stops straight off the sensor and with a speed booster attached).
As such, natural light often needs a bit of a boost, enhancement or contrast in order to replicate the mood as presented to our eyes. Even in daylight, the lighting setup will require tweaking, and if it’s only with the help of either a kicker light or a reflector. Learning to recreate light on camera will thus require learning the trade of cinematography from nature and honing the skills and lessons until they are perfected.
Here, it is important to state that lighting does not equal illumination and that the control of lighting is mandatory as it serves to direct the audience’s attention. Since dark shadows are equally as valuable as light (the same goes for what you can and cannot see), both should be considered as light guides attention and darkness stimulates imagination.
Some facts and tricks that were really helpful to learn as well was the fact that – whilst the human eye cannot see ultraviolet or infrared light – camera sensors and film stock can, influencing the quality of the image.
Lastly, in the case of using a green screen, it is furthermore always advised to light green screens separately to allow for an even exposure of the background (and thus for an easier task during the chroma-key process in the edit).
Research Into The Possibilities of LED-Strip Lighting
To solve this problem, I conducted some extensive research into the purchase of LED-strips. And in order to be able to recreate that artificial sunrise (and later on the emergency lights) to match my vision, I had a list of requirements that my lights needed to check. As such, they needed to:
Be flexible,
Be customisable,
Allow for programming individual colours
Have a colour fade (for the artificial sunrise),
Have a colour jump (for the emergency scene),
Have adjustable brightness,
Be in the RGBW colour space (equal. 16 Mio colours), and
Have a remote control
During my research of any possible solution, I was able to find programmable LED-strips. However, this turned out to be a quick dead end. Not only were they far beyond our budget, but they would also require me to quickly acquire some programming skills that I currently don’t possess and don’t have the time to acquire within the remaining time: Some of the far more knowledgeable members in online forums surrounding programmable LEDs report having experimenting with lighting programming for up to 1,5 years before they could understand and produce the effect they required.
So moving on to ready-made LED-strips, I then conducted research into LED-strip products that were within our budget, but might have a downside or two to them for being cheaper. However, with the overwhelming amount of information presented to me, I was required to boil everything contender with their individual specs down into a list:
With this extensive list being made, it was a lot easier to narrow my initial selection down to three, and finally to one product that would be my test object for the ensuing experimentation. And this is what I bought:
Said, and done! Being curious and as soon as the product arrived, Has and I sat down to put it to the test and see whether it would be suitable for our needs. However, here we immediately found the first three problems that need outlining:
1. Colour Fade and Colour Jump
Both the 3- and 7-colour fade and 3- and 7-colour jump were pre-programmed to certain colours and could not be changed. Whilst I was able to adjust the speed of both fade and jump, I could not change the colours themselves, making this function unusable.
2. DIY Colours
Whilst the selection of individual colours is made easy by the setup of the remote control, the saved colours also cannot be translated or inserted into the Colour Fade/Jump modes. Furthermore, depending on the colours selected (as the result of a mix of the available RGBW colour channels), there is another, much bigger issue turning up around the corner:
3. Flicker
Sadly, the LED-lights – at least in some colours, brightness levels, and settings – have a tendency to flicker. Since this is naturally a very distracting issue, we experimented a bit more. However, it turned out to be a lasting issue for many settings that we intended to use.
As such, we sat down with the manual at hand trying to find out in what frequency the LEDs refresh themselves. Since the manual was telling us 50/60Hz, depending on the colour and programme used, we not only started experimenting with the shutter speed (a multiple of the right frequency should theoretically cancel the effect out), but also changed the Hertz-setting in Has’ camera to try and alleviate the problem. However, the flicker still persisted and it quickly became obvious that we would either have to refrain from using them or find a solution in post – here the De-flicker effect – to help with the problem at hand.
As such, we imported the footage onto Has’ editing computer and played around with said effect. And what shall I say? It solved the issue! With that knowledge attained, and despite the issue with the colour fade and colour jump, we at least now knew that this light would still make for a very good accent light.
My Learning
Revisiting my research so far, it is admittedly much more difficult to create an artificial sunrise with the use of LED strips than I thought. Since the artificial sunrise will not be made possible with the lighting as I intended to, I will have to move onto another solution, which will most likely entail using the university’s light board and a daisy chain of LED washers as a replacement.
This solution would allow me to not only manually determine the pace and precise colour fade to my liking, it would also be a brighter solution than the LED-strips. I would not only have more power compared to the LED-light, and thus receive a brighter image; I would also gain more control over the individual settings and colours.
Or at least so goes the theory.
However, one downside of that will be that this solution will require a camera assistant to help out, as this lighting needs to be operated from outside the capsule.
A Caveat On Lighting Plans and Lighting Tests
Although this blog entry might lend itself to be a formidable opportunity to share my lighting plans and lighting tests for “The Pillars of Creation” with you, I will have to put you off until closer to principal photography and until more research could be conducted.
Although I received the blueprints for the set build (which are going to serve as the basis of my lighting plans), I will only be able to draw up preliminary lighting design ideas in the upcoming weeks, as final lighting tests will have to wait until the set stands. This is mainly due to the fact that our art director has made no final decision on materials and/or colours yet as this will require extensive testing on her end first.
I’ll better get to work then!
UPDATE as of 30 April 2020:
Due to Covid-19, editing was restricted to Chloe’s own editing computer, however with the software pack that she had it meant that she did not get access to the Deflicker effect that our university editing computers have, which will mean that these flickering clips will have to be re-edited on a university computer later on.
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