So I took my new camera out today to do some test shots at this large forest area by my house where I plan to film quite a bit of a movie. Anyways, I looked at the footage at home and I dont really know how to describe it, but the "nature" around my subject doesn't look 'real'. I looked at lots of studentfilms today on this site (particularly those filmed outside) and a lot suffer the same problem. PLants and trees never seem to have the right amount of light in order to really get the details. Now I'm a total nature freak and its essential that I get a LITTLE more detail than what I am able to achieve as of right now. I looked around the forums and found a topic about lighting outdoors, in the topic Titaniumdonut suggested using carboard with tin foil attached to it to reflect light onto the subject. Ok, but would this work to help light plants and trees? if so would I need like 100 reflectors? Oh, and the problem I speak of only seems to happen in very long shots (CUs seem ok but the plants arnt my actors so I see no reason to film plants in CU) I prefer long shots of the scenery. IS there any hope? Any suggestions are helpful. Thanks

Yeah you can use cardboard with tinfoil for a reflector, or you can rent a real reflector quite cheaply. However, for long shots with plants, a single reflector is not going to do the trick. You'd need quite a few really large ones to cover the trees and plants. If the sun is strong, using reflectors could be all you need.

What's your budget? You could rent an HMI, then use gels to try and match the color temperature. (Depending on the weather, you might have to use a 1/4 CTB if it's cloudy, for example. (blue to cool off the lamp))

I'm not really experienced in this sort of thing, but those are the things I'd consider. I'm sure the problem has something to do with the camera too, as when you go back, you get less detail.

-Chris

good outdoor lighting requires extra artifical light, however, many student film makers neglect this because of the excuse that the sun will provide enough light, that's why their footage lacks detail and looks like crap. You could rent an HMI as Chris suggested, however that would be pretty expensive. Use a powerful open-faced tungsten light (fresnels maybe), add a CTO gel (which will help balance it to 5600 kelvin) and diffuse it with a softbox or a something like a sheet.

To tell you the truth I've never had much success with the tin foil reflectors since posting that... lol

Anyway, one thing which may help is that trees (and actors) look better if you film on a grayish overcast day and make the white balance artificially warm, and adjust the exposure up a little bit. The contrast is a lot lower.

Here's an example

open-faced tungsten light (fresnels maybe)

----

an open faced light is not a fresnel. Fresnel lights have a glass in front of them...but thats just as an info

best thing youc an do is shoot film and use a warming filter imho, or a high con filter (I think thats the right word, I should look it up)

Digital cant handle the outdoor scenery.

HMI's and Bounceboard wont do the job if you shoot big areas (unless you get 18Ks with a geni truck and spend thousands on it)

shooting on overcast days is definitely a good way to go. Or try it in a sunset? or sunrise when there is a layer of mist in the air? that will give you beautiful results

thanks for the advice all, since I dont want to spend any money I'm gonna go with filming during diff times of the day (i like the idea of filming in the morning and sundown)

hoeks I know what fresnels are, I was just suggestion that as a possible rental idea, not implying that's what an open-faced light was

Fabvian, your posts are really getting out there into the "pointless". I'm not saying you're being stupid or immature or anything, in fact I condone immaturity, but put it in the off topic forum, thats what its there for, to vent all that BS we have in us. but letting it out in topics in words like, "yeah, cry baby" or "you suck" ect arnt helpful to anybody. the rest of studentfilms.com forum is for advice, help, and information.

thanks kyle. my hope in humanity is restored.

All of Fabvian's posts have been deleted and his account suspended for 2 days. If he acts up again - his account will be suspended permanently.

All of his posts have all been flaming or on the verge of flaming offering no help at all to anyone.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

here's a rule for EVERYONE shooting OUTSIDE EVER

don't shoot between 11 AM - 2 PM. the sunlight is too harsh, the shadows are all ugly, and it's too bright outside for video

DO shoot from sunrise to about 1030 AM and from 3-4PM to sunset. you just have to switch our east-west orientation to make the shadows match. and the light will cast nice shadows, not be so harsh, not be so bright, and you barely have to do anything to it since it'll be a warm tone.

plus since it's coming in at an angle it'll light the bottom of the greenery more, whereas in the mid day the leaves block out the sun.

thanks for the advice, RFranco!

Hey try to investigate a little bit about filters in the camera,not in the light, just remember that when you use a filter you are going to need more light if you need an open difragma. What I understand about your problem is the green, so you are going to have to attack it directly, just be careful to compensate in everything else.

quote:

don't shoot between 11 AM - 2 PM. the sunlight is too harsh, the shadows are all ugly, and it's too bright outside for video

I would probably even extend that to only shoot before 10 AM or after 4 PM. It depends on what part of the country you're in, but magic hour around here is currently from 6 PM to 7:30 PM.

The other thing you can do when shooting in less-than-ideal forest conditions without paying for extra lights is to try to avoid wide angle shots. The large depth of field tends to make the forest look way too uniform, like a painted backdrop. Stick to closeups or get farther away and use some telephoto to reduce the depth of field and make the vegetation pop out more. Of course, using more closeups in general will improve your work if you're shooting on video or other small gauge formats.

also...dont forget to use a polarizer when outdoors to pop the saturation out naturally. they can be expensive for good ones but they are really really worth it...you can see the difference just by giving the filter a rotation and its pretty strong (plus its dramatic effects on clouds and reflections).

Sure what everybody is recommending to you is great, and their lighting tips are helpful, but my only concern for this issue is: what model of camera are you using? If it is basic, not 3CCD, 24p, or HD, and just something you picked up for a couple hundred bucks, chances are that its the camera which is unable to pick up more detail on your surroundings. To make matters worse, with these cameras, its impossible to adjust WB, shutter, Iris, and most are without any type of ND filtering.