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Advice on shooting fluorescent-lit room
I have a cooking event to film next month, and I’m concerned about the ugly kitchen fluorescent lights. Any suggestions on filming, or post production (i.e. grading), that would make this visually appealing? I plan to shoot plenty of 50 mm closeup shots of hands working and food, as well as some outdoor footage (it’s a “hunter’s feast”), but I will need wider people shots too. Perhaps this is an opportunity to learn moody color grading or try a LUT?
Thanks!
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3 Replies
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I’d try to test and make sure it will works as failing lights will be slower than that in their refresh rate.
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You don’t say if the (assume overhead) flo lights can be turned off and replaced with the kit you bring in. Depending on the size of the room, and ceiling height, this might be a job suited to hanging better lights from an auto-pole hugging the ceiling.
Or, if it’s only the color temp that bothers you… you could maybe gel the overheads or more likely (because gelling cuts down your output too far) re-lamp the overheads with high CRI tubes in whatever color temp you want. One thing that’s been done a lot is to use the same tubes in your subject lighting kit as what’s in the ceiling, so color balance is identical thru-out and once you have that, then LUT’s or shading to taste becomes easier.
Really, to give better advice, I’d need to see a picture and/or a drawing of the room.
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OP doesn’t mention that he’s bringing in any of his own lights–just that he’s capturing via the existing overhead fluos. My instinct here is to say “white balance the camera.”
Some cameras don’t seem to account for the green-magenta axis, but as long as his camera does…then just getting a white balance would correct the worst of the issues.
Yes, theoretically, the fluorescent spectrum doesn’t really give you full color spectrum, but it would at least correct the color shift.
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