How Do I Balance This Scene?

Emerson Smith · October 3, 2016

Hey, everyone!

I'm wondering how to light an area. Or, more specifically, how to color-balance it. I'm going to be shooting digital, but I'd also like the answers for (tungsten) film just to know in the future.

I'm going to be filming in a particular bar (if all goes well—pray for me, please) which I've built the whole thing around. It has lamp lights and ceiling lights which appear to my eye to be incandescent, or else LEDs which look incandescent (I didn't check in the lamps). There are LED (?) panels which I'm told change color (I plan to work that in). And then there's the light from the night-time street. (I don't know what to do about that one.)

I was thinking (thanks to a suggestion from Tyler Purcell) of just lighting the scene with some china balls so that I wouldn't have all that stuff to hassle with, but I'm trying to figure out what I should do. I might be able to replace the lamp bulbs, but probably not the ceiling ones, and definitely not the LED panels (obviously). So do I light the whole scene for the LED panels and then use a filter on the lens? What do I do here?

Stuart Brereton · October 3, 2016

If you have a DSLR, try taking some stills of the bar with different white balances, and see which you like best. You can then light with whatever lamps are appropriate.

Be aware that the LED panels may flicker on camera, and also may not appear the same color as they do to the eye.