I want my own sun gun.

P

Policar

Carbonite Member
In a couple months, I'm hoping to shoot a short film with a scene inside a building with large glass windows. I'm going to light the scene--a character sitting on a chair--with normal low key (for such a well lit environment) 3 point lighting.

I want to keep the color temperature of the outside relatively consistant with the color temperature of the character. I'm going to use primarily Home Depot lights (darned budget constraints), probably a Diffused 500w halogen lamp as a key light, a 150w halogen lamp as a fill light, and a 60-100W tungsten bulb as a backlight if the backlighting from the windows isn't sufficient to put nice highlights in the hair.

My question is, what kind of gels should I use to match color temperatures (probably rosco blue gels), and how strong should they be? I want a little orange to give the feel of indoor lighting, but I don't want a bright blue exterior or a bright orange interior (the scene is going to have a somewhat desaturated greenish tint, but I'll add that in post.)

To get the low key feel, I'll also be cranking up the master ped. But as for filters...any tips? I want the lights to be bluer, but not too blue...

Lastly, any tips for a strong blue filter so that I can use halogen lamps outdoors?
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

Well if your lights are true 3200K, you should just put a Full CTB on each.

If they are not, you'll have to correct it by eye, or borrow a color temp meter.
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

Would a lighting store have a color temp meter? These lights are not so good....
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

Don't worry about the color temperature meter. The halogen bulbs in your worklights will probably be around 3000K, which means that even with full CTB gels, the lights will be a bit warmer than daylight. I think I'd get some full CTB and some 3/4 CTB gels and experiment with the lighting. White balance the camera against the daylight with the lights turned off, and the window light will be neutral. Then you can try 3/4 or full CTB's on your lights and see how warm you like the light. If you want to fine tune the color balance, you should use the Color Temp adjusment under Scene File. For instance you might want the window light to be slightly cool, so you could white balance, adjust color temp, and finally gel your lighting to taste.
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

Good color temperature meters cost $1k and up, and you really should have them calibrated yearly to stay accurate. (this means that if you're not a working DP or rental shop, a color temperature meter is a money hole.)

You could probably find a cheap used one, but there'd be no guarentees on its operation or accuracy.
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

I concur with the Senator from... (Barry, where are you from?)

Oh, enough political talk, already.

Anyhow, Barry has said what I would have said. Also, you may want to try some 1/2 CTB gel on your halogens (depending on how much warmer you would like the interior).
 
Re: I want my own sun gun.

Thanks for all the advice, I think I'm going to buy a bunch of CTB filters of varied strength on my next trip to the lighting store.

(I've got a really good local lighting store: http://shop.barbizon.com/ but unfortunately it's soooo expensive just because real lights are.

Last questions:
I want to diffuse the 500w home depot spotlight, but I also want to change it to 5600k. How should I stack the filters (diffuse and CTB)? And is there any way to mount filters easily on those big home depot lights without melting the filters?

Also, for avoiding blown out windows, is the best solution just to wrap them from the outside in neutral density filters? Doesn't this take forever and look awful, though?
 
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