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Best settings to shoot under fluorescent lighting

C

Christian Simpson

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Hey guys I have to shoot some scenes under a bunch of fluorescent lighting in a warehouse in two weeks and was wondering if there were any special settings I needed to be aware before I did that. We may end up over cranking as well.

Thanks for any advice
 
You'll likely need to adjust your shutter angle to compensate for any flickering in the bulbs. Otherwise, it's just a matter of color temperature.
 
Depending on the look you're going for, you may also need additional gels for the lights to control color casting. I always plan to add extra fill and a good key when shooting under overhead fluorescents. The output spectrum of most common fluorescents is very incomplete and can make it hard to get all you want out of the footage in post. If I can get away with it, I'll kill the overhead house lights and re-light the way I want it to look. A lot of times it's just too much of a pain to control the shadows you might get, out of phase flickering, etc..

If you're going to do any overcranking, as you mention, you will definitely want to shoot some tests and be sure to adjust shutter speed and phase to eliminate as much flickering as possible. Some frame rates may just not work too.
 
Yeah in the past I have always just replaced the lighting but this scene is in a huge warehouse with an insane number of fixtures and theres no way we could do it. Jeff you mentioned in your last paragraph adjusting shutter speed AND phase. Is phase something different than shutter speed? Pardon my ignorance.
 
In the Shutter menu, there are Syncro and Phase controls. Think of them as fine-tuning or trim adjustments for the shutter action. Syncro lets you tweak the exposure time slightly. Phase shifts the start of the shutter action within the frame time, it's a +/- 45 degree offset.
 
Shoot tests if possible prior to the actual production, and try different settings in advance. Flicker can be removed or removed in post (to a degree), but it's not a cheap or easy proposition.
 
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