hmi lighting tips

Hi

 

im working on photographic project outdoors these days and im thinking of

buying HMI lights.

 

What i would like to know is what kind and how strong lights Gregory Crewdson

are using.

Do anyone know?

 

Thanks!!

 

Petter

I have no idea what Crewdson is using. they do say that he uses filmic lighting, but HMIs have a lot of problems, like hum, high power requirements, heat and sunburn, and so on. I would have thought that a portable strobe would always be preferable.

 

t

Not sure that you want to BUY large hot lights, especially HMIs. I'd be willing to bet that Crewdson RENTS the lighting and hires a small film crew to handle the equipment.

 

I saw that photo last year as part of the Crewdson show at White Box, in London. (It opened simultaneously in London, LA & NYC.) Makes you feel squalid beyond measure.

I saw a book of Crewdson's work that had production stills and crew credits in the back. The crew list for the photos in this particular book was huge. More like something I'd expect to see at the end of a feature film. We're not just talking assistants but big lighting crews, riggers etc etc.

 

The production stils also showed crew rigging very large lights on numerous scaffolding towers etc.

... so I guess that whatI was trying to say above was, yes it's likely he rents in the same way that film productions do when working on that sort of scale.

Look at some production stills of some of Gregory Crewdson's work. It always looks like a major motion picture movie set, streets are blocked, lighting trucks in the nearby streets, a little army of crew people running about, cherry pickers high up in the air with huge lights. Buying a few HMIs is not going to cut it. My advice, if you got the budget, rent the equipment and rent the crew. Or you could dig deep into yourself and come up with a piece of original art then you might not need huge HMI's to do a Gregory Crewdson.

I just came across this post and I know it's pretty old now, but did you see the latest issue of PDN? There is a very interesting article on Crewdson and his techniqes and lighting diagrams. I was just floored reading how many lights go into a photo...the details are amazing...