Why Use CC Gels?

Gohanto

Gohanto

Veteran
I'm sure there's something I'm missing, but I've read a lot on here about using CTO and CTB on sources to either match daylight or match indoor lighting. My question is why? I nearly most Hollywood movie's I've seen, they just let outdoor lighting be blue and indoor lights be orange and I've always thought DV without a mix of CT lighting looked a little dull.

When you want moonlight going through a window then that makes sense to use a CTB as you're mimicking the color of real moonlight with an naturally CTO light. But stuff like putting CTO over a window during the day is where I get confused.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
You have a point, as long as the daylight is coming from the window.
In my case I often use CTO to match some daylight florescents to tungsten lighting if I want to use the light as a motivated practical light of some kind.
All depends on the location.
 
If your DP is an artist... instead of a robot... then he/she may or may not use CC gels according to the image they wish to paint.

You will NOT see a major Hollywood release where people are lit with tungsten and a daytime view out the windows is blue... like it will be if you set your cam for 3200k and have un-gelled windows in the shot.

I'd like to see some examples of these movies you're talking about. I expect that you don't realize that there is, in fact, conscious control of that color mix.
 
I think the reason you don't see those problems is because most movies are shot on film....I don't think they have to worry about those things do they? I could be wrong but I thought white balencing was pretty exclusive to the digital realm. Not mixing color temperatures really but I didn't think you had to worry about it like you do if you were shooting on a digital camera of some kind.
 
White balancing electronically in camera is exclusive to the digital realm.
Film stocks are made for specific color temperatures, so you can shoot with daylight or tungsten balanced film. You then either color correct your lights, or use color correcting filters on your lens (or both) to get the desired effect.

In the end, the process is very similar - just that with video cameras we can set what our 'footage' will be balanced to by choosing our white balance settings.
 
well moonlight isn't actually "blue," nor is daylight "orange," they're just different color temperatures. Night time especially isn't "blue," there's just way less light. The idea that night time light is blue came from films that used blue gels to signify moonlight, now we just bellieve it.
 
Not all lights are tungsten... Its not always a question of Orang vs Blue. There are a lot of Color temps in the spectrum. It all comes down to your desired mood and composition.

Look at films like Traffic...their scenes, if they were shot on video...you might say, they didn't white balance, but the director wanted all the Washington DC scenes to look very blue.

But you do have to know the rules to break them....
 
I JUST wrote up a big thing on gels, CC and color temprature in so me other thread somewhere..... DAmmit gotta find it...
 
OK one example. Im controlling all lighting on the short / feature. I want to portray a story of someone coming in from the cold and finding acceptance in the real world again. I could start out with half ctb on all my HMI fixtures (total lighting control). Then as I thread the story through to his return I could wade from the 1/2 ctb to nothing and then finally finish on a 1/2 cto - so go from cold to all warm and fuzzy.

With post the way it is these days story telling methods like this are probably less common cause post is much easier to do same thing. But I wanted to add another use - apart from your standard matching light sources.
 
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