how to properly make a person to glow excessively

[Jay Cowley]

im shooting a video in a dark high school, in which one girl is always EXTREMELY bright, when the background will be dark or 'moonlight' lit.

I'm kinda thinking like the look on they had on Touched By an Angel, where that one girl was always unreaslisticly illuminated. The outline of her hair was really bright white, just made her stand out from everything, with this mystical look.

Where can i positon different lights to get this effect on this one character.

[James Bridges]

Sounds like something you would take care of in post. Maybe with AE. Never tried this, but sounds like a huge chore to do on set. Interesting problem though.

Good Luck!

[K. Forman]

I agree it should be done in post. Shoot the hallway a little darker, then shoot the girl with lots of light, and composite her into the hall.

[Sean McHenry]

I tend to never recommend in-camera manipulation of an image so if it doesn't meet ones expectations, you always have clean originals to start fresh with. In a case like this, I would overexpose the skin tones of this one person. Robert Palmer videos are a good example of this.

If you over expose, your "glow" effect will be more prominent.

See:
http://www.studiolighting.net/high-m...-key-lighting/
and
http://www.cinematography.net/GEOFF/PEPSI%20qt.HTM

and so on. Search for "high key" and "low key" lighting info.

Sean

[Alexandre Lucena]

Here is my sugestion:

1- Stablish a path for the actress( she should wear white clothes)
2- Place two or three 1k or 2k fresnels to backlight
3- compensate with a big sheet of foamcore (low angle fill)
4- everyone else near should wear darker clothes


Good luck

[Scott Anderson]

I think the link to the Robert Palmer Pepsi spot is interesting, as using a ringlite, or really any camera-mounted lights can throw a lot of light on your main subject relative to the background. If the falloff pattern of the light is right, it can really pop your main actor.

The "ringlight" style of frontal lighting is very popular in fashion and music videos, and can be very flattering on the right face. Flat, frontal lighting can look unnatural and even unsettling, so put it on a dimmer and use with caution. Maybe that's part of the look you want.

If you're going for the kind of look on these screenshots:

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionC...n-the-roof.jpg

That's just a matter of very stong backlight. You can see the pool of orange-ish light as she's sitting on top of the manger. This strong top and side light makes her red hair glow. You can imagine where the light is placed in that shot - about 45 degrees above, and directly behind her. Same with the roof shots, but with the light hidden below the roofline instead of above.

The tough thing with keeping this one actor in that light is what to do when they move. You need to try to keep them in backlight all the time, without spilling out into the rest of the shot. Careful flagging of lights and blocking is the only way to make this happen.

Maybe you can combine the two techniques into something interesting.

[Marco Leavitt]

Many diffusion filters will give you a halo around brightly lit objects.

[Bryon Akerman]

I would do it in post. Boris FX actually has a great effdect that if you set up the shoot right, can get you a very nice glow...even throw in some rays coming from the subject, if you want.

BRyon <><

[Scott Anderson]

I would recommend AGAINST relying on creating this effect entirely in post. Trying to manipulate the exposure and/or lighting of a single actor with filters and effects will end up looking very fakey and not organic. That's not to say an artfully applied post effect wouldn't help, just don't rely on creating the effect completely in post.

If you use lighting to make your actor stand out, then in post apply a subtle glow filter, or something like a light diffusion, it may enhance the effect you've already established on location.

I don't think Jay is going for something shocking here, just a subtle, mystical "pop" to the main actress. He said "Touched by an Angel", after all - not "Angels in America" ;-)

[Bryon Akerman]

I agree. Ishould have ealborated more on my setting up the shoot right comment. Setting up your lighting right is a must to do most individual effects in post. BUT, post can bring some nice added fx!

Bryon<><

[Jon Bickford]

You should backlight to outline the hair with a 1k or so, then use a Tiffen 1/2 Pro Mist, or maybe even a full #1 pro mist. this is the famous glowing goddess filter, but you have to over light her and definetely use the biggest light as a back light

-Jon