Shooting in a dark room - only red light

[Théo Lharidon]

Hello 

 

For a up coming shoot i have to shoot a few scenes in a dark room , it will only be lit by a pure red light.

I have shot some test with my fx3 and noticed that exposing " correctly" with a 100% pure red light really dont give me the best result.

Here are my test , i fell like that exposing 2 stops under and an 60~% saturated red looks like the best. what do you think ? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/110ycZoDjnD23J4jeNO-d8027UWxPVPqr

How would you guys approach this ? what would be your tips ? 

 

Also i have heard that some people like to shoot in magenta light and then correct it to red in post ?

Is it true that shooting in only red light can make the lens look softer ? should i go for a more modern and sharp  glass to counter that ? 

 

Sorry for my aproximate english 

Thanks you very much ! 

[Ruslan Kazimir]

Hi Théo!

 

I’ve recently shot a short film where one of the locations in the script was to be lit only with red light! I basically had the same questions as you and after looking at forums and conducting my own tests I decided that what worked best for my project was to create a red look LUT for that scene and to light the location normally with a 3200K balanced light. I would sometimes swap LUTs on the day of the shoot to check the exposure, but the end result was something the director was very happy with!

 

You are correct about the image appearing « softer » when lighting the sensor with only red light. Because of the way a Bayer patent sensor works, if you are lighting with only red light you are giving the sensor less information and the image appears less contrasted - and to my eye, noisier. Lens choice would not help you much in that department - although I suspect that particularly soft lenses (such as vintage glass) would intensify that look.