Balancing color temp; changing in post

[Adam Hebert]

I will be photographing a short film on the R1 in April, and we aren't going to have a chance to shoot tests. The main location is an office interior, and I have some questions about controlling color in this setting. The location has a number of cool white flourescent banks.

For the office int.s, the director and I have discussed a cool color palette, fairly monochromatic, emphasizing the sterile nature of an office setting and utilizing white, indigo, blue, etc. Some of our visual references are Jordan Cronenworth's work in Blade Runner , the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, etc.

Due to budgetary reasons, we only have tungsten fixtures. Would it be in my best interest to balance the Tung. lights to the flourescents in scenes using mixed light and just swing the colors in post? Also, would it be better to just leave the tungsten lights clean and swing the colors in post, rather than CC gel them to achieve the cool look in camera.

Based on my limited understanding of the Raw image, and the Red workflow, I think it would be smart to try and balance everything to white in camera and tweak the RGB components in post. Thus, I won't lose stops of light on set and the editor will have the best chance of matching color value across scenes.

Lastly, in some scenes involving a desk lamp, the aforementioned cool hues will be offset by a warm desk lamp...suggestions on how to handle this scenario? (full blue the back cross lights, leave the china ball clean?)

 

[BradWright]

I will be photographing a short film on the R1 in April, and we aren't going to have a chance to shoot tests. The main location is an office interior, and I have some questions about controlling color in this setting. The location has a number of cool white flourescent banks.

For the office int.s, the director and I have discussed a cool color palette, fairly monochromatic, emphasizing the sterile nature of an office setting and utilizing white, indigo, blue, etc. Some of our visual references are Jordan Cronenworth's work in Blade Runner , the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, etc.

Due to budgetary reasons, we only have tungsten fixtures. Would it be in my best interest to balance the Tung. lights to the flourescents in scenes using mixed light and just swing the colors in post? Also, would it be better to just leave the tungsten lights clean and swing the colors in post, rather than CC gel them to achieve the cool look in camera.

Based on my limited understanding of the Raw image, and the Red workflow, I think it would be smart to try and balance everything to white in camera and tweak the RGB components in post. Thus, I won't lose stops of light on set and the editor will have the best chance of matching color value across scenes.

Lastly, in some scenes involving a desk lamp, the aforementioned cool hues will be offset by a warm desk lamp...suggestions on how to handle this scenario? (full blue the back cross lights, leave the china ball clean?)

GEL the tungsten lights. You can't mix color temperature fix it in post. Unless you are making a horror film or dream sequence, a stack of GELS at different temperatures will make your life much easier. They are very cheap, as well.

 

[J. Eric Camp]

Raw isn't magic. The color relationship one light has to the next will still be what it is. You want a incandescent bulb to be warm when compared to your tungsten instruments and your tungsten to just amp up your cool white, yes?

If thats the case balance your tungsten's to the cool white and let your incandescent play normally. Then help it out or swing global values in post.

My suggestion.

 

[Adam Hebert]

GEL the tungsten lights. You can't mix color temperature fix it in post. Unless you are making a horror film or dream sequence, a stack of GELS at different temperatures will make your life much easier. They are very cheap, as well.

Brad - I even confused myself with that post...I know to gel the tungsten lights IF balancing with existing FLOs (or gel the Flo's), but I was just wondering if I should gel the tung. lights with full blue in the scenes using ONLY tungsten, or just keep them at 3200k and alter the color in post.

 

[Adam Hebert]

Raw isn't magic. The color relationship one light has to the next will still be what it is. You want a incandescent bulb to be warm when compared to your tungsten instruments and your tungsten to just amp up your cool white, yes?

If thats the case balance your tungsten's to the cool white and let your incandescent play normally. Then help it out or swing global values in post.

My suggestion.

Eric,

Thanks for the response, I figured in that situation I would probably gel the tung. lights 1/2 blue or 3/4 blue, and let the incandescents maintain there native color temp.

 

[nobody356]

Hey Adam,

I read this post then realized this was you haha... We can talk about some of these things in the workshop tomorrow. My suggestion though would be to treat the camera like a Daylight balanced film stock. If you wanted to leave the tungsten lights un-gelled(and still want them white) I would suggest using a filter on camera to compensate but I know you plan on doing low-light stuff so that might not work so well.

If you want to have more control over the coloration, I'd definitely get a bunch of different gradations of CTB's.

See you tomorrow,

Chris

 

[Adam Hebert]

Wow, that was unexpected!

Yeah, Ill def. be purchasing a set of CC gels, just wondering how to accurately control light from a tungsten source that is supposed to "look" around 5000K, whether it can be done in post or I absolutely need to gel and lose the stops...well chat tomorrow!!!

 

[J. Eric Camp]

In this situation I don't agree with using a CC filter on the camera.

You have cool white fixtures in the ceiling. 4100˚k
Tungsten heads. 3200˚k
Incandescent table lamp. 2800˚k

By putting a 80 series filter in you will still have those differences in color just shifted up into the greens and blues.

If the tungsten's are meant to be motivated by the cool whites then give them half CTB and maybe a touch of green to make their color the same. White balance to this, Roughly 4100˚k and leave the incandescent as is and let it play warm as you suggested you wanted.

At this point you could throw in a light 80 series like the D or E to shift your 4100˚k base closer to your native 5000˚k chip but the lamp will come up some with it. You could gel the lamp back down, you would lose some intensity but it might be worth it. However the shift from 5000˚k to a 4100˚k white balance isn't so bad. At this point your heads have lost intensity from the gels, throwing in a filter would bring it all down some more.

Tax tag and title you might only lose a stop, but if you don't have alot of light a stop is a big deal. Hence why I feel you should just gel the tungsten's and let everything else play.