In the heat of summer, a few months ago, renowned photographer Steve Giralt, was commissioned to shoot a campaign for Airwick USA. Through this campaign the company aimed to present the myriad benefits of their latest product, known as color changing candles. After selecting a gorgeous exterior location for the shoot, it was decided to capture the candles in two polarizing settings – a pristine moonlit sky would be used to shoot the first of the two looks, while the second would bear more of a twilight background. In order to shoot the candles within a span of just 48 hours, as many as 20 diverse environments and settings were employed. This proved to be an arduous task for Steve, since he had to encapsulate all these shots within a daily time frame of dusk light, which isn't usually more than an hour. Supplementing the night scenes with some additional ambient light was also the need of the hour , as the candles were quite radiant and had to merge inconspicuously with the moonlight.
Some of the scenes that had to be shot included romantic dinners by a stream, July 4th backyard barbeques, camping in the backyard, roasting marshmallows by a fire pit, poolside parties, working in the garden, and many more. The reason why such scenes were selected is because they really add to the ambiance of the color changing candles. However, encompassing all these shoots in just two days did pose a challenging hurdle, and was going to take a herculean effort, especially when considering the hurdles with the limited time of sunset and the expertise required to blend the candles into the night time shoots.
To capture the night scenes, Mr. Giralt borrowed a cue from the DOP of the Oscar winning film, “Brokeback Mountain”, in which gargantuan sized weather balloons were utilized so that the artificial lighting bounced off them, resulting in a realistic moonlight effect on the field. What made Mr. Giralt's heart sore was the fact that this was achieved with a minimal budget that the production team had to work around with. The very next day, this photographer purchased a few 20-inch weather balloons and got to work along with his air compressor.
After zeroing in on an appropriate location, choosing the right days when the weather would be most conducive, and working round the clock to erect all the sets along with the prop stylist, all was set for the operation to get under way. However, owing to the limited time on offer, there was no room for errors or miscalculations. A 600 g, 20-inch burst size white weather balloon was opted for. The balloon was kept afloat with the aid of a humongous helium tank, plus the compressed air that was supplemented inside the balloon for excess volume. Once the balloon was floating at 8-feet above ground level, it was secured to a 25 lb sandbag with a parachute cord. Based on the sizes of the scenes to be shot, Steve alternated the balloon's height from 30 to 75-feet above ground level. Pertaining to the distance of the balloon and the angle at which light was bouncing off it, the brightness of the balloon also kept changing. A powerful 2000 W Honda generator was used to power the Arri 1.2K Par HMI light, which empowered the team to shift the light exactly how they desired without the need of cumbersome power cables. A spot lens was employed on the light and at times the light was even heated or cooled with CTO CTB color filters to facilitate adequate temperature balance. On an average, the bounced light was usually two to three frames below the luminance of the candles. The shoot proved to be a enlightening yet pleasurable experience and the images turned out beautifully. After producing the final output, the clients were immensely satisfied and now the photographer wishes to try this balloon-light system as the main light coupled with a brighter HMI or perhaps as a strobe light source. Either which way, the balloon-light system gets full marks as an effective method for creating artificial moonlight. via: stevegiralt.com