better light from my worklights?

D

downnfront

Member
is there any way to get some whiter light from my cheap home depot 1000w (the twin one: 500w each light) worklights? i thought i read something about different bulbs maybe, or maybe there's a way to reflect it somehow that helps this issue? i have no clue, obviously, so any tips are a tremendous help.
 
What exactly do you mean by the statement "whiter light"?

Have you white balanced the camera with these as your key light source?

Do you perhaps mean more diffused light?

If you are looking for higher color temperatures, then you could use 1/4 or 1/2 CTB (well spaced in front of the fixtures to avoid burning) to shift the spectral balance.
 
by "whiter" light i mean that the worklights give off a yellowish light compared to the regular film light kits that i'm used to (but don't have access to b/c i'm home for the semester). does that make sense? i mean they will work fine and white balancing will surely help, but i'm just curious to know what i can do to get rid of the yellowish light. thanks.
 
White balancing will get rid of the yellowish light, as far as the camera is concerned. You may see it "live", but it won't be that way on tape.
 
If you wind up wanting to mix the lighting source with others that are more properly balanced, then simply white balancing will get you diddly squat. You'll end up with mixed looking skin tones, and odd color shifts in places where you may not expect them. I would suggest getting a rosco gel swatch that has little samples of all of their gels, and looking for a cooler color (if 1/4 or 1/2 CTB doesn't cut it) gel to try and balance the work lights. Now, if your lights happen to be an odd type of bulb, say sodium vapor (either low pressure or high pressure) then gelling is not in the cards. Sodium vapor work lights put out pretty much only one color of light, so if you try to block that color and make the light more white, it will lose all of its power.

Try putting a blue gel over a sodium vapor street light and watch it "turn off". I don't want to get too much into spectrum analysis, but just play around with different gel colors and see what works. 1/4 CTB will probably do you just fine.
 
You could also try getting a frosted halogen bulb. It may not color correct alot, but it may be what you're thinking of.

EVS has a great gel pack that may do better for you, as per above. Just be careful of the heat!
 
Hi downfront, here is the gel pack, but make sure you don't lay these gels down directly on the hot glass of the worklights (they will melt and fuse to it) but instead on the metal safety grille usually provided with those lights. You will also have to diffuse it to remove shadows from the metal grille:

http://www.evsonline.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=EVSCUSTOMGELKIT

You would want to use the Toughspun diffusion as the first layer, because it has very high heat resistance, then apply any correction or color gels on top of that. Use simple wooden clothespins to keep them on the grille. :)
 
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