CSI Lighting

A

ajmax

Well-known member
Shooting with HVX-200 in 720 24p
Tungsten light kit and 1 HMI

What is the best way to get the CSI lighting effect.
The Blue colors on the walls and surrounding the talent
while the talent is lit normally.
The equipment above is all I have.
Do I use my HMI and white balance to 3200K and then use daylight gels?
or do I white balance to tungsten lighting at 3200K and put on Party Blue gels on the background lights?
 
IF you gel the tungsten to blue your going to lose over a stop of lighting. I would WB to 3200. Use the tungstens to light your figures normally. Then use the hmi and whatever other tungsten lights you have left with a ctb gel for your background lighting.
 
If you balance to your tungsten source and leave the HMI alone, you'll get the "blue colors surrounding the talent". If you want less blue, of course you can CTO your HMI source with 1/4 or 1/2 CTO, and the source will still be blue, although "less blue". The light coming from your HMI will be blue compared to the tungsten. How big is your HMI? how big is the are you're lighting? The set-dec and color pallette will also influence the percieved color of your lighting scheme. Don't forget that you can pick up some daylight balanced flouro's and flicker-free electronic fixtures from the hardware store for very cheap......
 
Bear in mind that CSI is shot in 16mm
The glorious highlights from the overlit rim on talent is NOT something you can achieve with video, it will just blowout. They also tend to underexpose the talent, which is also much better handled with film than with video, which tends to lose excess detail and become too grainy.

Also, CSI is a combination of location shoots and a SET. The set, which is what I think you're trying to simulate, is something they spent a fortune creating with not just alot of expensive lights but with very creative and expensive set design.

It kills me in the low budget world how people always ask me to make it look like CSI or something like that, but they only have a small budget. You need to be realistic and provide some tests for the producer or director so they can get a realistic idea of what is possible with such a limited budget.

Your question on white balance is almost like someone saying "I want to enter the Indianapolis 500 race with my Ford Focus, so what kind of gas do you think I should use?" The answer is you should race you car in a race with comprabable cars.

All that said, if I were to try and do what you are attempting, giving a very limited budget and limited lights, I'd probably test white balancing through CTO to make all existing practicles and ambient hue blue to environment, the correct my key on talent for a natural skin tone and warm the rim. Using daylight practical bulbs will also help. But it still won't get you anywhere close to the set on CSI
 
Thank You for your input...
I know that we will never get the CSI look to be exact...
That is why I came to you guys to pick your brains...
How to get this done and how to do it with the limited equipment....
I believe that just because I don't have the tools that a big budget production has doesn't mean I shouldn't try....
Besides,,, It's the ability to make something with nothing that gets us the jobs over someone who is complaining about what they don't have...
I thought CSI was shot in HD 1080 p????
 
I don't think anything for television is shot in 16mm and hasn't been in a long time. Most series from the beginning were shot in 35mm. Most series today are still shot in 35mm and transferred to HD (a search online shows two or three references that this is the case for CSI). Its true though that many shows (especially sitcoms but the list grows every year) are shot in HD 1080p.

Back to your subject. The first three or four posters are right. Really white balance is your friend for this. There will probably have to be a bit of separation from the walls or backgrounds to make sure talent tungsten lighting doesn't affect your "blue" look you're trying to achieve behind them with your HMI.
 
Magic Bullet has a preset "inspired by CSI" But CSI has a few distinct looks. A blue/white one and a green/yellow one are two they use. CSI Miami has the orange gradient and polarizing filters out for every show.
 
From what I've seen of CSI, if you turn off every single light within a 1km radius of your shoot - you should get a similar effect to their lighting setup :thumbsup:

I'm not surprised the lead actor says he's going blind, who can see anything on those sets!
 
Pay close attention to seperating your individual light source's spill and you'll be happy. This is the most overlooked aspect of video lighting at our level... individual light control... which is why I bark about black duvetyne so much.

You won't get seperation on your shot until you get seperation in your lighting. While you don't have to buy actual flags... you will need to find ways to do their job. I have several flags... and a crap-ton of duvetyne. If you use that stuff to light the elements of your scene individually... such as blue walls farthest from cam... softer blue medical tables and instruments in the middle distance between actor and far wall and/or actor and camera... then light your actor traditionally, but favoring hard over soft... I think that will get you the look you want. I'd use a hard light overhead, but have it shooting directly down on a reflector that the cam doesn't see (white side)... this should give you the realistically hard light of an examination... and if you dim it enough to control the blowout... then you should also get a subtle fill bouncing back up on the faces.

An HMI is an awesome tool... but it's kind of an odd thing to have only one of, unless you're using it in hard/soft combo with a daylight flo... so I'd expect to use that to mimic sunlight coming in somewhere in the background... and go with that for part of your blue... if you can make it a shaft of light, but out of focus, and blue-ish... all the better.

My .02
 
I remember reading that the DP on for the original CSI show (Las Vegas) they use a lot of those LITEPANELS LED lights mounted all around those LAB scenes among other lights obviously.
 
CSI is 35mm. Set deco has a lot to do with the look of the show. Before the grading, there's a big palette of color at play in each and every shot.

e
 
Thanks...
Are you sure that CSI is shot in 35mm???
I have necer seen 35mm look so good...
It really looks like 1080p
Especially in the night time skyline shots...
 
I think so.

CSIM-BTS-407-0188.jpg


CSI%20Miami%20web16.jpg


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