Lighting Room w/ Mixed Sources

[wordpictures]

Here's the shooting scenario with some challenging lighting:

Institutional, double-wide trailer with one open area - half filled with seating for group meetings. Small, uncovered windows set fairly high along both the long north & south walls. Will be recording interviews of individuals here and, later, a group meeting for a documentary-style promotional.

The north windows are at the back of the room & won't be in the shots, but the south windows will be directly behind the leaders during the meeting. All recording will be during daylight hours. Overhead lighting is fluorescent. My tungsten-halogen light kit includes a 750-watt broad throw and both 500- & 250-watt spot lights. I would like to place diffusion material on the outside of the south windows - but would appreciate budget-conscious material suggestions. How would you work with the windows, varied light temps, overall light levels for both the interviews and, especially, the group meeting?

 

[UtahDPDude]

Some thoughts

Some thoughts

Here is what I would do. When things are really budget sensitive then I end up mixing light sources and then just white balance. This isn't recommended as a good practice because then you end up with funny skin tones and it's harder to keep thing consistent. If you have a few bucks to work with then I suggest a few things. When shooting a room with windows it's always nice to use the windows for one of your light sources because it's cheep and there usually lots of it. On the other hand the sun moves and clouds will also obstruct the light coming in.

If you end up shooting into some of the windows which it sounds like you are then what you have to do is balance the light you have inside with the light coming in from out. Meaning your lights lighting your talent inside needs to be bright enough that when you look at them with a window behind them they are not totally blown out or silhouetted by this blasting hot window. There are gels that are for this very thing. I don't know where you are or if you have access to any movie equipment rental houses but you can buy the stuff rather cheep and it will be perfect for blocking light coming in through windows. It's called ND (Neutral Density) it comes in different steps. ND3 ND6 and ND9. Also one thing you might think about is putting a orange gel on the outside windows. This will take the blue sunlight and make it warmer to match your tungsten light kit.

If you don't have access to any gel or don't have the budget for it a different solution might be to go to home depot and get some shade netting. This is found in the garden section. Mostly used for patios and shading other outdoor gathering places. The netting can be places over your windows to take the light level down as it enters your room. It also could be doubled up to take even more light down.

The last thing you could do is use some CTB or blue Gels on your tungsten lights. This will cool your lights to match the sunlight coming in. The only problem with that is the CTB really cutts your light level down. A 500 watt light really becomes something more like a 200 watt light with a full CTB Gel on it.

I would like to mention one more thing but it doesn't sound like you have the space and it's a bit more difficult when you are trying to cover a few more people. Reflectors and sunlight are a great combination. If you can rely on the sun to be where you need it to be during your shoot then it's a great thing to use some sort of reflectors as secondary light sources. The cheapest and best bounce card I have used is a nice 4x4 foot piece of foam core. IT can be found at many a paper or sign shop. Hope this helps a little bit and good luck. Ask again if you have any more thoughts/questions.

 

[FBAS]

If the windows aren't that big, then I'd really get some CTO (or 3/4 CTO) gels to cover the windows. It pays off because you can use your halogen lights ungelled - more power from your lights, less power from the windows, plus consistent color temperature.