CTO or CTB?

S

SteveM

Member
I've got a shoot coming up with a ton of different color temps involved. The primary being a 4 panel window directly behind the subject that gets a good amount of afternoon sun. The window is small enough to gell.

My question is what is the best way to both color correct the light and bring down the exposure as not to have a blown out background. Should I use a full CTO gel or a full CTB gel?
 
Horsefilms and his creepy avatar photo is right...lol
But you also need to then consider what your lighting your subject with..Daylight or tungsten.
If your using HMI's ,, just using ND 6 or 9 may do the trick. If Tungsten lights are used, Horsefilms is right on the money, and CTO with ND would be the way to go. Gelling your tungsten lights ctb to match the windows is going to be very disappointing, as the darker blue gel cuts your lights transmission and effectiveness down considerably. You can also knock down the windows with a cheap, cheap fabric called "Tule", which you can get at any fabric store.
This comes in several colors..you want black. Stretch it across the windows very tight, so the pattern of the fabric is not apparent.
 
Here comes the expanding universe! Yay!

Hey if you can do anything about this... you probably don't want an actual SHAFT of sunlight coming in... you should set something up to prevent that in advance if you can... like a perpendicular silk (white sheet) or something on a couple C-stands outside that is clear of the shot... but blocks a beam from coming in.

There's a big difference in controlling daylight and controlling an actual sunbeam... castrate the beam ahead of time if you know the path through your room... you'll thank me later.

Everything else posted is good advice anyway... just saying that you made it sound like you might have an actual beam coming in... I'd make sure that's not the case one way or another.
 
Thanks guys,

Matt I'm with you on the sun beam I have a Westcott frame I'll be using to bring down the beam. The light remaining was my issue with color balance. I hadn't seen the CTO with ND before but I found Gam and Lee both make sheets and rolls.
 
I don't know if you'll face this or not, but there is a funny thing about windows...

In SOME situations, not all, you find yourself really just wanting to nock down the brightness of the backgrounds reflectance, not the actual light coming into the room. This particular situation is a bit hard to explain in words, but basically you end up darkening the room (because the ND is cutting light coming in, as in non reflected light, but at the same time, decreasing the reflected light coming in thru the window (the background)). In effect, the ND gel has done nothing! LOL it just lowered the ratio proportionatly, not change it. Again this is hard to explain in words.

To be simple, in certain instances, its not the unreflected light coming in the window you wanna kill, its the harsh reflected light off the outside world you really wanna kill. Again, this isn't always a situation you find yourself in. If you do, well, there are a few options. One is kind of ironic, putting ND on the window, and then using a high power light to shoot more light into the room! If your shot framing will allow for it, you might be able to keep the light inside ( say, hiding it over head on a boom, thus decreasing the need for a higher power fixture, but if you want the shadows of blinds and such..... you need to put it outside. :grin: Here's a great simple question to ask yourself:

"Do I want the image to look like its being lit by sunlight coming thru the window and see the outside world?" If you do, then you might want to seriously consider this, as it might be what your facing. When in doubt, spot meter!:thumbsup: Also, you could just use HMI's inside and forget the gel all together, but your shadow directions will change over time, just one more thing to consider.

Wow! this was long winded....

Hope that helps.
 
Good point cardmaverick. If the light indeed is just bouncing off the white house outside the windows(for example) then reducing the light hitting the house would be the issue. An 8x8 or 12x12 frame with fabric to block this light would need to be set up, but moved and watched over the course of the days travel of the sun. Is this window facing South - South-West ?
You can also slightly block the window with tree branches.
 
The window is facing south.

This isn't a narrative so I'm not as concerned with the window interacting with sun as naturally as possible. Although, once I'm in the midst of lighting the area, which is pretty large, I'm sure I'll change my mind numerous time on how I want the window/sun to interact with the shot.
 
filmat11 said:
Good point cardmaverick. If the light indeed is just bouncing off the white house outside the windows(for example) then reducing the light hitting the house would be the issue. An 8x8 or 12x12 frame with fabric to block this light would need to be set up, but moved and watched over the course of the days travel of the sun. Is this window facing South - South-West ?
You can also slightly block the window with tree branches.
Click to expand...

Hey, thats a sweet idea, I never considered that, course, it all depends on what your trying to cover.... for a wide view of several things (ie, a city), this wouldn't work, but for a lot of instances it will.
 
The idea for the frame and blocking the light on a reflective surface outside the window also depends on how big the windows are and how far the reflective object is to the window in the first place.
Branch-o-loris is a favorite of mine. Keep a saw in your car....gotta go scout a location good luck..
 
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