Lighting Tests

Lighting Tests are something you can use to figure out how to light a specific actor, watching to see how their face reacts to a number of different lighting positions. During a lighting test you can also test a number of other things, such as if a unit flickers, a specific lighting design, color test, effects from a lighting console. Really anything that you want to look into before production.

Testing Lighting for Actors

The best thing to do is to test various styles of lighting with the actor before you begin shooting. You want to test all of the possible angles the actor could look, all of the possible light positions, and then varying degrees of softness with a light. It may be easier to rig a number of things before you begin this test to make the test go quickly. Start with putting the actor against a non-competing background.

Test the following things

• Actor looking every direction, from the far left to the far right, in each position have them look down, eye level, and up.
• In each position of the actor's face, you want to see the light in every position at 45-degree increments.
• You will also want to see the various softness of the light. That could mean having bare lights rigged in each position so they can be turned on and off, or it could just mean having an electric move a light around on a stand. You could also have a 5k or 10k behind a 12x in various positions to test that as well.
• When testing backlight, fill in the front so that you are not just looking at them in silhouette.

Testing for Flicker

Use the lighting instrument to light any object and view it with the camera set at the same settings you will be shooting in. Look at the waveform monitor and see if you notice any flickering on the WFM. It can be much easier to see flicker here than by just looking at the image. If shooting slow motion, make sure you do playback to check for flicker, not just the live image.

Testing for Color

The camera will perceive colors differently than your eye, so if you have a brand who requires a specific color palette, or multiple RGB lights that you would like to dial into the same color, it's important that you test them prior. This is as simple as looking at the image on a calibrated monitor and making sure it matches what you are after. If you want to try to match multiple different lights, you can aim them both at a neutral color and then try to match them while looking at the monitor.