I think we’re a little bit spoiled when it comes to LED lights these days, especially lights that have both 5600K and 3200K bulbs that you can dial in exactly what you want. Conventional fixtures have such a beautiful quality to them and using them is such an art. We talked about colour temperature today and using gels and filter gels on lights and I think what was really lovely was not having to guess how to use them. Everything in the class is really practical and makes sense. Robin wants to make us think when we’re on set and making decisions, but still, he shows us the fastest and most efficient way of accomplishing things, which is really helpful because it cuts down our time doing the physical work and gives us more time to think about how to achieve the look we want.

One of the things I realised a few months ago was how contrast can also be created through colour, you’re not just limited to luminance to create contrast on a face or object or what have you.

On Wednesday’s class we took to the streets to shoot an exercise in Depth of Field. We crashed the camera all the way out and placed it a little way in front of our subject and stopped the camera all the way down to try get as much depth of field as possible and then went for a stroll, set the sticks up again and crashed all the way in and opened up all the way. The Sony cameras we’ve been using have irked me quite a bit this semester (mostly because the menus make me get the google out waaaay too much) but I was super impressed by how much telephoto that lens can provide, we had to go a long way to match the framing of our original shot when we crashed all the way in.

And finally, C-Stands. While the other groups were out we were back in the classroom making this amazing contraption:

And honestly, I never want to do a shoot without them. The way you can get your bounce or your neg-fill up in the air, where you want without aggravating crew members: A total win, which is how I feel about this week as a whole. Go team!