white balancing and mixed lighting sources & consistency

M

matthewd5

Veteran
hello.

i have a question that i think is more cinemetography than lighting, i am shooting a short in the last week of july at a middle school.

the school has converted over to wonderful flourescent lighting and in all the hallways where the lighting is only the flourescent i'm able to get away with just those lights and the picture looks great.

the issue is that there are hallways and other areas where you have the natural light coming in through windows.

the main question is how often should i white balance?

i've had a few times where i white balance and the colors just come out looking very blue and other times they look fine.

i'm not sure if i'm right in between an area where there is more natural light hitting the white balance card? but it seems like i get different colors white balancing in the same place.

also, any general suggestions on shooting in different rooms in the school and getting the same look consistently?? i'm concerned about shooting on different days and having it edit together and look like it all took place on the same day as it does in the script.

matthew
 
One thing with overhead flo's--it helps to have a flo as a fill light, so the eyes aren't just dark sockets. The white balance issue with mixed lighting is really a personal preference. I'd white balance for each setup when you're working with mixed lighting, but you may need to experirment with how you angle the white card to tweak the balance. In general you should white balance against whatever is going to be the key source--whether it's daylight or flo's of unknown CRI and color temperature. So the white card should be about where the actor's face is going to be in the shot. Get as close as you can and plan on doing some color correction in post. I usually end up having to pull out green using a secondary color corrector in post with generic flo's, so try to make sure your actors aren't wearing green or magenta (the complementary of geen) for the shoot.
 
thanks for those tips.

i should add that i came up with a combination of in camera adjustments and adding a 1/4 straw gel to the white card, all of this produced a nice pastel look that is exactly what the writer/director was looking for.

the story is set in a middle school and 90% of the cast is 9 year old kids.

the kids are all wearing either yellow for boys or pink for girls, polo type shits with khaki pants or skirts.

with the settings i came up with the reds pop nicely which was a big part of the desired look.

i have a couple of small flo. units and i'll try putting those in for fill.

matthew
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top