Kino Flo or Fluorescent light in general

[Danny Robashkin]

I'm understanding that lighting subjects using fluorescent in a studio set up, balanced to daylight is the ideal solution.

IT is easy for me to understand Tungsten light in the terms of a 500W, 1KW, etc' but how do I compare those to a Kino Flo, or a Lowel Fluo Tec?

Any advice on a purchase for a 20x20 green screen stage?

 

[Tim Wildenhain]

There are some comparisons as to flo wattages and what the equivalent tungsten light output is.

Most of this info is usually available on the manufacturers website. A good one with a lot of tech is www.coollights.biz

For example a 6x55watt (6 55watt tubes) outputs a rough tungsten equivalent of 1300 watts. Or the 200watt CFL bulb on that site is rated at an approx 600-700 watt tungsten equivalent.

If you haven't read up on them, or done the research, for your own sake please be sure to get a high CRI (Color Reproduction Index) bulb. Most bulbs you buy at the hardware store are going to be 76-81 CRI, which is decent for the human eye, but will show green on camera and may throw your color grading off as it wont necessarily reproduce accurate color for the camera.

 

[Danny Robashkin]

That''s the trick though.

Kino Flo, Lowel Fluo Tec, and all the rest all share "approx" light strength, but use different measurements. It feels like choosing an LCD monitor based on the manufacturer's refresh rate in MS numbers... so different because of different measurement techniques. I can't figure out how to truly compare these things to figure out what is needed

 

[Bob Gruen]

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/full_spectrum_fluorescent_bulbs_33_ctg.htm

Even though you are lighting a greenscreen the light could spill over onto the subject, so you should probably try to match the rest of your lighting. If your hard lights are tungsten then you should probably use CTO gels which will cost you in lumens. If you are using HMIs then you could use 5900K bulbs with little or no correction. You could even use them in your studio overheads without breaking the bank...

Bob

 

[Stephen Williams]

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/full_spectrum_fluorescent_bulbs_33_ctg.htm

Even though you are lighting a greenscreen the light could spill over onto the subject, so you should probably try to match the rest of your lighting. If your hard lights are tungsten then you should probably use CTO gels which will cost you in lumens. If you are using HMIs then you could use 5900K bulbs with little or no correction. You could even use them in your studio overheads without breaking the bank...

Bob

Hi Bob,

CTO will make tungsten worse, you need CTB.

Stephen

 

[Danny Robashkin]

I'm thinking of using all Fluorescent lights.... daylight balanced for the RED.

 

[Tim Wildenhain]

That''s the trick though.

Kino Flo, Lowel Fluo Tec, and all the rest all share "approx" light strength, but use different measurements. It feels like choosing an LCD monitor based on the manufacturer's refresh rate in MS numbers... so different because of different measurement techniques. I can't figure out how to truly compare these things to figure out what is needed

It is a bit tricky. The best metaphor I can come up with is it's like converting inches to mm. It's not precise, but you can get "close enough"

Generally I judge what I'm going to use based on those rough estimates and then run some quick shoot tests to see how exactly it will look. Of course, both Tungsten and Flourecent lighting will usually specify thier lumens output which should be spot on for comparison. But I'm sure unless you're used to that, it'll even be trickier