On lessons learned from experiments with the use of multi-point lighting for on-location HDR photography

The office sequences that opened this episode were the last of what I refer to as “first phase” photography, back in the early stages of Night Zero production. When it was as much a learning experience and method experiment as it was an actual production, as we were slowly accumulating skills, knowledge, and equipment, we kept our flexibility high and our bulk low. With the exception of the warehouse fire sequence, the entirety of episode one was shot using natural (sun) and practical (what’s already present) lighting. The opening office scene, being a direct continuation of episode one, was the last to fall into this style, and while it was a learning experience, I’m happy that we have moved on to better things.

Since moving into episode two, we’ve done all our shoots with a three- or four-point light kit, which improves clarity as well as consistency. In episode one, 90% of the post-production work was tweaking and re-rendering the tonemapping to best match the surrounding frames. As the sun moved across the sky and clouds floated in and out, our light levels (and therefore exposure settings) were constantly shifting, yielding the optimum photos at each moment but a smorgasboard of levels to wade through.

With a larger production crew and photography assistants, we can control the the levels and balance of light on set. With controlled set lighting, we can shoot every photo at the same exposure settings, which astronomically improves the speed and consistency of our rendering.

Whenever we discuss lighting needs with photographers, they raise their eyebrows when we mention using a light-kit AND triple-exposure HDR photography. The implementation of HDR is most commonly used to balance lighting in unlightable environments, and the idea of shooting HDR on a fully lit set is perplexing. One of the biggest lessons we’ve discovered over the course of making Night Zero, though, pushes us in exactly the opposite direction: that only with both set lighting and triple exposures can we fully capture the look we love so much.

In the first six months of producing Night Zero, during the pilot and episode one, we were confused as to why some of our tonemapped photos came out with the vibrance and texture that is unique to our visual style, while others came out looking like “regular” photos. The same shoots, the same tonemap settings, completely different results. There is no How-To guide for HDR and tonemapping, and little to be found of others in the field attempting what we were, so it was only through much trial and experimentation that we discovered the trick to control the look we want.

When you shoot with a full light kit, a single exposure contains the right balance of information to properly render the photograph in a clean and sharp finish, much like anyone would expect to see from a professional shoot. When you shoot without a light kit but with triple-exposure HDR, tonemapping can use the information from the other exposures to compensate for the missing light information, and render a photograph of the same quality as the fully lit one.

Only when you shoot with both a full light kit and triple-exposure HDR can you render the tonemapped style that has come to define Night Zero. In this sense, the tonemapping can be viewed as a finite resource, and the lighting on the photo a scale. If the set is fully lit and properly exposed, the entire power of the tonemapping can be applied to enhancing the detail and vibrance. If the set is poorly lit and underexposed, the power of the tonemapping has to be spent bringing the photo up to par, and only what’s left over from that can be used to enhance. (Please note that this analogy does not work for the technology behind the HDR tonemapping, but sufficiently explains the results)

When we discovered this, we increased our focus on stronger lighting and consistency. Immediately our photos became sharper and more well defined. Our gritty, dirty environments popped with detail and precision. We locked down what we wanted, and now are able to focus our attention on environment detail, character development, and writing.