I love a good lighting breakdown, especially when the scenario involves pulling a rabbit out of a hat, like this one. I was filming an anti-drunk driving piece (as if there's a pro-drunk driving advocacy group out there), and rather than be confined to the usual conference room for our state trooper interview, I decided to put him in a long hallway with an open doorway off his left.
I put an Aputure 22c 2x2 RGBW boxed light overhead through a 1-stop silk. I positioned the light just slightly over the bridge of his nose so I didn't give him raccoon eyes.
Next, a 300c to the subject's lower right, double silked to fill, and then, because of limited space, used a small black bag for a kiss of negative fill on his left.
I let the dingy overhead fluorescents do whatever they were doing and shot through a 1/3 ND to help minimize my DoF.
This isn't rocket science, but it is science, and I love doing it. Chances are, fewer than 1000 people actually saw the finished piece, and I can almost guarantee no one said, "I love that lighting setup. " But it's frames like this that just make me smile, knowing how we leaned into the environment and, with minimal setup, got to the finished result.
Share some of your favorite setups in the comments below.
