Lighting green screen with outdoor LED light-panels

[Anzer Sizov]

Hi, everybody.

A production I am working with has a coupe of dozens of outdoor light panels (all identical).

They pretty much look like this one:

Those are 6500K LED light panels with light output of 8500 lm.

Obviously, they are easy to operate, powerful, robust, cheap and even weatherproof.

So, the producer asks me if we could also light our green screen with those and this question has puzzled me.

Has anyone ever tried anything like that? Does it make any sense at all? With green/blue filter? Flicker issues?

Any thoughts or experiences shared would be highly appreciated.

The camera I'm going to use is Red Monstro.

Thank you.

Anz

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Anzer Sizov
a misprint in the title

[Phil Rhodes]

What would stop you doing this is the flicker problem. They may not flicker, although shoot some whip pans and make sure they aren't flickering at some multiple of the frame rate as that may give you segmented motion blur that will mess up your keying.

If they don't flicker, you're probably OK. When you say they're 6500K that may be true although the colour quality is likely to be poor. How much that matters for green screen is an open question. It may be fine.

You can sometimes get green-emitting LED lights which are intended for architectural special effects, which would be even more efficient, though make sure the green they emit is sufficiently similar to the green of the screen. I find using green light on green screens really helps.

[Anzer Sizov]

Green lights designed for architectural special effects... I love it.

It seems to be another good option that would never occur to me. I'll see into that.

I'll pay attention to whether these lights flicker or not when we run a little test.

Thank you, Phil!

A very valuable piece of information.

A.

[Phil Rhodes]

The Google search I need for this is "green LED floodlight," but whatever works in your part of the world.

The flicker issue will be the same either way.

If you don't mind getting a bit creative, you can just get lots of green LED sticky strip and stick it to something. Being driven by 12V DC power, flicker is absent.

Or, get some fluorescent fittings and put green tubes in them. That's how I do it. If I had to design it now I'd use the sticky strip.

[Anzer Sizov]

Phil,

I think all these are working solutions.

However, for this one I'll stick to the floodlights. They seem so simple to handle.

I've found some green ones and some blue ones. Quite inexpensive, too. 

The only thing that I can't see before I do it - how many of them I might need to properly cover a certain area.

Hopefully, with RED sensors I won't have to use tonnes of these.

I guess it's a good idea to just get a couple of those lights first and see how they work.

If it doesn't work for some reason I'll keep the lights as practicals/back-lights, anyway.

Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.

A.

 

 

[Stephen Sanchez]

Keep in mind those landscape lights will likely have banding. I lit a set for someone using just those exterior LED panels you pictured. Color accuracy aside, in post they noticed banding when scrubbing the footage.

For that use, it was okay, but with chroma key, the keyer will have to be broad enough to color pick the bright and dark bands. Otherwise blotching and artifacts will show.

I've not messed with the green flood lights, but if they are designed the same, banding will occur. even at 300 degree shutter.

[Anzer Sizov]

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for a valuable comment.

The chance to use those LED panels is getting even thinner now, I guess..

Anyway, I am looking forward to running a little test. 

Hopefully, those LED panels are going to surprise all of us.

A.