Flood Lights Halogen Question help! Bulbs are 7K, do I need cto or ctb gels at all?

Clint Nitkiewiz Hernandez

Clint Nitkiewiz Hernandez

Well-known member
So I will be using

(2) 500W flood lamps for Key
(1) adjustable 250, 500, or 750W flood lamp for fill or backlight
(2) 250W flood lights for additional lights to create depth, play around with to create puddles of light


Here is my dilema!!!

All of these halogen bulbs are 7K color temperature,

And how will I light an interior night scene using these bulbs, say if I wanted them to look like tungsten, and not this overly hot daylight, daylight is around 6K and tungsten is 3200,

I cant find 3200K bulbs anywhere, and dont have the money to replace bulbs either, so cant I just use gels, so treat my lights as if they were daylight, and just convert them to tungsten with the right gel for my int shots?

So how would I use my cto and ctb gels accordingly? Put cto over the 7k lights to make them 3200k and im set for my tungsten int lighting?
 
I have doubts that the bulbs are 7k. Halogen bulbs are 3200 kelvin.

If that's really the case, then your "dilemma" is every gaffers hope.

-J
 
Halogen worklights actually come in more in the 2600 to 2800K range.

You have to go out of your way to find some bulbs at 3200K for a worklight because they make those things to have a longer life and the higher color temperatures reduce lifetime.

For instance a 2800K lamp may have a life of 500 to 800 hours. Raise the color temperature to 3200K and it goes down to 100 to 200 hours.

As J said, no way would a common worklight be 7000K in color temperature. The only way that would be possible would be an LED, fluorescent or metal halide (HID) worklight -- and all of those are quite a bit harder to find and more expensive than a 500w halogen worklight.

I think you may be switching around the range of color temperatures and not knowing it. Daylight is roughly 5000K to 6500K range. Photography standards for daylight fall in the 5500K to 6000K range. Studio tungsten is 3200K range. Household incandescent tungsten and worklights 2600K to 3000K, etc. Office fluorescents typically fall in at 4000K. Those are some commonly found values we have to deal with.
 
Clint Nitkiewiz Hernandez said:
So I will be using

(2) 500W flood lamps for Key
(1) adjustable 250, 500, or 750W flood lamp for fill or backlight
(2) 250W flood lights for additional lights to create depth, play around with to create puddles of light


Here is my dilema!!!

All of these halogen bulbs are 7K color temperature,

And how will I light an interior night scene using these bulbs,
Click to expand...

If your scene does not incorporate other light fixtures other then those halogen bulbs you have, it really doesn't matter what their temperature is. White balance your camera.

I am usually an advocate of always knowing and controlling your lights but in this case it seems you are only using lights of the same temperature, albeit unknown... In other words you are not mixing 'flavors' of light. Therefore no mired shift correction is necessary... unless you are shooting film or a camera that can not white balance.

If you want the camera to have a tint of blue, simply white balance to something that is slightly warm. IE: a light orange towel, a pale orange t-shirt... whatever. If you want something more orange white balance to something a little blue, etc. If you want normal, white balance on white.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
If you want the camera to have a tint of blue, simply white balance to something that is slightly warm. IE: a light orange towel, a pale orange t-shirt... whatever. If you want something more orange white balance to something a little blue, etc. If you want normal, white balance on white.
Click to expand...

You can always just white balance off white then use the color shift or whatever it's called in camera to shift it to blue or orange. Bit more controlled that way. :)
 
quick question

quick question

if I am shooting a scene outside, and need to white balance, do I point it at the sun then hit the white balance button,

I am using an hvx 200 and it only switches from 3200k to daylight, so I assume just point it at the sun and hit daylight on the camera or do I aim at a white object in the shot?

And for int shots, at night, do I aim at the light directly then hit 3200k whitebalance?
 
NO!!! Please read up on how to properly white balance a camera, as it is obvious you have no clue. Never point the camera directly at the sun, as it may damage your camera!!!

Also, the HVX does NOT only have two presets. You can toggle off the presets and get a custom white balance for any color temperature.


To start you off on the right path, point the camera at a pure white object (usually white piece of paper, etc) while in the color temperature environment you are shooting in and then press the whitebalance button.
 
thanks patrick,

so when i hit the white balance button while using a white sheet of paper, the only thing that happens is it goes from 3200k to daylight, and vise versa every time i hit the button, so do i just toggle to whatever temp i need while looking at the card,

i am using an hvx200, thanks,
 
There is a switch on the side, next to the gain switch. You have it on preset, which means it will only toggle back and forth between daylight and tungsten. To get a custom what balance read the manual and set the camera to either wbA or wbB. In those cases you have to hold the white balance button, the camera goes black, and then flips back with a white balanced images.

Like I said, please read up on this!
http://www.austinfilmtools.com/assets/docs/panasonic_ag-hvx200_manual.pdf

White balance is on page 40.
Telling you to not point the camera at the sun is on pg 124.
 
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