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China Ball bulbs


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Hello,

I am lighting a scene that takes place at a small circular table. I want to use a china ball placed over the table to act as a practical overhead light. I used a couple CFL full spectrum 5500K 32watt bulbs I picked up at Home Depot to light a comedy sketch in a house during the day. I was happy with the result and like the fact that CFLs don't get too hot, which can be nice when you have a bunch of thin paper next to a heat source.

 

I wanted to get some 3200K bulbs for the table scene but couldn't seem to find full spectrum CFLs with that color balance. It seems most household FS CFLs are only daylight?

 

I want the scene to be light very clean. I want the light to be very white and soft. I think a 100watt equivalent incandescent build will be enough output for the scene. I also plan to use some arri 300watt fresnels for fill and background. What bulbs would be best for matching the 300watts?

 

The shoot is this weekend so I'm hoping maybe I can order some but if anyone has a suggestions on quick solutions I could find somewhere (Home Depot, Expendables store etc..) in the LA area that would be great.

 

Thanks!

 

oy yea this is my first post. Hello everyone!

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Most of the incandescent bulbs will be a bit warmer, usually around 2800K or so but there are some halogen 100w bulbs out there in a screw-base bulb.. a bulb within a bulb.. which should work well for you.

Something kinda like this:

 

http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2004/Siemens-halogen-lamp.jpg

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I haven't found any tungsten-balanced CFLs with a decent CRI either. Part of this is due to the intrinsic nature of the technology - the blue-emitting phosphors have a wider output bandwidth, so a lamp using a greater proportion of blue will have a more complete output. Although I know this is a problem, though, I don't know to what extent it is a problem, and since it's possible to make tungsten-balanced conventional fluorescent tubes with a workable CRI, you'd have thought it ought to be possible to make CFLs.

 

If you find one, let me know.

 

 

P

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Thanks for the replies!!!!!

That halogen light looks great. A light within a light! They seem to have better light quality and last longer!

 

I was wondering about the CFL daylight thing. It doesn't make sense if they can make kinos and other FLs tungsten why not a CFL? I did however see some on a couple sites but was not convinced.

 

Has anyone used the GE REVEAL FS bulbs? I see them everywhere, even in the grocery store! Seems a like a easy quick fix??

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I think I've used the reveals before, but if memory serves they're pretty blue, almost like a photoflood, but I could be mistaken.

As for the CFL, generally the tubes are blue by default and it takes extra work to get them to T balanced, but since the human eye will "autobalance" lighting on it's own there's little need for a manufacture to spend the extra time and money to get a bulb both tungsten and super high CRI. For human eyes, we can accept something around 80 CRI as "ok," but that just don't fly on film. The option you always have, however, is to keep some -green on hand to correct as needed.

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