Lighting and the big debate.

[somedeadguy]

I am using a four light set up. I have a key light on the subject(s) to make some depth in their features. I have a fill light to help reduce the contrast of the shadows a little bit. The third is a background light to bring up the background a bit, just enough to keep the attention on the subject(s).

The fourth light is the problem. It is a backlight to light the subject's rear, which doesn't do much except makes the shoulders and hair glow a bit, but it really makes the subject(s) pop out of the frame which is what I want. The problem is that it looks so hokey. I feel like I'm disgracing the potential viewers of my film by assuming that they believe throught the whole movie that there is conveniently a light behind the actors. It looked so retarded that I got rid of it all together, and tried dimming the background light a bit to make the subject(s) pop out more, but it ended up looking like the Charlie Rose Show.

So if I want to make my characters show up, I have to whore out my lighting. Here's the bigger problem! After getting upset about it I was watching TV, and I kid you not, I could pick out a rear lit actor out of almost every shot on every channel! Is the backlight something an audience will ignore, or does everyone do it! Anyone have any suggestions to help my situation?

[richard.fisher]

Post some screen shots which show the same shot lit differently, or even better, moving image, and then step back as the criticisms of both flood in.

[eidde]

yeah put up some stills.
You have probably just seen this technique, because
you are trying to use it yourself. Ill betcha 9 times out of 10 no-one would notice something like this (You have trained your eye to see it, and as a result it seems a bit cheap to you.)
Perhaps it is a cheap trick - I dont suppose TV studios bive much of a damn about using cheap trick - but you are making a film - thats different (IMO) - Sounds like an inventive way to create an effect, are you sure there isnt another way to do it?
Perhaps your lighting is just too bright? And so too obvious?
Or it just takes some real practice to get the balances right.

[somedeadguy]

I solved my problem. The main problem (which wasn't quite computing in my head) was that I would have to crank up the background light too much to be able to see what's going on in the back. Once I turned it up enough to be able to see, it almost over power the subject in the front. It was just for one shot, so I didn't need it much more.

I found a good suggestion to use a screen behind the subject to diffuse the background. It worked pretty well, I could turn up the background light enough to be able to see what's going on back there, but it maid it slightly grayer, and really helped a lot. It also made the depth of field even shallower, which was nice. I'll put up some screenshots as soon as I get my deck back. Thanks for trying to help a dimwitted yank!! I really appreciate it.

[sn-films]

Originally posted by The Imaginable Sean Moss:
I found a good suggestion to use a screen behind the subject to diffuse the background.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Glad you were able to sort everything out.

Now, about that screen... I had heard about people doing something like that, so I'm very curious to see your results. What material did you end up using?

[somedeadguy]

I started by using plastic, similar to the plastic in a ziplock bag, because I thought that an actual screen would be to course, and it would stick out. But the plastic actually made things worse, so I just tore apart the screen from the screen door, just to give it a shot. I had it as far back as I could go to keep the whole thing in the shot. I tightened up the frame a bit so that I could put more distance between the actor, and the screen was actually out of the field of focus, and it looked awesome!

[sn-films]

Thanks for the tip on using the screen. It almost sounds like its acting as a ND filter on the background only, while helping you fake the shallow DoF at the same time. I know what I'll be playing around with this weekend...