DavidKlaus

Hey guys Thanks very much for your answers. This is what i thought, screens are always too bright ? I'm gonna try to lower the backlight of the video screens even more to be able to open the iris and get proper exposure on the faces. Yes, the company that installed the screens could do a new calibration but they charge pretty high to do this. Before that, i'll test with a hard gel like David Mullen suggested. I could also try to shift the white balance on those screens but it will destroy the calibration and all the screens may have a small color shift between them. By the way, i was told that TV set are usually lit around 600 Lux on the faces. Can somebody confirm that ? I'm a bit new to tv set lighting and i was told several different values for them. Thanks a lot

Hello all It's been a while since i've been on this forum. Right now, i'm working as a DOP for a local television in Switzerland. We've been rebuilding the whole lighting rig and i'm pretty happy with the gear i've chosen. It consists mainly of Fiilex and Elation fixtures. Anyway, i'm struggling a bit with the video walls on the set. No matter what i do, they always seem to be too bright. I tried turning down the brightness but, i still need to light the talents quite strongly to compensate with the video walls in the back. The phenomenon is the same with the different lighting scenarios i have. Either low key or high key. My question is: how do you deal with led/video screen walls on a TV set ? I spoke with some colleagues and they told me that they turn down their LED walls to the minimum and sometimes, they even lower the opacity of the media files. I also struggle with the white balance of the screens. Before i arrived, they have been calibrated way to high (around 7000K) and i have to light the whole set at 6500K (limit of my projectors) and turn the +green to the max to match the screens. The in the camera, in have to compensate this green/cyan tint. Do you think there's another way to do this rather that re-calibrating all the screens ? Wish you all the best in those strange times and i'm looking forward reading your answers.

Yep i'll keep that in mind. As far as i know, the film will be edited on Premiere. Anyway, the footage is going to be recorded on the Odyssey. So the metadata is not being recorded. But the editor is a friend, i will let him know before he tells me i dont know how to use a camera :D

Thank you all for you precious answers ! I will have a look at LUT Calc, looks like a fantastic tool. In the end, i will probably do as Robin suggest. Overexposing by one stop is not too much of a deal. But i will probably try one or two of those LUT to do some tests and check if everything is right when i will be on set. I will also look at the LUT from xdcam-user. I know his website, it's a goldmine. Thanks to you all guys, really appreciate it.

Hello. Thank you for your answer. Sorry. Maybe i did not explain right. Yes thats the idea. I'm going to overexpose the sensor by one stop and bring the signal down in post. But with the FS7, even if you rate it at 1000 iso and look at the result in the viewfinder, the images are still recorded at 2000 iso. Thats where the "1 stop darker LUT" comes in. I cant use the onboard LUT feature because of the 4k hdmi output. So i want to trick my eye and my scopes on the odyssey with a one stop darker LUT thats gonna force me to overexpose my image. But forget about the camera, i was just wondering if there was a standard method to create that kind of lut.

Hi everyone. This summer i'm gonna be shoiting a short film in 4k with the FS7. I will be recording the 4k signal on an odyssey 7q+ via the hdmi output. As far as i know, when you use the hdmi output on the FS7, you losse the ability to turn LUT's on or off separately on the different outputs. The thing is i want to shoot in cine EI mode and to get cleaner images in s-log 3, i will set the exposure index at 1000 instead of the native 2000. Using a rec709 LUT, this will make my images darker and "force" me to overexpose by one stop. But the problem is, i can't use the LUT only on the viewfinder because of the limitation with the hdmi output. So i was wondering, is it possible to create à LUT in davinci that will make my images one stop darker. I'm not sure how to do that. I would then load this LUT into the odyssey for monitoring. Thanks very much for your answers. Hope i'm not too confusing. Cheers David

That's pretty awesome! I would have loved to take your classes! I only did one project on film in cinema school here in Switzerland. It really had a taste of magic.

I think i would dig into lighting plots from the 50's and try to better understand studio lighting from the glorious Hollywood era. I would also try to know how life was for people who worked in big studios. Because i think it was a totally different approach. Nowadays, if you work in movies, it's exceptional. I get the sense that back in the 50's, it was like a normal job.

Hello Just did a test day with the Fs5. I must say I'm a bit disappointed. I did several projects with the fs7 and I was really excited about her little sister. I don't have anything to say about image quality. It delivers what it's suppose to do. But the overall ergonomics of the menu and the lack of professional functions is really a shame. For example, you can't set your zebras under 70 percent. And you're supposed to expose your whites at 60 in s-log modes.... Another pretty annoying thing is that you can't set a custom clip name or you can't set the timecode to clock mode. Anyway, little annoying things. It's like they put a handycam firmware in a pro camera. (OK I'm exagerating a bit)

Hi everyone. I just wanted to say a big thank you to you guys. The project went great and the director of the channel was really happy with the lighting. I managed to get great back lights on everyone and key lights were really even. I ended up with 1k arri fresnel for the key lights and 650w arri fresnel for the back lights. I used diffusion on the key lights. I also used 4 additional lights in the corners to add a bit of a fill. The only problem I encountered is that I had to light in 3200k because the lights of the mall were artificial ones. So I had to match them. That gave us a blue tint on the TV screens behind the candidates but it was not a big issue. Thanks again!

Just be careful that the gopro outputs a framerate that matches your mixing desk or that your desk has scalers on the inputs. A tv channel I sometimes work for use a pretty expensive framerate converter to change the progressive output of the gopro to an interlaced signal.

Thank you Stuart, i'll have a look right now!

I think, i'll stick with the second solution for now. I'm meeting the rental house guy next week, i'll know more then. If i have to go tungsten, of course i'll soft everything (i forgot to add that of my lighting plot). But as you said 1k sources are the best if we soft everything. I'm not sure they will have enough power. Anyway, i'll wait until i'm fixed on the gear i can rent. Thank you a 1000 times, you've been really helpful.

Thank you very much for your answer! According to what i saw last year, the debaters sometimes turn their heads toward the journalists or in the direction of another debater in the opposite corner. So i was thinking maybe i could place the backlight sources a bit off axis the debaters. Like this For now, i'm considering going with the full tungsten option. Not because i prefer that, i would really prefer working with fluos, but because the rental company we will work with is more specialised in concert/show lighting. But maybe they have some fluos too, i don't know. If i have to go with the full tungsten options, what power do you recommend for each source? I was thinking 750w but i'm afraid it won't be enough. Thank you again for your answer Cheers

Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and my first question will be about TV set lighting. I'll hope that's ok. I've been asked by a local TV station to light several political debate that will take place in a mall. There will be two or three journalists and 6 candidates around the table. This will take place at night but the lights of the mall will still be on. That will give us an ambient lighting. I designed two lighting plots. The first one is almost made only of fluos (kinoflos style). I intend to use fluos for the key lights and a few tungsten fresnel for the backlights. I also added two sources for a bit of fill. But i'm not sure the rental company we will work with has fluorescent lights. So i designed another plot with only tungsten lights. It's pretty straightforward. Everyone has its own source. Every source for the candidates are used as a key and as a backlight for the person on the opposite. But i'm full of doubts. If i need to go for the second solution i'm not sure what power i need to choose for the lights. I guess 750w each will be enough? I need your opinions on those two diagrams. Are they correct or am i completely out of tune? Your advices would be very much appreciated. Thank you everyone! Cheers David P.S.: i come from Switzerland, hope my english is ok