# Shooting stills while a film crew is filming



## lhp (Apr 26, 2010)

I have to shoot stills while a film crew it taping a commercial. Sound is not an issue as they won't be recording sound - just that I have to use their lighting and find an out of their way position to shoot. My main concern is the inside shooting at night, when there will be a warm, low light "look" created, and I'm concerned that my shutter speed will have to be too low to stop the action of the models. I'm sure there are photographers that do this all the time, as in movie sets, but I've never done it and am nervous knowing that I won't be able to add a light here or there if needed. Does anyone have advice for me?


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## gsgary (Apr 26, 2010)

Fast glass and up the ISO, it shouldn't be a problem with the right lenses, i love shooting low light


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## lhp (Apr 26, 2010)

Seems like when I've seen TV shoots the lights look very bright and harsh so I'm concerned about how a digital camera interprets that. The unfortunate thing is that I just don't know much about TV lighting vs. still photography lighting, which I do know a fair amount about.


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## jt69 (Apr 27, 2010)

lhp, Can you clarify if they are shooting  in film or video. One thing is lighting for video or TV (News etc) and another monster is lighting to shoot film. TV usually is light up with kino lights or low K values up to daylight balance. Film on the other side is up to the set director and lighting tech to define all the different lighting ratios to use for a particular scene. 

Either or, for your particular dilemma. Like gsGary suggested up the iso and a 1.2 or 1.4 F glass will help, but most likely you will have to talk to the director so you can do a stop scene, to make sure the models don't move for the shots you want to take and also is good to take a tripod!. Make sure you if your glass is stabilize turn it off.

Usually when we have on set photographers we do have a cut trough the scene where the photographers is allowed to shoot some stills. Also, with the new HD video cameras like the red one the still is actually taken out of the same scene.  

I hope this helps a bit...


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## lhp (Apr 27, 2010)

Thank you Luis,

Yes, that is helpful. All I know so far (and will find out the answers to your questions is that they are filming a commercial and they want me to shoot stills at the same time, or just after when time allows. Hopefully I can talk to the video people before the shoot. In the meantime, I have a 12 mp camera and 2.8 lenses. Trying to borrow from NPS a different lens but can't get them to respond. Thanks!


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