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A simple talking head setup - check!

Only 1 bulb (out of 4) used and - okay, I admit it - it was a bit too bright to my liking in this scenario.
Don't ignore inverse square law, lads and guys!

The key light was ~ 50 cm away from me.

f/1.4 , 1/160 s, ISO 1000, WB - 4000K

BTS:

Finished music video:

https://www.filmsupply.com/films/ayia-easy/

Meanwhile, this was made using original BMPC and a £12 CCTV Lens (Fujian 25/1.4).

Not mine work, just sharing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/gcnw74/just_completed_my_first_feature_clays_redemption/

Now with a human subject.

Everything done by myself - so those screen grabs may be slightly out of focus.

Alright, here are the results:

No key light, only Neewer CN 176 giving some background. Partially geled with an aqua foil. Power @10%
f/1.4 , 1/60 s, ISO 1000 (can't get any lower when recording HLG video), WB - 3700K

Next - adding a key light. Approximately 2.6 m (~8.5 feet) away from me.

Yongnuo YN-300 III 5500K @1% power
f/1.4 , 1/60 s, ISO 1000, WB - 3700K

No light modifiers in front. I didn't point it straight at myself, it was rather feathering me.

YN-300 @10% power
f/1.4 , 1/60 s, ISO 1000, WB - 5700K

And @100% 
f/1.4 , 1/125 s, ISO 1000, WB - 5700K
I used an external monitor with false colors to match the exposure on my skin.

All walls in my room are white and it's really showing here - the light is bouncing everywhere and the depth is gone.
What's more, I think the colors are more yellow-ish?

Finally -  two of the four LED bulbs I teased you with earlier.
Each rated @17W, though in reality they aren't as powerful as one would expect.
Key feature: >95 CRI

I put them in a reflective umbrella (95 cm diameter), pointing at the back of it, and then hung one layer of a diffusion cloth in front and a grid to make the light more directional.
Just like this:

Since there is no way to dim them (I can only turn them on or off), they were blasting at their full power.
And once again - not pointed directly at me and around 2.5 m away.

f/1.4 , 1/60 s, ISO 1000, WB - 3700K

I like the color rendition and the quality of light here.

I only wish these bulbs were more punchy..
Sure, I realize that the gridded umbrella may cause around 2 stops light loss (I haven't measured it) and that I used 2 bulbs out of 4, but still.

Though, if I was a YouTuber, I think a setup like this would be sufficient.
No need to overpower the sun when you record in your own room, right?

Total costs of the final setup, if that interest you:

Neewer CN-160 ~15$
An aqua gel ~2$
Light stand ~20$
Four socket bulb holder (~10$) and 2 bulbs (~4$ for each)
95cm umbrella softbox with grid ~35$

All in all: 90$
Not bad, I guess?

Also: I need haircut.

4 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Wonder which ones Roger Deakins uses. 

That's what he said some time ago. Source.

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

This looks interesting, where did you find it.

I was looking for some light stands and saw this four-socket lamp holder, which lead to me to think - why not put some quite efficient lightbulbs in there and call it a day? 

Sure, I could use some 80W CFL lights, that are even cheaper than those LEDs I bought, but even though can be bought in professionals photo equipment stores, their color renderition is really poor - couldn't find anything better than 85 CRI. 

2 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Might be a good use for putting some thungsten bulbs in there.

I wish! 

Tungsten bulbs for domestic use have been banned in Europe for more than 10 years now. Getting some could prove to be difficult..

2 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

If you light a face with it please share the results, very interested in this!

Sure, if you don't have anything against my face, I'll do it. 

( :

I took another approach. 

4x 17W LED bulbs. 95+ CRI. 

45 minutes ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

but with my Sony a6500 I was quite pleased with the colors I got from doing a CST from SLOG 2 / s.gamut2.cine to - Arri Log C / Arri Gamut - > 709. So that might also be worth a try.

That's a small little trick I try to incorporate with every camera I have.

Truly works wonders!

What do you mean by "IF"?

So, to get the most out of X-T3 you actually recommend Long GOP @400 Mbps, right? 

What codec and bit rate do you use? 

No problems here, though I shoot HLG @400Mbps All-I. 

That was a bold statement, I stand corrected.

😌

Guess you're right..

Another one (https://vimeo.com/383382022)

Alexa EV was introduced back in 2010.
Still, nothing can't beat its skin tone rendering.

Hello!

One of the videos I recently watched reminded me about a small conundrum I had some time ago:

Top-level gear seems to make the image slightly more green (an earthy hue of green, not the Sony-zombie one).
Is it only me or is it visible to you, as well?

Maybe it's "THE 1 TIP THAT WILL MAKE YOUR VIDEOS CINEMATIC"? Who knows?
😎

Some screen grabs to support that thesis:
(taken from: https://youtu.be/8x10V0oGTIM)

Another example: Angenieux EZ-2 15 to 40mm on a Canon M50
(taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdrn1FjkLf8)

Arri Alexa (Classic) vs iPhone 11 Pro (https://youtu.be/jWKkEvJ8HlY)

Alexa Mini vs Red Epic-W Helium https://nofilmschool.com/2017/02/shootout-arri-alexa-mini-vs-red-epic-w-helium:

Their conclusion:

Am I seeing things?

4 hours ago, ngemu said:

I did another test today, its actually quite blurry if your shooting at a distance. 

