Cinematography-Theory-And-Practice

STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH EXISTING OFF-COLOR LIGHTSEXISTING SOURCE YOUR LIGHTS STRATEGY COMMENTSAny fluorescentsAny fluorescentCool white fluorescentsWarm white fluorescentsCool white fluorescentsCool white fluorescentsNone orfluorescentsTungsten or anydaylight sourcesHMIs or otherdaylight sourceTungstenHMI or otherdaylight sourcesTungstenShoot fluorescentbalanceReplace the existinglamps with colorcorrectbulbsGel the existingfluorescentsGel the existingfluorescentsGel the daylightsourcesGel the tungsten andconvert to daylightbalanceIn video, white balance thecamera. In film, shoot a gray cardand let the lab correct for thegreen.If existing lights are accessible,replacing the bulbs with color correctlamps is not difficult.Adding Minusgreen or half Minusgreenwill reduce the green to balanceyour sources.Add Minusgreen gel to the existinglights. This will result in lightsthat are only an approximate colorbalance but with less light output.You can use tungsten lights orHMIs with CTO for tungsten balance.Add Plusgreen or half Plusgreen toyour lights so they have as muchgreen as the existing lights. Invideo white balance the camera.In film shoot a gray card and letthe lab time out the green.Add Plusgreen 50 gel to your lightswhich adds both blue and greencorrection. You can also add blue(CTB) and Plusgreen gel separately.In video white balance thecamera. In film shoot a gray cardand let the lab time out the green.Table 12.4. Strategies for dealingwith off-color sources.a true color temperature in degrees Kelvin. The black body colortemperature that they approximate is called the Correlated Color Temperature(CCT). On location it is not always possible to replace existinglights with your own lights; this may be due to rules imposedby the management of the location or budget/schedule reasons —especially in a very large space where it might take days to correct allthe existing lights. However, if you do have access to the fluorescentlights, you can simply take the existing bulbs out and replace themwith color correct fluorescent tubes (Kino Flo, Optima, or othercolor correct bulbs). There are many options and combinations, andit can get to be a bit confusing sometimes. Table 12.4 shows a decisionchart for dealing with these many different situations. On theset you may or may not have the proper gels for the lights with you.This is why a proper location scout and pre-production planning areso important, especially if dealing with industrial sources such asstreet lights, parking lot lights, and large factories or warehouses. Ayou don’t have one, you can hold correction gels over the lens of adigital still camera to test.cinematography242