[Quinten]

Those cameramen lighting themselves into a corner sound very familiar. At art academy there was a studio with more lights than I could ever dream of, before you know it they are all burning..... Every first year student made the same mistake, most of them never returned to the studio to learn that only one light doesn't give 'multiple' shadows.

Are there clips or pictures of the project you did with the mirrors? I am really curious how that looked. Must have been fun days working with those arc lights, I heard stories (not sure if they are true) that you had to change bulbs in protective clothes and a helmet because of the pressure on that glass.

Still the challenges remain, specially when you want to create debt, setting your model appart from the background by backlighting, or bring out the shapes of the face and body with big angles on the key, creates blacked out parts you have to fill. I'll remember it though: even for the fill one lamp extra is enough Is this why the fresnel can be such a difficult light in big sets, the shadows are so sharp that everything becomes so much more apparent? Experienced guys probably love it because of the possibilities, but the guys making mistakes won't get away with them. The light becomes a character of it's own with the fresnels.

The inverse square law, it is so tempting to place a fresnel a bit further and further, and further to be able to light a big scene with one source but before you know it you're out of light and your buying 2kw lights and find them a little weak! haha.

Hopefully I am not to curious with asking if you can estimate how much lights this guy uses for these pictures, there is the open fresnel look with the sharp shadow lines but the contrast is a lot lower, it's almost as if these shadows are filled with big soft sources but the crispiness stays in the light, normally the soft light takes that crispiness out of the light. It's crazy, that's probably why I can't explain it very clear either
http://freevector.info/dev/vogue-mag...5-sept-08s.jpg
http://www.lifelounge.com.au/resourc..._PETERS_24.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0...ku9ho1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7...kgboo1_500.jpg
http://www.oitzarisme.ro/images/fash.../vincent05.jpg
The typical fresnel hollywood portrait seems higher in contrast, the overexposed back lighting is almost soft in some of the pictures above yet very hard in the typical hollywood portrait but it seems to be the same source, the same seperation

Road to Perdition tonight! Sam, next time you are in Amsterdam I will buy one or more Belgium beers (They make nicer beers than we do

Cheers!