Actor Lighting Tests

We spent the first half of Labor Day Weekend in the shop doing some lighting tests.  I had been reading about some of the techniques of wrapping light around a face, as opposed to the typical 3-point light 3/4 key and wanted to try it.  The goal here is to provide a smooth gradient across the face with the far 1/8 to 1/4 falling off the edge of exposure. I warned Carol and Christopher that this was going to be a trial and error experiment and hopefully we would succeed, but there was no guarantee.

It seems like most pro DP's try to schedule at least one day before the principal photography to do lighting tests on all the actors.  Some actors' faces love hard light, some love soft light.  Russell Carpenter recorded a tutorial for the ASC showing how he does his actor lighting tests by moving a small fluorescent bulb around the actor's face, as well as taking notes.  ...and of course he gets hired to light some the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

Today our willing victim/model is Carol Morrow.  At first I tried to light her with a more traditional way of wrapping light around a face, which is to use 2 or more sources with large shoot through diffusers.  This is more of a traditional portrait look with her nose shadow aligned with her cheek fold.  Unfortunately I didn't have and 216 diffusion laying around the shop this day, so I had to use silk and Opal.  This technique was a huge FAILURE, as shown in the picture below. *I* made her look like she just got out of an all night rave!  In this situation I was using higher placed lights with a 650 shot through silk at her right and a 300 shot through Opal just off to camera right.  Carol has model-type cheek bones and inset eyes, both of which were completely wrong for this lighting setup.  Someone with a flatter face might have benefited, but not Carol.  This is NOT the way she looks in person.

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In the second attempt I was going for a different type of wrap.  Here, I swapped the Opal to far camera right and used it as a shoot through for a lowered 300, placed vertically about a foot above her head.  Then I used the silk as a large bounce just to right of the camera with the 650.  The 650 was placed low, perhaps at her shoulder height.  This pushed a lot more light into her eyes.  Finally, I added a silver stipple reflector at camera far left, which highlighted her camera left check bone.  This worked much better with Carol's facial features.  This isn't meant to be an example of stunning Hollywood lighting, but Christopher and I both learned how to light Carol to make her look good - as well as what not to do!  Actor lighting tests are important!

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Below is a video of Carol and our lighting test setup.  It's quick and painless, promise...

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I'd be interested in hearing feedback or techniques for improvement.  If you'd like to try any of the equipment shown in the video or have an questions, just call us.  We're here to make your productions look good great.

Many thanks go out to Carol for her willingness to participate. If you'd like to get a hold of her for acting/hosting projects she can be reached at the following links...  Facebook, Model Mayhem, One Model Place.