Cave filming / lighting

[David Baumber]

I'm lucky to have been invited to film in some amazing UK caves. They are easily accessible and already have coloured lights if we need them. We even have hand rails and cave guide / expert (phew).

I'm more interested in going very low light and using the lights from our actors helmets and hand torches.

The aim of the project is to have our actors discovering fossils, plant life and creatures in the deep.

This may seem like a silly question but as it is very low light, do you have any preference for torch light? LED?

I will probably take one of our coollights LED portables for the fill and hope to have a HDMI behind them in some shots with a little smoke. Close ups of the plant life etc. I'd like revealed by their helmet torches.

Any lighting suggestions?

Shooting on our Epic with Tokina 11-16mm 2.8, Canon 24mm 1.2 and Canon 50mm 1.2

[Michael Hastings]

David:

Do your lights need to be waterproof? We make some very nice waterproof (200 feet or more) 2500 lumen led lights with a very compact 2" x2" square aluminum with a near perfect 120 degree beamspread and dimmable powered by a compact, lightweight lithium ion battery pack.

[David Baumber]

Hi Michael, That sounds great and yes I think waterproofing would be a good idea. Can you send me prices?

[Peter.G]

David,

Racking backlight on the cave walls seems to look better than overhead light if you can swing it. Also, if you can control sections of the overhead lights try leaving some on in the far background for depth, but turn off the lights directly overhead for the torch light effect. Also, you can try looking for silhouette opportunities against any background cave walls.

-P

[David Baumber]

Thanks all for your help.

The shoot was amazing! Our Epic performed flawlessly and the results are just as we had hoped. These are VERY low rez outputs from photoshop but I'll post some better clips later.

[Todd T]

Those shots look great!

[paulherrin]

nice! all available/practical light, or did you end up hiding some lights somewhere?

[David Baumber]

We had the help of back lights that had been installed in the caves for the tourist trade. Not sure but I would guess at 4 x 5k's which were ponted at the cave ceilings. Then we just use the Coolights LED battery powered panels x 2. Add in some 'disco' smoke, the lanterns and head lamps and away we went. It was much easier than I had expected.

This camera is such a dream to use in the dark. I'm actually planning more night / dark shoots than daylight because I enjoy it so much.

If you ever get the chance to shoot in Wookey Caves, Somerset UK, they are incredible. The cave staff / experts from Wookey couldn't have been better either.

There is the Wookey Witch (based on a true story) that could freak you out if you were on your own in there though.... gulp :) I had to rewind a clip a few times because there's a shadow that appears where there shouldn't be one. We were NOT alone!!

[Richard Andrewski]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. This was exactly the kind of thing we were envisioning for LED use. As I always say, from caves to cars. If you have any BTS photos you can share showing the fixtures in use we can post them on the site and a link back to your site if you like.

[J Obertone]

David, I was going to chime in, then scrolled down to your stills.. beautiful images! The smoke and beams are effective. well done!