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Cool lights reviews
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I’ll definitely have to pick up a sheet and measure it with my color-meter. That will identify the degree of minus green on the CC scale, and the degree of plus warmth on the Kelvin scale. I’m looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for the info.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Oh no! …..ANOTHER meter!!!!! 🙂
DS
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[Dennis Size] “P.S. If anyone does verify my opinion of LEE 188 let us know so that I know I’m not just full of shit.”
Gotta love the honesty of that remark.
On the Lee website, the wavelength graph on this page does show a little dip in the green for #188.
The minusgreen is pretty subtle; compare the 1/8th minusgreen chart here:
What I want to know, Dennis, is how in the world you spotted this. The website doesn’t mention it — only that #188 is Barbara Walters’ favorite filter.
Bob C
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[Dennis Size] “P.S. If anyone does verify my opinion of LEE 188 let us know so that I know I’m not just full of shit.”
Gotta love the honesty of that remark.
On the Lee website, the wavelength graph on this page does show a little dip in the green for #188.
https://www.leefiltersusa.com/lighting/products/finder/act:colordetails/colorRef:C4630710C6FF31/
The minusgreen is pretty subtle; compare the 1/8th minusgreen chart here:
https://www.leefiltersusa.com/lighting/products/finder/act:colordetails/colorRef:C4630710C929D9/
What I want to know, Dennis, is how in the world you spotted this. The website doesn’t mention it — only that #188 is Barbara Walters’ favorite filter.
btw if this looks like a double post it’s because my first attempt to post was rejected, due to my using a tiny url for the Lee webpages.
Bob C
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Well isn’t that special!
I should look at websites more often! 🙂Barbara Walters wouldn’t know LEE 188 if someone laid a piece of it on top of her supper. She does know what makes her look good however. When I first discovered LEE 188 (and it’s various shades) and began using it on Ms Walters over 15 years ago, she did become aware of the “peachy” color her key lights began to glow with. Ultimately all her ENG cameramen were instructed to duplicate the way I was lighting her in the studios and use that diffusion.
I think the LEE quote probably came from someone at the ABC Network Production Services division when LEE inevitably asked them why ABC was buying so many rolls of #188.Frankly, after years of looking at / working with the various qualities of light — color, shape, intensity, texture, etc. — the nuances of those qualities have become pretty obvious to me (hence my lack of need for meters). Most of the time I just trust my instincts and run with it. I must admit, once or twice I’ve been mistaken (and I’ll be the first to say I’m full of shit). The great thing about making a mistake is that it “builds character” and forces a person to rethink their approach — coming up with a better solution –and moving right along (many times in the space of a few seconds).
DS
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Dennis, do you ever get into on-lens filtration?
When I was making a series of videos about retirement communities I used a coral filter on the lens for all scenes involving people. It worked beautifully — of course I did all white balancing without the filter on. But those old people (hmmm… some of them don’t seem so old anymore) looked great.
I can see one advantage of filtering the key vs. the lens: if you filter the key then you can create greater color contrast by filtering the other lights for contrast. If you filter the lens itself, you overlay the whole scene with that tint, diluting the impact?
Or does that constitute overthinking?
I have to say it sounds like you have the “funnest job.”
bob c
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Thanks….I try to have fun!
As almost all of the projects I do are Network Broadcasts — utilizing mutiple cameras shooting simultaneously (sometimes live) –I can’t do any extreme filtering at the lens as it will corrupt the total image being sent into people’s living rooms. I will often have softening filters (such as a low density digital diffusion, glimmerglas, Soft FX, blacknet, etc.) installed on the cameras, but I have to be careful not to get too extreme with how soft my talent appears …although with the likes of Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer the sky’s the limit. I was once accused of putting my gym socks over the lens for a Barbara Walters Special — which was not true (although the simultaneous use of Soft FX #2, and blacknet, in conjunction with all the skin detail at 0, was probably denser than my gym socks!).
Since cameras need to cut from one person to another, and often at different focal lengths, using too much lens filtration can be quite a trap. One must always be conscious to avoid the “MOONLIGHTING effect”. Cybil Shepard had so much lens filtration compared to Bruce Willis it looked like they were in two different shows, even though they were being shot at the same time in the same scene!)Often I will “cheat” the cameras with different grades of the same filter so that the disparity among the cameras isn’t noticable.
For example, in my current redesign of “the look” of the ageless PEOPLE’s COURT, I had an Soft FX #2 put into the camera that specifically shoots the judge (to soften the facial lines and enhance Judge Marilyn Zeitman’s beauty but not lose the sense of “reality”). However, I had Soft FX #1 filters put into all the other cameras so the softening wasn’t as noticeable when cutting between shots. Additionally the Producer did not want to lose the “gritty” feeling of the defendant/plaintiff and courtroom audience.As a sidnote, I will almost always light for as wide an aperture as I think I can get away with — depending on how fast the cameraops need to take their shots while maintaining focus (although on some of my shows sharp focus is merely an option).
Normally I will light for a f-stop of 2.0, try for 1.8 and settle back into 2.4. Often I’m lighting sets with as little as 30 footcandles ….sometimes less. That would be a guess however, since I don’t own a light meter! 🙂DS
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