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Rosco Gels, which color temp works best?


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For Rosco Steel Green gel, what color temp is the gel designed to work with to produce the classic Steel Green look?

i.e. are they designed to work with tungsten fixtures or HMI?

 

Take any of the Maze Runner movies or Gotham season 4. There's a lot of really nice steel green undertones. Are they gelling Tungten or HMI lights to get that look?

Totally get that camera color temp is a huge factor but lets assume that camera is set at 3200K.

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Lighting gels are subtractive meaning that they filter out the spectrum that is not needed so it is not so much the colour temp of the light that is important as the actual source. Tungsten is full spectrum and will give the best results. HMI is also full spectrum but with spikes. LED has missing spectrum and this cannot be filled with gels.

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Generally tungsten and him work best with gels. Many LEDs can be iffy (though this is becoming less of an issue).

Typically, however, you'd be steel-greening an HMI and balancing camera to 3200K ish (though this depends) and finalizing the look further in the DI. Your best bet for your situation is to TEST in pre production and take it all the way though the intended post/lut generation for your on the day stuff.

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I can't say 100% either way in your particular case, (and I havne't watched Maze Runner or Gotham). However, generally when you're doing a night scene on a larger budget you're using a good deal of HMI lights, and the extra blue in those units when mixed with a 3200K balance generally results in what I'd call the "classic" steel green (steel blue) look. But you really have to test for yourself to see how well it reacts in your usage.
it's been awhile since I've used the steel gels on things, but normally when I'm working with say a skypanel/Celeb850, I have it set to 5600K and then go into the gel for the steels and it gives what I like and would call "classic."

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You can always mess with white balance to change the way a gel looks on camera, but if you want it look like it does to your eye, then you need a neutral source.

 

I'd wouldn't add Steel Green or Blue to an HMI while balanced for tungsten, unless I was looking for a very strong cold look. HMIs are already too blue for my tastes.

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