How to correct for Flourescent Lights?

jakekjohnson · June 20, 2007

The feature I am shooting starts in a few weeks, and our first day's shoot is an interior with all flourescent lights. There are also a lot of windows letting in daylight.

Are there gels we can buy to put over the flourescent lights and make them closer to daylight. They are giving us colors that we do not want.

We are shooting on MiniDV by the way.

Chris Keth · June 20, 2007

The feature I am shooting starts in a few weeks, and our first day's shoot is an interior with all flourescent lights. There are also a lot of windows letting in daylight.
Are there gels we can buy to put over the flourescent lights and make them closer to daylight. They are giving us colors that we do not want.

We are shooting on MiniDV by the way.

What kind of fluorescents? There are several types of tubes and each needs different correction. The common denominator between them is usually some strength of minus green.

Jonathan Bowerbank · June 20, 2007

Are the fluorescents your ONLY light source? If so, you can just white balance to them.

Otherwise, you'll have to specify what kind of fluorescents they are. Daylight, cool white, warm, etc... Do they have a green spike to them?

You'll probably have to gel the lights with some minus green (magenta). If it's too much and too many lights, than you can gel what studio lights you'll be using to match the fluorescents and white balance for that.

jakekjohnson · June 21, 2007

Are the fluorescents your ONLY light source? If so, you can just white balance to them.

Otherwise, you'll have to specify what kind of fluorescents they are. Daylight, cool white, warm, etc... Do they have a green spike to them?

You'll probably have to gel the lights with some minus green (magenta). If it's too much and too many lights, than you can gel what studio lights you'll be using to match the fluorescents and white balance for that.

They are the kind of flourescents that are in the business we will be shooting in.

What am I looking for to be able to determine what kind of flourescents they are?

Thay are probably the kind that Costco at PDX sells.

We have 2 sources. The daylight coming in the giant windows, and the banks of flourescents in the ceiling.

I would assume that the bulbs are "cool white/soft white." To give the office a more happy feeling to it. ;)

Chris Keth · June 21, 2007

They are the kind of flourescents that are in the business we will be shooting in.
What am I looking for to be able to determine what kind of flourescents they are?

Thay are probably the kind that Costco at PDX sells.

We have 2 sources. The daylight coming in the giant windows, and the banks of flourescents in the ceiling.

I would assume that the bulbs are "cool white/soft white." To give the office a more happy feeling to it. ;)

It would be worth your while to go to the business and check what kind of tubes they use. Cool white will be daylight balance with a green spike. This will mean that their color temperature will match daylght well enough but they will have a lot of green that needs filtered out. Put full minus-green on the fluorescents and call it good.

Michael Nash · June 21, 2007

Cool white fluorescents are approximately 4300 degrees kelvin, with a green spike in the spectrum. Warm whites will be closer to 3000, and may have less of a green spike. It's easy to see what color they will appear by simply taking your video camera to the location and white balancing for either tungsten or daylight (whichever is more prominent).

It will be hard (and expensive) to gel all the fluorescents at the location to match daylight, and gelling all the windows to match the fluorescents may not be practical either. You're usually best off white balancing for the predominant color in the area you're shooting, and try to flag off or otherwise eliminate as much color contamination from other light sources as possible.