Lighting up an underground football field with no electricity... HOW???

[gleaf]

http://bigshot.cias.rit.edu/

R.I.T. has continued the original Sylvania (now Osram Sylvania) Big Shot series.
Some good information on how they are getting their even lighting effect.
They use it as an annual class exercise.

http://www.monkton-farleigh.co.uk/Fauld.htm
Photos taken during WW2 at RAF Fauld. Chalk Mine tunnels and storage areas.
That era likely 6/6 inch reflector and standard flash bulbs.
Somewhere I have a book with more thorough photographic details.

Our rig for the golf course shot was a 4" square electrical box, a ceramic lamp socket for medium screw base and a 6 volt 'lantern' battery.
Camera hand held and about 20 - 30 feet off to the side of the bulb. Open flash while shutter was open on "B".

[photonsoup]

We did a similar thing in a giant room of a cave. There was about a 30 foot belly crawl to get into that prevented us taking much gear. My friend brought an Olympus 35mm, a small tripod and a speedlight that ran off of a nicad battery pack that he built. He put the camera on the tripod, my job was to cover the lens with my helmet, he opened the shutter then moved around to different locations. He would turn his light off, yell to me, I would move the helmet, he would fire the strobe, I would cover the lens, he then turned his light back on and moved to a different position. We shot a roll of film with 4 to 9 flashes on each one and got some spectacular photos. He includes his shadow in a couple and I really liked that effect. With todays instant feedback on digital camera you could really fine tune the process.

have fun and share your results

[Leszek Vogt]

How about using a string or two of super bright LED's....hanged on more distant poles + batt packs to show the size of the space....and lesser amounts closer to the camera (only ambiance). Not much light, but you could return in 8hrs :>). This could be pretested with a digi camera....to truly determine how long of an exposure this would be. If need be, and you didn't wanted to invest in large amounts of LED's, you could place the lights at X number of poles at a time, shut the shutter and move the lights....and open the shutter and on and on till you got really sick of this :>).


Another idea popped into my silly head. To rent couple of 100-200W porta video lights (to paint with) and attach them to something motorized (mower with steering ?) and make sure they are well scrimmed and on one side (from the camera) would be a tall plywood...masquerading the lights. Not sure tho if somehow the light will not create strobing efect across the background. Just a theory...


Les

[analoguey]

There was a profoto or mamiya blog on lighting up a 'tube' tunnel in UK, I think. Check that out for some tips maybe?

[mortensen]

The low ceiling space I would shoot by light painting it with a continuos light source like a powerful flashlight (and lots of batteries), a high asa film etc.. You move the light around in a big circle at each location to soften the shadows-no way to do this with strobes-it creates a huge light source. Otherwise the pillars will cast awful raw confusing shadows. The high ceiling one I would do with battery powered strobe-at least two with 2000 WS each and be prepared to do multiple pops.

I have used #2s before and even with Polaroid I wasted so many bulbs it became cost prohibitive.

Thanks, Kirk... how come you suggest different methods for the two rooms? A really powerful torch/flashlight can illuminate parts of the big room as well (as in previously attached photo). Both strobe and flashbulbs feel less controllable to me (because I have no experience with any of them, of course), whereas light painting with a really powerful flashlight seems more manageable. But of course, it has a drawback in being highly susceptible to uneven illumination of various areas of the picture, which could cause greatly unbalanced negatives that would be very difficult to fix in post. It would be easier to have a 'precise' system where to pop the strobes and where to point them... right?

[Kirk Gittings]

I'm just going by my years of experience and my gut looking at those pics.

The horizontal space needs light "painting" with a continuous source-small areas at a time till you get it all covered. Otherwise the shadows will look like crap.

The vertical space needs big broad huge power. Shadows are not an issue. It can be done with strobe and a wide angle reflector pointed up a bit and using multiple pops you can build enormous flash power.

Two different spaces-two different solutions.

Are you hell bent on using color? Otherwise I would do the vertical space in B&W and use a compensating developer like divided Pyrocat and no lights at all.

[mortensen]

How about using a string or two of super bright LED's....hanged on more distant poles + batt packs to show the size of the space....and lesser amounts closer to the camera (only ambiance). Not much light, but you could return in 8hrs :>). This could be pretested with a digi camera....to truly determine how long of an exposure this would be. If need be, and you didn't wanted to invest in large amounts of LED's, you could place the lights at X number of poles at a time, shut the shutter and move the lights....and open the shutter and on and on till you got really sick of this :>).


Another idea popped into my silly head. To rent couple of 100-200W porta video lights (to paint with) and attach them to something motorized (mower with steering ?) and make sure they are well scrimmed and on one side (from the camera) would be a tall plywood...masquerading the lights. Not sure tho if somehow the light will not create strobing efect across the background. Just a theory...


Les

Thanks, Les - appreciate you input. Interesting, though slightly demanding, ideas A battery powered flood light would be great... is there such a thing?

[mortensen]

Kirk, I guess I confused thing posting the image of the gasholder (the second pic, vertical space you refer to).
The first picture previously posted, what you refer to as the horizontal space, is actually the BIG water reservoir, 11.500 sqm. I will have access to one or two smaller (but still huge) reservoirs-those are the ones designed by aforementioned Ib Lunding.

I shot the gasholder with available light from skylights almost two years ago - what you see is 5-10min exposures on 4x5, iso160. The gasholder was the most incredible industrial cathedral space I have ever witnessed-as previously posted, they unfortunately blew it up two years ago. Very sad indeed

[jp]

In the space with the columns... Another option would be to embrace the shadows and shoot toward the light rather than try to make it even. Sorta like what I've done with trees:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13759696@N02/8545197905/

You could have twice as many cool lines (or more) depending on light sources and angles, etc...

[dave clayton]

Ive been exploring old mine workings for a while so have played around with lighting quite a fair bit. I'd ditch the flash bulbs get a few guys down there and use bright as hell torches and give each guy a area to light paint. Ive put in a shot to show what can be done space wise with a few 400lumen cavers head lamps and a cheap ebay special of unknown output. The Mine in question is a slate mine so zaps light like its going out of fashion but this should show what is possible with just 3 guys and 3 lamps