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Sodium Vapor Lighting with Practicals


Eben Bolter

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I'm shooting a feature this coming February on a council estate in London, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience using practical Sodium fixtures.

 

I've replicated Sodium using 1/2 CTO and 1/2 straw in the past with varying degrees of success, but I'm looking for a very cheap solution this time, as we have an incredibly limited lighting budget.

 

The desired end result is to create a very low colour rendition, almost monochromatic like as in the example below (which is raw from the camera).

 

post-58437-0-18207200-1358882307_thumb.jpg

 

This is the sort of light I'm wondering about, does anyone have any experience with them?

 

http://uk.rs-online....lights/0237265/

 

Thanks guys, appreciate any help.

 

 

Eben

 

www.ebenbolter.com

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rosco #3152 urban vapor filter... worked pretty well on a shoot I did. I would stay away from sodium lamps completely. they can wreak havoc with flicker, and if you have an old bulb it will shut off and turn back on sporadically. although if your end goal is monochromatic then it may be much easier to either filter your lens or alter the color balance in post.

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I picked up a few sodium vapor fixtures from Home Depot for like $50/each with bulbs. I use 'em in close for fill and that's bout it but it's nice; easy, for the most part. And if they flicker and look bad, well to me, that's part of the point.

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That still looks nice.....I've done some test with a sodium and mercury vapor fixture. Looked similar to what your looking at. I mean its just a broad light so if your concerned about the quality of light.....its a point source with a reflector behind it and it works fine similar to a work light ...you wont have any control over spot flood or anything obviously..... It didnt work for me because I was shooting on RED (green channel problems) but If your not worried about locking in your super monochromatic look in camera I would say go for it why not.....what specifically are you worried about?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone, thanks for your feedback, very much appreciated. The director ended up settling on a warmer look, which I created using Lee 652 Urban Sodium on a 2k bounced through netted windows.

The results can be seen in my reel, around the 42 second to 1:07 mark for the feature 'Greyhawk'.

 

Feedback good and bad always warmly welcomed:

https://vimeo.com/61088842

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