David Chapman wrote:Denny, I don't see you mentioning any lights. Don't you have lights? Are you only using available light?
I've never seen anyone shoot a room at night with only practical lights (lamps) and have it turn out ok. If you have lights to add to the scene, you should be good to go.
Yes David, I have lights, including a 5K Spot, someone wants to shoot at night to simulate Day, I can do that, breakout the 25K lights!
But actually, I try to shoot available light as much as possible, augmenting the scene with just enough light to get a good exposure, and still get the natural, available light look.
Rick, gas lights burn even and bright, I have an Aladian Gas light that is as bright as a 75- watt electrical practical light. A character walking around would likely be carrying an oil burner or candle light (Sconce type in a glass shade. You could get an LED candle light and put in into a Sconce candle holder to get the effect. Once the Candle/Oil light is on the table, you can increase the light on the characters in the bed, simulating the light from walk in light, this would be a warm light in contrast to the cool moon light coming in the window.
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Here is what a scene lit by a gas or oil light in a mantle burner would look like to a camera, exposing for the light. But we see this light and we can see the table and it’s contents under it, but the camera sees black. So we need to increase the light on the table to let the camera see what we see, to get a natural looking scene. This is the tricky bit. In this case I would bounce a light off the ceiling to fill in the table spilling down from above.
But I agree Rick, you need to add light, even some bounce light to increase the overall luminance level in the room, then add some key lights to reflect the light being added by the walk in character. One trick I used to use when I started out, was to take a sheet, and stretch it in a frame,,and add some photo flood lamps behind it to create a softbox, giving a soft Northern sky light type look. This could be rigged using PVC pipe and elbow fittings, and place some 150-watt lamps behind it, or better yet, some blue looking light source to get a moon light effect, then a warm light to add for the candle/oil light she brings in. My baby spot would work for this, I could ship it up to you for the shoot, list it as a rental for customs.
Cheers.