Porn Lighting... Help???
 

Started shooting content.... Video and pics are coming out great... I am currently using 3 softbox tungsten lights...but the lighting is not where I want it to be yet.. Any advice you can offer me about positioning of the lights and better lights to use, I am all ears.. If you recomend using different lights for video and pics let me know which ones to grab and where! I am using a canon gl2 for video and a canon d30 for stills!

Ideally I would have sets as well lit as redlight district video content.. Here is a sample clip from a scene in which I am trying to establish the same type of lighting and quality!

http://galleries.playthingz.net/samp...rnero_AAA1.mpg

ANYONE?

Turn on the lights :1orglaugh

More light is better.

Any shadows are bad.

Keep it simple.

For video, have someone holding one of the lights for the action shots.

Look at Sobe girls work. Don't do that.

Do what perfectgonzo does.

what are the dimensions of the studio youre working with

IMO is not so much the lights but how they are positioned and how close.

Softbox is fine, I use umbrellas too. #1 mistake people make shooting porn is TOO much light.

Also at times you have to have on camera light too (I call it the crack light) as some positions there will be a little shadow in the butthole.:glugglug

That advice about the "crack light" is good. You can add that extra touch of light directly where you camera is pointing. Just make sure it is not so strong it is obvious.

Too many lights will make the talent sweat.

Also remember that RLD is most likely using the VX2100 so the picture looks brighter with a little less lighting than you need for other prosumer cameras.

New LED light panels that mount on your camera in place of a light give VERY good results, nice and soft, but you still see all the "parts".

Color balance your camera.

Don't use cheap cameras.

Don't use the viewfinder to adult brightness.

Don't use automatic.

Hire me to edit the results.

Alex

Got a link to a site that sells these LED lights? I saw a company at NAB but cannot remember the company name.

lets see a sample of your video

In my opinion, in a perfect photo shoot the light must dominate!
So no dark parts and no shadows is the best for me! so try to concentrate all the light you have on the subject of the shoot... also a monochromatic simple scenery is preferred to a complex one because the last can be cause of unexpected shadows!
I hope to have helped you with this... and do not forget to show the results of you work! :)

I would love to..but first I need to know what exactly it is that they do... ANYONE KNOW?

A big room.. VERY HIGH ceilings... one wall is brick.... the other walls are white but have burgundy wooden flat shelving units on them.... the floor is hardwood and the couch we shoot on is beige (if that helps) It is hard to bounce light as the room is not symetrical......

Can I use these softbox lights for stills also? If not what do I need to buy?

finally someone understands.

for effective erotica you must simulate the lighting of sex.

most smut is way overlit, and has way too much DOF.

create a moody atmosphere that simulates the lighting of real fucking.

when you makeout with your chick do you turn on every fucking light in the house so you can see every body flaw?

no, you have just enough light to create mood.

now clone that lighting when you create content. with modern digital equipment you ONLY NEED ENOUGH LIGHT to get the proper color temperature.

anything more, and you lose the erotic edge.

do NOT photograph girls like they are kitchen appliances, this is the mark of an amateur, and truth be told that overlit shit doesn't convert very well, because it ain't hot.

and that's the bottom line.

That sucks... get yourself some backdrops :)

Get the book Placing Shadows, Lighting Techniques for Video Production by Chuck Gloman and Tom Letourneau, and read it.

Use good lights, such as Lowel, Arri or Mole-Richardson. Softboxes are fine, but learn how to use a other types of lamps and a standard 3 lamp set-up (key, fill, back light) to give your video depth. If you overlight and/or eliminate all of the shadows (as I have been guilty of many times) your video will look flat.

Kino-flo. That's all you need.

:1orglaugh

One mainlight, other light sources/reflectors only to fill (too) dark shadows.
Avoid double shadows. :NopeNope
Try to set up a 'light-atmosphere'
Study the work of great photographers.

whats the best/cheapest KINO FLO kit (basic) I can buy?


thanks

for porn the goal is no shadows, they hide action and tend to be unflattering.