Im doing a video shoot on top of a car park downtown and the skyline will be behind the artist. I only have a daylight balanced light to expose him with and I was wondering if this would throw off the color of the shot when I put my wb to daylight balanced? I was thinking it would be a problem because most city lights and streetlamps are probably tungsten.
Using daylight balanced lights at night?
- Thread starter dtjohns1
- Start date
Chris Santucci
Veteran
Street lighting is almost always low pressure sodium, mercury vapor, or metal halide.
Of those three, low pressure sodium will be the least close to daylight color as it has almost no blue or green in it. If you see these yellowish low pressure sodium lights, try to avoid them as they show as red on video.
.
Of those three, low pressure sodium will be the least close to daylight color as it has almost no blue or green in it. If you see these yellowish low pressure sodium lights, try to avoid them as they show as red on video.
.
If you've got a daylight balance light (FAY, HMI), you could use that to simulate moonlight with little or no correction. This is done a lot. A general moonlight fill over a large area or as swath of stronger beams through trees et-cetera. If your character is seen in the context of a practical fixture (e.g., streetlamp, bus shelter), then you can go toward tungsten, 4400K or other appropriate balances. In the scenario I mention above, you should balance the camera toward the 3200K - 4400K sources, forcing your daylight fixture (moonlight) toward blue.
Chris Santucci
Veteran
I don't know what's up there on top of this car park you're shooting on so it's hard to say. I would say if at all possible, avoid low pressure sodium lighting. You should go up there ahead of time at night and see what's up there. If it looks yellow, think about blocking that light from your subject and don't worry about gels.
If the lighting up there (if there even is any) looks white or whiteish, it's probably very close to daylight color and again, use what you have and don't worry about gels.
.