Proper fluorescent lighting??

S

Shogun!

Member
I own a DVX100b, and have a shoot coming up for a music video. The room I'll be shooting in has no other light source but fluorescent. They're two fixtures mounted to the ceiling, each hold 1 pair of 2 bulbs, 4 bulbs total. I have the option of changing all the bulbs to create a uniform lighting condition. I also intend on buying a small fluorescent fixture so I can point it toward any subject that will be in frame to add extra light. Questions are...

1. What type of bulbs should be purchased to avoid a AMATEUR looking video?

2. Are there adjustments that can be made to the camera, to match any specific features of the bulbs, such as temperature, watts, etc?

3. When filming on DV can the pulse of the light be seen while the subjects are in frame? Or does the camera have to record the image to the DV tape before any pulsing can be seen? How do I avoid pulsing all together?

4. What would be the proper way to light any subject in frame with any additional fixtures that I purchase?

5. How exactly does light temperature work?

Any other information regarding working with fluorescent lighting would be greatly appreciated thanks.
 
I just shot in a factory that was lit by fluorescents. I used a few Cool Light Fresnels (daylight bulbs) with green gel on them as fill. I did a custom white balance and did an auto white balance...Much to my surprise, there was little difference in both. I actually favored the auto white balance. Of course this can be tweaked a little in post. Definitely add fill lights though and not just the overheads. Makes for a much improved appearance. I would say adding the fill lights are a necessity.
 
The Cool Lights are specifically made to work for video. So no, he probably didn't.

Pulsing would only show up after the video has been recorded. It's caused by change in the lights over the period of time the shutter is open. My understanding is that there are multiple pulses in 1/24 of a second, which you won't register; the reason it registers in the camera is that the changes in the light emissions are added over that period of time unevenly to what the light is meant for. So you can't see it until frame rate and shutter speed are taken into account by the camera.

I've actually had all good experiences with those, even a lot of the consumer ones that I find as practicals. Most likely you can get away with anything for lamps, just do a test shoot first. Since I'm already typing, I'll keep going.

1. First, 'bulbs' are called 'lamps' by stuck up film people who need different words for things. Second, they aren't all that important. Much more important is the instrument you put them in and what kind of control you have over your lights- diffusion, direction, things like that. Reflectors are an excellent investment. Lamp choice is mostly down to intensity.

2. Only color temperature.

4. I don't know. Depends how you want to light them. You're the filmmaker in that scenario, not anyone on this board.

5. The 'kelvin' temperature system was developed to measure stuff we can't get a thermometer to. It registers the color of a theoretical 'black body' at any given temperature, which is why we call it temperature. Lower numbers are more red, higher numbers more blue until white. We call it the other way around, blue as cool and red as warm, because that's how those colors tend to be interpreted by people. Sunlight averages 5600k, tungstens are balanced around 3200k (k for kelvins). To compensate for the different colors of different lights, you tell your camera what white is and it figures out the difference, adapting itself manually. Knowing the color temperatures lets you use presets easier. The different colors can't be mixed properly without seeing the different casts, but that's a different lesson altogether.

I'm tired and writing this quick, so sorry if I messed up something in there.
 
are there any other info out there, perhaps a tutorial, about shooting under fluorescent?
Does the pulsing happen to compact fluorescent, the one w/ mogul base?

I've looked through the stickies but ive only seen incandescent-type lightings.
 
It all depends upon the frequency that the ballast drives the tube at. Modern fixtures using good electronic ballasts certainly don't have any issues with producing flickering on video or film. Pro video fixtures will certainly always use such ballasts but suitable fixtures or self-ballasted compact fluorescents can even be found at Home Depot or Lowes. There's been plenty said about it on this site. Just use the search function.
 
The only flickering I noticed in my shoot was not caused by my Cool Lights that I used for fill but rather some bad bulbs way overhead in the factory that were flickering. Even with that, I only noticed the flickering as it was reflected on some shiny metal surfaces. Unfortunately, I was not able to change out the bad bulbs about 60 feet high in the factory so I just went with it. Honestly the average viewer will not even notice it, as it is only in the footage I will use for about 2 seconds.
 
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