Viggo Söderberg Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 Hello! I'm working on a student film and I want the film to look very dirty and underground. I like the green/blue tint of florescents as well as that yellow tint from sodium lamps? My school only has LED lights. Is my best bet to gel these lamps? What gels would I need to obtain the right tint in that case? Or should I try finding pratical florescents? We'll be shooting on an Alexa Mini. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted October 13, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted October 13, 2020 Sure, you can gel LED's cyan or yellow. Cool White fluorescents are around 4700K with a green tint, so they only look cyan (blue-green) when the camera is set to 3200K, at 5600K setting, they look slightly yellow-green. Sometimes I'll use a daylight LED and add 1/2 Green to them for a Cool White look when the camera is near 3200K. In the case of a sodium vapor look, I'd start with a tungsten LED plus gel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggo Söderberg Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 13 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said: Sure, you can gel LED's cyan or yellow. Cool White fluorescents are around 4700K with a green tint, so they only look cyan (blue-green) when the camera is set to 3200K, at 5600K setting, they look slightly yellow-green. Sometimes I'll use a daylight LED and add 1/2 Green to them for a Cool White look when the camera is near 3200K. In the case of a sodium vapor look, I'd start with a tungsten LED plus gel. And that would create this kind of quality to the light? If I have som Kino Flos with 5500K tubes, could I combine gels to create that look as well? And if I were to buy practicals what would I need to think about? Because I'd prefer to have some in the frame. I live in Sweden so light frequencies can vary between Europe and the US from what I know. We usually film things in 25fps here with 180 shutter angle (what I've heard is that with European frequencies we need to use 172,8 shutter when we use 24fps). There's so many light tubes to choose from and many of them are LEDs now adays. I don't know what features I should be looking after to get the green- and cyan-tinted tubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted October 14, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted October 14, 2020 Yes, you can gel a fluorescent tube, add green to a daylight tube for a cyan color cast when the camera is set close to 3200K. Most household LED practicals are either daylight or cooler or close to tungsten, some even warmer. They are labeled as such. Most have a mild green cast (unfortunately) and some of the daylight ones are really too blue. Just carry a still camera set manually to 3200K white balance to the store and take a picture of the lamp turned on if they have a display section. But also think about whether the design allows you to neatly gel the fixture or globe if necessary. LEDs tend to have less flicker issues compared to a fluorescent. There also also colored light bulbs, some tungsten, some compact fluorescent, some LED -- a common one is a deep yellow "bug light" color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnaby Coote Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Little gel 'sleeves' cut to size on cheap fluos work great, you can use little bits of tape or a strip of 1/4 inch gaff, then rotate the sleeve around the tube so the seam is hidden. It looks as if the tube was made to that color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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