If you follow my YouTube channel and the "Jack vs Lanterns" page, you've likely seen me do some talking about relighting things in post. It's not really "easier" and it's a "digital trick" I've tried to avoid in my movies up until now in keeping with my retro style, but sometimes it's a necessity.
A shoot we did at a house once, in 3D, a camera captured some light from a room that gave away the time of day, so I added a shadow obscuring that room entirely. It was very helpful. You can't really use the feature to fix a scene that isn't lit at all (it can make terrible a bit better, but not good), but you can take an over lit scene and add some mood, color and depth. It's much easier with a static camera. When you plan for it, the post process will be time consuming, but reasonable. I don't suggest shooting with an eye for digital lighting unless you've used it a lot and there is no way to get the lighting situation you want in camera. Lab Day on "Jack vs Lanters" was a good example. I lit it cleanly for the blue screen. Adjusted lights to make sure the actors looked their best and then tweaked everything in post. Colored gels in a small bluescreen room don't work well, so post lighting was the best choice for efficiency and effect.
We talked about that in this video.
Other situations are thrust upon you.
Due to schedules I had ONE night at the cabin to shoot the scenes with Christina Daoust and Brewier Welch and because of the mountain location I had what is a strange situation for a filmmaker. We weren't losing the light fast enough. It was well past what I would consider night time, and I'm sure it was getting dark in town, but up on the mountain, it was still pretty light. I wanted to get their two shots in before some extras arrived, so I shot as soon as the sun was basically down.
I actually liked the sort of "dusky" look of it, but when cut with my footage shot at "true night" in other locations that were being intercut with this, the differences were too much. You can see in the photo above that I used some shutter control to minimize the exposure and I added some digital fog to tie it into some studio shots, which helped with the lighting a bit (and with audio helped bridge the indoor and outdoor scenes brilliantly). What you can't see here is that I was using a handheld camera and at one point I caught a blue sky behind the house. That had to go.
So, I added post lighting.
A shoot we did at a house once, in 3D, a camera captured some light from a room that gave away the time of day, so I added a shadow obscuring that room entirely. It was very helpful. You can't really use the feature to fix a scene that isn't lit at all (it can make terrible a bit better, but not good), but you can take an over lit scene and add some mood, color and depth. It's much easier with a static camera. When you plan for it, the post process will be time consuming, but reasonable. I don't suggest shooting with an eye for digital lighting unless you've used it a lot and there is no way to get the lighting situation you want in camera. Lab Day on "Jack vs Lanters" was a good example. I lit it cleanly for the blue screen. Adjusted lights to make sure the actors looked their best and then tweaked everything in post. Colored gels in a small bluescreen room don't work well, so post lighting was the best choice for efficiency and effect.
We talked about that in this video.
Other situations are thrust upon you.
Due to schedules I had ONE night at the cabin to shoot the scenes with Christina Daoust and Brewier Welch and because of the mountain location I had what is a strange situation for a filmmaker. We weren't losing the light fast enough. It was well past what I would consider night time, and I'm sure it was getting dark in town, but up on the mountain, it was still pretty light. I wanted to get their two shots in before some extras arrived, so I shot as soon as the sun was basically down.
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| Deck Scene as shot with Fog F/X added. |
I actually liked the sort of "dusky" look of it, but when cut with my footage shot at "true night" in other locations that were being intercut with this, the differences were too much. You can see in the photo above that I used some shutter control to minimize the exposure and I added some digital fog to tie it into some studio shots, which helped with the lighting a bit (and with audio helped bridge the indoor and outdoor scenes brilliantly). What you can't see here is that I was using a handheld camera and at one point I caught a blue sky behind the house. That had to go.
So, I added post lighting.
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Deck shot with shadows added.
If you look to their sides, you'll see tht I added some shadows. I also then relit their faces with a bluish filtered light too cool the light of the overall scene. The difference is subtle, but it will help with continuity.
I did all of this to the layer behind the fog, so as to not effect the fog's orange tinge, which was also accomplished using post lighting.
Overall, I'm happy I put in the effort. This effect can be addictive and you can definitely overuse it or depend on it too much. I know I did in this film. Between weather forcing us into the studio and only having limited access to some locations, the time of day we shot during wasn't always a choice or the studio lighting was just too "clean" to match with the outdoor elements of the scene. I do encourage people to shoot some shorts, light them way too evenly and work on adding depth and mood in post just to get a feel for it. The day you need it, you'll want to know how it works.
In X-24, the ability to use negative lights to add shadows was also SUPER HELPFUL. One shadow hides a camera that snuck into shot because we forgot to move it.
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