The Color of Light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwqNRqDx680

Lights Film School

The Color of Light:Understanding color temperature can be challenging for filmmakers. However, it’s essential for ensuring the highest quality in your films. This video will go over the basics of color temperature.Color temperature is measured in Kelvins (K).0

Indoor lighting (Tungsten lighting) is 3200k- This lighting has an orange hue.Out door lighting is 5600k- This lighting has a blue hue.Professional filmmakers try not to mix different color temperatures unless it is essential to their scene.

Let’s take a look at a mannequin that is lit from the right side of the frame byincoming natural outdoor light that is lit from the right side of the frame by incoming natural outdoor light (roughly 5600K. On the left side of the screen there is a studio light shining indoors tungsten lighting (3200k) on the left side of the mannequin.

Let’s look at how this color temperature mixing impact the image. You will notice that the image is a mix of “warm” and “cool” lighting. The right side has a blue hue to it, while the left side had an orange hue to it. This is generally considered undesirable.

In this shot we’ve blacked out the room and used only indoor 3200K lights.There is no color temperature mixing in this shot. This is much more desirable.

In this shot we’ve blacked out the room and used only outdoor 5600k lights.There is no color temperature mixing in this shot. This is much more desirable.

However most Natural Lighting situations have mixed lighting. For example you may be filming in a residential home during the day and the inside of the house may be filled with over head tungsten lighting and table lamps, yet the lighting coming in through the window will be closer to 5600K and the indoor lighting will be closer to 3200K.

Changing Color

In this case you have a couple of options

1. You can use gels on the windows to change the color of light coming through2. You can use gels on the indoor lights to change their color temperature 5600K

In the following scene we’ve converted 3200K Lights to 5600K by applying agel to the barn doors.:

The 2 most common gels are:

1. CTO gels- An orange gel that coverts daylight (5600k) to tungsten (3200K)2..-CTB gels- A blue gel that converts tungsten light (3200K) to day light (5600K)CTO stands for Color Temperature OrangeCTB stands for Color Temperature Blue

This is the same scene without the CTB gel on. This 3200K. Notice the orange hue.

Let’s look at color temperature mixing vs. non mixing side by side

Cowboys Vs. Alienshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdmupNxobP0

Credits

Lights film schoolwww.lightsfilmschool.com

www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog

Trailers and MoviesAliens

Cowboys Vs. Alienshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdmupNxobP0

Wikipediahttp://www.fxguide.com/featured/ilm-adds-texture-to-cowboys-aliens/

Matrixhttp://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare10/the_matrix_.htm