CelesteCassidy
New member
I’d like to start a dialogue around lighting apps, considering a number of companies at CineGear mentioned they were in development of their own, and I was poking around Prolycht’s recently.
Most of the time a gaffer will be the one getting hands on with these remote operable lights and I just tell them what I want, so experience with a breadth of apps is limited, but I do have experience with the Astera app.
Features that I like to see:
Stackable, customizable effects - Astera does this really well. For me, being able to break away from a handful of preset effects and design complex cues from the ground up is creative freedom that I don’t feel should be compromised on.
Control of multiple units simultaneously or independently - Ganging lights is great, but being able to treat the heads independently is more useful.
Triggered Lightning - I see some units that have a basic lightning effect. Love me some lightning! Not having the ability to trigger it though (from the app or unit) is a big oversight in my opinion. Honestly, every effect should have the option to be triggerable.
Dimming curves - They’re great!
Hot buttons for frequently used values - ChromaLlink has this , and I like it from a purely UI standpoint. Below the typical slider there are also buttons for our standard, frequently used color temperatures and intensity percentages. There’s also a field to fill in a precise value. Sure sliding your finger across a screen isn’t too taxing, but I really like seeing these features.
Photos to color - I’m a little torn on this one. It’s handy to be able to take a photo and not have to guess about the product colors you’re matching, but there’s a lot I still don’t understand about how this works. How much consistency can we expect from taking a photo on a phone camera and translating this to light output? How do the apps control the camera’s settings? I’d love to read more technical sources on this one.
I guess the TLDR is that I really appreciate feeling like I have a creative sandbox at my disposal rather than a small menu of options.
So in this space where more companies are creating their own light control apps I ask: What have people used? What functionality have you found useful? What, not so much?
Most of the time a gaffer will be the one getting hands on with these remote operable lights and I just tell them what I want, so experience with a breadth of apps is limited, but I do have experience with the Astera app.
Features that I like to see:
Stackable, customizable effects - Astera does this really well. For me, being able to break away from a handful of preset effects and design complex cues from the ground up is creative freedom that I don’t feel should be compromised on.
Control of multiple units simultaneously or independently - Ganging lights is great, but being able to treat the heads independently is more useful.
Triggered Lightning - I see some units that have a basic lightning effect. Love me some lightning! Not having the ability to trigger it though (from the app or unit) is a big oversight in my opinion. Honestly, every effect should have the option to be triggerable.
Dimming curves - They’re great!
Hot buttons for frequently used values - ChromaLlink has this , and I like it from a purely UI standpoint. Below the typical slider there are also buttons for our standard, frequently used color temperatures and intensity percentages. There’s also a field to fill in a precise value. Sure sliding your finger across a screen isn’t too taxing, but I really like seeing these features.
Photos to color - I’m a little torn on this one. It’s handy to be able to take a photo and not have to guess about the product colors you’re matching, but there’s a lot I still don’t understand about how this works. How much consistency can we expect from taking a photo on a phone camera and translating this to light output? How do the apps control the camera’s settings? I’d love to read more technical sources on this one.
I guess the TLDR is that I really appreciate feeling like I have a creative sandbox at my disposal rather than a small menu of options.
So in this space where more companies are creating their own light control apps I ask: What have people used? What functionality have you found useful? What, not so much?
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