Gels

[Paul Tackett]

So I was working on a film and I would like to know for the future what the correct use of gels would be in the following situation:

 

We lit a room with tungsten lights. It was a day int. scene shot at night. We filled the room with diffused light. We shined a harsh light from one direction and flagged it for sunlight. Should the sunlight have a CTO on it for daylight.

 

Also the following situation is similar: If all the lights have CTB on them, should the "sunlight" have no gels on it?

 

This is a scenario in which there are NO windows actually seen; its a day int shot at night.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Ok; so here's the rub. Those are generally color balancing gels. So if you were in a room with real windows and real sunlight you'd have 2 options:

 

Gel all the windows with full CTO thus correcting the sunlight to Tungsten.

Gel all the lights with Full CTB, thus correcting the tungsten to daylight.

 

The idea here is to get everything to "neutral," or white whatever "white," is for your scene (based on white balance or film stock choices).

 

From there, whether a shaft of light you create, or utilize should have a non neutral color; blue, or orange, or yellow, is an Aesthetic choice-- a choice of how you want it to look. Do you want a "warm," or "cool" shaft of sunlight? Do you want the sunlight warm or cool relative to the room ect.

 

That all being said, it is quite common to add in a little bit of color difference between "sunlight," and "not sunlight." Sometimes you make the sunlight warmer with say 1/4 CTO, or sometimes you make your "other lights," warmer, or sometimes you make your sunlight cooler ect... It's all aesthetics once you get everything back to "white."

 

Hope that makes some sense.

[Paul Tackett]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

My pleasure. Hope it was helpful.