My God, they really are green!

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I shot a whole load of Fuji Superia 800 and 1600 35mm stills on Monday, and the fluorescent lights I was using really do have an unmistakable green tint to them.

 

Like, wow, Shaggy.

 

Phil

[John Pytlak RIP]

Flourescent lamp spectral characteristics:

 

http://members.misty.com/don/f-spec.html#W

 

http://www.lightsearch.com/resources/light...lormetrics.html

 

http://www.cis.rit.edu/~ejipci/Reports/Spe..._of_Sources.pdf

 

http://www.venturelighting.com/techcenter/...or_of_light.htm

 

With any film, it is always best to use the recommended correction filters, for example:

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...&lc=en#colorbal

 

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products...6.4&lc=en#color

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Just for reference, here's the shot:

 

http://www.1159productions.com/test182/Demo/AED_hires_8.jpg

 

Not a great reference since she's supposed to be blue, but the greenish tint in the fluorescent is clear. Just peeking over the top of the fluorescent is an HQI, which renders not-quite-as-blue-as-daylight on this tungsten-corrected shot, corresponding with its output of about 4500K. This shot demonstrates it, and it's pretty much what I was going for:

 

http://www.1159productions.com/test182/Demo/AED_hires_6.jpg

 

Phil

[Michael Nash]

Just for reference, here's the shot:

Looks about right for fluorescents. If you're used to video, you'll notice that film in general "sees" the green a lot more than video does. Each stock responds a little differently. What's interesting though is that Fuji Superia has the fourth-color-layer technology that's supposed to help reduce the green. From these pics at least it doesn't appear any different.

 

For home-spun fluorescent rigs it's helpful to carry around some 1/8 and 1/4 minusgreen gel. It eliminates the green and helps balance the overall color temperature to daylight or tungsten (depending on the lamp you're using), but the spectrum still never quite matches even if the overall color temperature does.

 

I've got some "daylight deluxe" tubes and another $25 fluorex fixture that are 6500 deg. K with a green spike. 1/8 minusgreen neutralizes the green, and then you can use whatever CTO you like to warm it up from there. Used with just the 1/8 minusgreen it can make a good "lightbox" for chasing away the winter blues.

[John Pytlak RIP]

You can reduce the sensitivity to a "spikey" light source by using a broader spectral sensitivity and reducing the "spread" among the red, green, and blue sensitivity. But doing so will usually adversely affect color reproduction.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I did have some minus green gel - it'd probably only have had to be about one-quarter, looking at that shot, but I had this perverse interest in seeing what would happen - and I can Photoshop it out quite easily.

 

Phil

[Peter deWit]

You could always gel the lights to look even greener like Soderbergh did in The Limey :). Actually came out looking very interesting

[Michael Nash]

You could always gel the lights to look even greener like Soderbergh did in The Limey :).  Actually came out looking very interesting

That's one of DP Ed Lachman's trademarks -- heavily colored lighting. Check out any number of his films and you'll see something similar. I think it tends to work best when it's motivated by a practical source like Mercury- or Sodium-vapor; even if the saturation is exaggerated. But a lot of Lachman's colors are completely UNmotivated.