"Heightened Naturalism" The Look that Pays the Bills in Denver

Lighting Diagram by Tyler Kaschke, Denver Colorado Gaffer

Not every shot calls for the most dramatic lighting of all time.

In fact, I would guess that for many professionals in this industry, dialing the look of heightened naturalism is paying the bills in Denver. Shots like these may not end up in the reel, but they certainly contribute to our livelihoods in a creative field.

“Light bright and airy” is how this was described to me. We’ve all seen it before. Love it or hate it - it serves its place in advertising and corporate work. And just because it feels “natural” doesn’t mean it comes without its own challenges.

One of the toughest things to get right is lifting the ambient light in the room while creating texture and shape on the face without feeling flat. A lot of it just comes down to placement of the fixtures and adjusting their values (profound insight!) Generally that means setting the key exposure to read well on skin then background roughly ½ to 1 stop under that.

For this scene we keyed the subject with a @litegear LiteMat Spectrum 8 with @dopchoice Snapgrid. An @aputure.lighting 1200D pushed some beams through the window to bring up the room and some shape in the middle ground. A @nanlite_global 60C with 19º leko on top of a cabinet made for some texture on the back wall and a LiteMat Spectrum 4 on the back left gave us a subtle edge. An open door in the back right let in just a little indirect light so the corner didn’t go totally dark. Ultrabounce floppy on the left lifted the shadows on the fill side without flattening it too much. And of course we hazed the room just a little bit :)

Many thanks to our excellent Denver production crew who made this commercial possible!

Production @triarchcreative

Director @quinnyboy5

Producer @jordanthansen

PM @_dylanbarth_

AD @briandbell

2AD @thisiscallahan

DP @daniel_with_a_camera

AC @yang.mandrew

AC @max_green101

2AC @anna_sutterer

DIT Tim Hardy

BTS Nathan Mitchell

Gaffer @colorado_gaffer

KG @thefirmgrip

BBG @radicalghast

Grip @jpmontoulieu

Swing @thekidbsmith

Dolly Grip @n.d.m_photography

BBE @meowryjeanes

Electric @trevortietjen

Art Director @jessie_capstick

Props @leahvogel

Props Liz Griffith

Wardrobe @nikkirmalloy

Wardrobe Assist Paulina Solski

HMU @liftedlillian

HMU @makeupsammy

PA @alex_on_vhs

PA @jamalpage

PA @speitzmedia

Color @pinto_color

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Tyler Kaschke is a gaffer / chief lighting technician with 2 ton G&E grip truck and sprinter van rentals serving Denver, Boulder, Golden, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and the Rocky Mountain Region at large.

For more information about grip and lighting tips and shooting video production commercials in Colorado, follow me on Instagram @colorado_gaffer