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
AD @briandbell
2AD @thisiscallahan
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