tungston vs. daylight

[Rick Shepardson]

Hello,

I'm going to shoot an interior lit primarily by artificial sunlight falling in through the large windows. The sunlight will be replicated by HMIs. Inisde, tungston units will be used for fill and accents. The question I have is whether I should shoot on daylight rated film and gel the tungsten units or shoot on tungsten film and gel the windows. The sunlight should be bright, perhaps slightly blowing out the window.

Because of my limited ammount of lights, this comes down to an issue of give and take. HMIs are the only lights I have available that are powerful enough to replicate sunlight. By gelling those, I'll be taking them down about 2/3 of a stop. If I shoot on daylight balanced film, I'll have to gel all the tungsten units which will bring them down by about 1 and 1/3 stop.

What other factors should I consider? What do you think would be the best color balance to shoot on?

 

Feel free to ask for more information if what I provided isn't appropriate.

Thank you,

Rick Shepardson

[David Mullen ASC]

It all depends on what is practical to do. If you have a lot of windows, then gelling them isn't very practical but gelling a tungsten lamp inside might be. But if you have a limited number of small windows, then gelling them isn't difficult.

 

I hate gelling windows so generally I opt for daylight-balanced lighting for day interior scenes shot in real daylight conditions. But occasionally I'll gel a window if it is small enough so I can work with tungsten inside. For example, a bathroom with one small window.

 

Also, generally I light day interior scenes from the outside through the windows, so my primary lights are the ones coming from the outside, thus I work around the assumption that I'm not doing as much lighting inside.

[Rick Shepardson]

It all depends on what is practical to do. If you have a lot of windows, then gelling them isn't very practical but gelling a tungsten lamp inside might be. But if you have a limited number of small windows, then gelling them isn't difficult.

 

I hate gelling windows so generally I opt for daylight-balanced lighting for day interior scenes shot in real daylight conditions. But occasionally I'll gel a window if it is small enough so I can work with tungsten inside. For example, a bathroom with one small window.

 

Also, generally I light day interior scenes from the outside through the windows, so my primary lights are the ones coming from the outside, thus I work around the assumption that I'm not doing as much lighting inside.

 

Thank you very much.

-Rick Shepardson

[Jon Kukla]

Some of this may also be dictated by production circumstances. For instance, I've been on a few gigs where the production couldn't afford HMIs (and one time, couldn't even find any lighting house that didn't already have them booked!).