Lighting dilemma - Need more 6400k lights - None around

ihatedv

ihatedv

Well-known member
I have a shoot coming up and the manufacturer is back-ordered on 6400k.. I already have 4 125w soft boxes in 64k and I need 2 additional.

I don't have the money to buy all new bulbs that will allow me to get 2 additional in a different color temperature.

Any suggestions?
 
What´s a 6400k light?
If you go for daylight color temperature, you can always CTB tungsten light, not ideal, but getting jobs done for years now ;)
Otherwise maybe look up rental places and rent...?
 
Yeah 6400k temp, daylight. Am I saying it wrong? I was trying to avoid doing the CTB and buying more cheap lights off EBAY.
 
Common daylight balanced fixtures are at 5500-5600k, not 6400. That's why you can't find any. If you want 6400k, you're going to gel to get there.
 
I'm not saying you don't. And I'm not saying you can't get 6400k lights. I have some. What I am saying is that industry standard "Daylight" is not 6400k it's 5500-5600k. If you choose to use 6400k as your daylight, that's cool, but may be somewhat limiting when looking for sources. And will also be somewhat more difficult should you start trying to use industry standard gels or filters.

Best of luck.
 
Perrone, you are absolutely correct. My inexperience led me to buy the 6400's. After gaining a little experience, I realized my mistakes. Sorry to sound snobby just a little frustrated.
 
CTO your existing 6400's to 5600K and you'll be set. You may also find that the difference between the two is minimal or even useful. I often use a slightly warmer key light than kicker.
 
@Perrone Cool! The frustration is with the lights and the Colgan Q-400 than went down. I hope none of my boys were flying that plane.

@ Jeff, I actually started a thread about mixing those two temps the other day. What exactly will this do to my light? (56k and 64k)
 
It really depends on what you are doing with those lights. The best thing you can do is look at how different color temps interact in the real world as well as just get some bulbs and try it out. Look at a normal house with light coming in from the outside but generally lit inside with tungsten lamps. Just depends on where the light is hitting. It can be a really beautiful IMO. Go out at night too and look at the wide variety of color temps in street lamps - usually lots of orange and lots of blue splashing their way through the darkness. Much more interesting than just plain ol white light.
 
@ Jeff, sounds like good advice. I have to make a decision today on what additional to buy. Most likely I'll pick up some cool lights than slowly replace the 64k bulbs over time.

Who knows maybe I'll like the effect I'll get by mixing. Shooting SD, is it really that noticeable If I have one 54k fixture among (4) 64k?
 
The difference between 5600K and 6400K is negligible. The colour-temperature scale is logarithmic, so while 2000K to 3000K is very noticeable, 5000K to 6000K isn't very much. Bright sunlight is anywhere from 8000K to 15000K, but 5600K is a "good enough" match for the pros.

If it still bothers you then a 1/4 CTO on the 6400Ks will bring the CT down a tad.
 
pmark23 said:
The difference between 5600K and 6400K is negligible. The colour-temperature scale is logarithmic, so while 2000K to 3000K is very noticeable, 5000K to 6000K isn't very much. Bright sunlight is anywhere from 8000K to 15000K, but 5600K is a "good enough" match for the pros.

If it still bothers you then a 1/4 CTO on the 6400Ks will bring the CT down a tad.
Click to expand...

Only thing is that most fixtures rated 5600K offer a full spectrum light with a high CRI, other "white" lights (6000k and higher) often are optimized for output not color rendition and have nasty green spikes in their spektrum.
Hence some of the so called "daylight" or "bright white" tubes or CFLs render skintones realy shitty.
 
Thanks peeps. I got the coollights cl255 to do for my next shoot. I will slowly replace to 64k bulbs to get everything even.
 
Spartacus said:
Only thing is that most fixtures rated 5600K offer a full spectrum light with a high CRI, other "white" lights (6000k and higher) often are optimized for output not color rendition and have nasty green spikes in their spektrum.
Hence some of the so called "daylight" or "bright white" tubes or CFLs render skintones realy shi*ty.
Click to expand...

I assume high CRI tube use. Even with a "low" CRI tube, it's pretty difficult to find a high-K lamp with a low CRI. The lowest I've seen in the stores are 85 CRI, and the 5600K one's I bought are 92 CRI and cost the same as all the others.

Fluoro lamp technology has improved rapidly in the past 5-10 years.
 
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