Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

10 BOUNCE LIGHT FOR BABY: 1 Photographs for MOVIE MAKERS by BETTE and FRED KLOSTERMAN, ACL PERHAPS your pediatrician will not agree with this. But Bette and I hold that the harsh, blinding glare of movie lighting is hard on a baby's eyes — specifically, our baby's eyes. We have, therefore, been experimenting with indirect or bounce light. A pictorial report on our findings will be found on the page opposite. 1 believe that these pictures will prove our point — that "it's bounce light for baby." To begin with, the system is unquestionably pleasanter from an infant's point of view. It is, further, easy to arrange and, properly placed, will require far fewer lamp units than you might suppose. But most important of all, indirect lighting is the ideal illuminant for all baby pictures. Jt is soft in texture, high-key in tone and magically shadowless, all qualities which are eminently suitable to the gentleness of one's subject — a mother and child. Bounce light is achieved, of course, by training your lighting units away from the subject and onto suitable reflecting surfaces surrounding that subject. Usually these BRIGHT-CLOUDY LIGHTING out of doors, as in the shot above, parallels the soft, shadowless effects of bounce lighting indoors. ^ ^w *l INDOOR-OUTDOOR LIGHTING is combined here with two RFL-2s and a silvered reflector bouncing fill light on shadow side of scene. FRITZ KLOSTERMAN and his mother, photographed by the father in hospital only three days after the baby's birth. It was this picture, exposed solely under indirect lighting, which prompted the Klostermans' definitive picture story on Bounce Light for Baby. surfaces are the ceiling and the walls of the room which is the setting. Other and more specialized reflecting surfaces might be a spread sheet, newspapers on the floor, a movie projection screen or simply a white shirt. In general, the more reflective the surface is (save for a true mirror), the easier it will be to work with. In particular, the whiter the surface is, the truer in color tone will be the light reflected from it. For, any noticeably colored surface will tincture the light reflected from it, and this light in turn will impose its color on the subject image. The soft, shadowless effects of bounce lighting indoors may be studied and evaluated in advance under two outdoor light conditions. These are in open shade on a sunlit day or under a bright-cloudy sky on an overcast day. Our picture at the left illustrates this latter condition. From an all-outdoor use of indirect lighting, you may progress to a combination of both outdoor and indoor illumination, as is also pictured on this page. The highlights here are created by direct sunlight, but it has been slightly diffused in coming through the window. On the off-light side — which normally would be in heavy and contrasty shadow — bounce light has been used as a fill to bring the contrast range within a usable ratio. Specifically, two RFL-2 flood lamps were bounced off the ceiling and a 2 by 3 foot silver surfaced reflector was used to bounce back the excess daylight. A word of warning: If you are working in color, such a combination will be possible only with Daylight Type film and so-called daylight or blue-glass flood lamps. And now for the 100 percent bounce lighting setups indoors. The lamps used in the pictures opposite are of the 500 watt, built-in reflector type — either GE's RFL-2 or Sylvania's R-2 Reflectorflood. The exposures given are for Tungsten type color films, run at 16 frames per second; and for accuracy of color temperature no lamp was used for more than half of its rated life. But don't take our dope verbatim. The setups pictured and the specifications given are intended only as guides. Get in there now and try your own hand at bounce light for baby! . . . See you next month with more setups.