You may add some low strength diopters (like -1 / or +1) if you want to get more sharpness out of it.

It's a fixed focus anamorphic attachment and most likely the focus is set to around 5 - 10 meters. You can't really see it on a phone due to its small sensor and almost infinite depth of field, but when you put in front of a proper camera, then it slowly becomes an issue.

Nevertheless, I think it looks great. Really!

The majority of wide anamorphic lenses (Cooke 32 mm, Kowa 40 mm, etc.) has quite poor corner quality - and that's what people look for.

27 minutes ago, Bold said:

Again, this is all compeletely hypothetical, based on my incredibly limited (and probably flawed) understanding of lens optics 🙂

If you call your knowledge limited, then I don't know what I could say about mine. XD 

29 minutes ago, Bold said:

In this Vimeo below someone followed the 'cooking anamorphic' tutorial to achieve a 24mm taking lens on an m43 sensor.  Granted there's a LOT of barrel distortion (see the pillars at the 0:45 mark) and edge aberration. 

I think it's to be expected. 

You are literally bending the universe and going to the extremes of lens coverage. 

31 minutes ago, Bold said:

Shooting with M43 in 4:3 at 2x produces a 2.66:1 aspect ratio. If my math is right, shooting with m43 in 4:3 mode at 1.8x would produce an aspect ratio of 2.40:1

Your numbers are 100% correct. 

And that's why Vazen made their lenses 1.8x - so that people won't have to crop anything out of 4:3 video. 

Speaking of Vazen, have you seen their 25 mm T2.2 1.8x anamorphic lens?

35 minutes ago, Bold said:

35mm projector lenses generally let you go a wider than 16mm lenses. I've read that big 35mm scopes (Bausch & Lomb, e.g) can go as wide as a 35mm taking lens w/o vignetting (I haven't tested this myself).

Cool! 

If they weren't that big and heavy, they would certainly be far more popular. 

Big single focus solutions are also easier to get nowadays (FVD-35A), so maybe we'll see some change in the future and people will start to carry around those bazookas with them on shoots. XD 

Looks like a some sort of Alexa LUT used most likely on a Sony camera, though it also could be some Panasonic (eg. GH5) or even BMPCC4K (I guess not).

It's also a result of carefully exposed and properly white-balanced image.

What camera do YOU use?

On 4/24/2020 at 3:06 PM, Bold said:

Thanks, I will send him a note. I still fear that his services will be beyond my budget, but it might be worth saving up for.

I'd say yes - go for it, if you can. You won't be disappointed with his services.

On 4/24/2020 at 3:06 PM, Bold said:

My goal is to achieve a taking lens in low 20s range (24mm, e.g.) on 2x scope with a m43 sensor, without vignetting.

If you manage to pull it off, you'll be the first one to do it.
( :

Nonetheless, I wish you luck!

So far, the widest setup I've heard of was:
Sony A7III + Helios 58mm F2 + Kowa 16-H + Century .75x WA converter that acted as both single focus and wide-angle converter (the huge one with the 3 elements, rehoused in a Pooli Century .75x helicoid).

13 hours ago, ngemu said:

Holy... 

Cant believe it worked. 

 

Camera: Canon eos-m

Lens: ef-m 22mm f/2

Filter: Ulanzi 1.33x anamorphic

 

Settings:

1:1 Full sensor readout at 1736x1158, mcm rewire 1080p, upscaled

 

First shot was stretched using 1.33x, second shot was stretched using 1.5x Upscaled final footage to 4k Still playing around with recording and export settings and this is new to me. The filter is tapped onto my lens so not everything is aligned at the moment. Some issues with focusing to infinity

 

 

Congrats! I'm happy for you!

In fact, you totally convinced me to buy the Ulanzi myself and put in front of a 25/1.8 CCTV lens, hahahahha

May I know where did you buy your copy? Could you post a link to it?

Reach out to https://rafcamera.com/

He's your go-to guy, when it comes to affordable yet custom design regarding helicoids, clamps, etc.

It's already been done quite a few times and looks quite good, actually! 

Don't worry about the distance between your lens and the anamorphic adapter - as long as it's not some crazy 2 /3 cm, it won't really matter. 

Step up rings are your friends! 

Here are some videos:

No 600D, though 300x is here.

On 4/19/2020 at 10:32 PM, sanveer said:

I am guessing they are a newer generation  (atleast 2 generations, I am guessing), of LED technology. That's why the power draw is substantially different. The Lupo outputs as much output, as lights which are much larger in size.

Yeah, something is definitely going on. I've seen some new lights that boast about 90W output from 384 LED beads.
Right now I get 40W of power from 660 LEDs, which is still plenty.

On 4/19/2020 at 8:45 PM, gt3rs said:

Just that there is no magic in output, the lupo use fresnel lens inside this is why the beam is narrow you do the same with the godox and the power will be much more. 

That's right, no magic inside.
Though I have to admit that those LEDs that Lupo used seem to be pretty efficient and bright, nonetheless.

Manfrotto used fresnels in their small LED lights back in the day and they could only achieve 550 Lx @ 1m
(Manfrotto Spectra 500F)

4 hours ago, MeanRevert said:

Did we forget about the Fuji XT4 blue balls event so soon?

Don't you know that our attention span nowadays is shorter than the time needed to say 'XT4'?

Right now everyone's saying 'R5'. It takes one less letter to pronounce it, even better.
( :