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Are dedicated rgbww units better for output than gelling a hard source?


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Hey everyone! I’m an aspiring cinematographer who LOVES working with saturated neon type colors think Benoit debie in Spring Breakers, Cronenweth’s work on Bladerunner, etc.

Currently I have an led daylight kit (1x aputure 300d, 2x 120dii), and some tungsten fresnels from mole Richardson and arri (a 2k, three 1k’s, a 650, 350, and 150). I own a lot of random party and corrective gels for them, and don’t have any experience working with rgb fixtures like tubes or panels yet. 

I often find myself doubling or tripling up gels to get the colors as intense as I want, and have had problems getting decent exposures at that point on my ursa mini pro g2 @ iso 800/f 2.8. My two widest lenses are 18mm contax which is f4, and 21mm ze zeiss at 2.8. Certain locations I’ve lit over the past year require me to go this wide for my masters, as they are often small spaces on location where I’m already backed into a wall to get my desired framing, or id just use my 35mm 1.4. I’m usually under exposing to get the colors to pop, which looks pretty horrible if I go above base iso. 

ive been wondering if I’m better off investing in bigger hot lights like a small HMI (think 1.2k fresnel or an m18) and using gels as my jobs grow, or going down the dedicated rgbww soft panel or tube route like a skypanel, quasars, or the new aputure nova panel. I never see photo metrics for the rgb side of the fixtures, though I know they obviously take a huge hit to brightness over being used in kelvin mode.

I know there are implications to workflow, and color rendition when using rgb vs gels as well. I’d like to consider those factors as well as pure output. I like the idea of having a light that’s soft right out of the box, and also like the idea of having more firepower of a PAR/fresnel when I’m not gelling too. 

Fortunately these decisions are pretty far off, as I don’t have much work during pandemic, but it’s something I’d like to educate myself on so when I’m ready I know I make the right choices. If you have any tips for the best path to go down, or anyways to get more out of what I have currently, I’m all ears. I’ve learned so much about the craft from lurking around here the past few years, and am grateful for all the help so many offer on here!

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This webinar by the founder of Kino Flo from what I've read will answer the majority of your questions. There are definite benefits of gelling a white light emitting LED fixture over it attempting to replicate a colour and vis'a versa. 

I won't say more as I'm no engineer or colour scientist and the above explains it all, in my opinion, so well. 

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