What Gels for Night?

gonzoish79

gonzoish79

Well-known member
We are shooting some EXT. night shots in the forest and we are looking for what gels to use for the night look. I know to use blue gels but I need some specifics if possible.

We are using HVX-200 and Brevis adapter
Thank you

Ismael
 
You're going to need every ounce of light you can get shooting a nighttime exterior - not to mention that blue light is incredibly noisy... so personally I would light with what you have and tint for blue in post if that's the look you want.

Just my 2 cents.
 
You need ctb gels (daylight conversion gels). 3/4 ctb might be enough, and they cut less light than a full ctb (but still enough that you need quite some powerful tungsten light)

So, if you want to do the blue tint in post (like Luis suggested) but you still want neutral white fill from the camera side, you could use cto gels on these lamps. Then, when you color correct your fake moonlight to blue, the light gelled with cto will automatically become neutral.
 
Hi Ismael I guess the biggest problem Im having in response is I have no idea what lights you are going to gel?
 
I agree with Luis. For night shoots, if you gel your lights, you're losing up to 1 stop of light (at full CTB) depending on the grade of blue you use. This would mean that if you're using a 2000 Watt light, and full CTB it, it has the light output of a normal 1000 Watt light. Unless you have money to throw at bigger light units, go with ungeled and CC in post.

Not to mention, you're already using a light-hogging monster in the HVX200, then a brevis + 35mm lens... you'll be working at about 120-200 ISO, so I hope you have a few 2K+ units at your disposal :)
 
You might even try just white balancing the camera to a CTO gel or Straw Gel and shooting without any gels on your lights, so you won't lose anymore light. This can be effective on closeup shots but not particularly great for super wides as everything will be one color. You should do a test to see first if you like it.
 
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