-
fluorescent “blue” lighting
Greetings,
I’m doing a promotional for a company and they want me to shoot in this office with fluorescent bulbs.
Blue. ‘Arctic blue’ fluorescent lighting is the only way to describe it. Never seen lights so blue without putting a filter on. 🙂
I have a DV 1 creator kit for my lighting and am shooting with a Pana HPX 170. It’s a big office. Think 2 conference rooms made into 1 office. My lights won’t cover everything with the lights off. I don’t have enough fillers. With them on, there’s a little blue glow…
Obviously, I can’t have it lite like a stage setup, but I can’t have too much shadowing either… Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-
4 Replies
-
Is it blue enough to pass for daylight when you white balance?
My first idea:
Ask to talk to their janitor, borrow a brace of his replacement tubes for those overheads. Go to Home Depot or similar store, buy cheap flo tube fixtures in the same size, and cobble together mounts so they will fit on stands. When all your lights are the same type, your balance issues mostly go away, the rest can usually be tweeked in post. And the spare tubes will be a soft source that won’t cast too many shadows. You could also just bounce those spare tubes off the (white?) walls or ceiling to raise the overall levels in the room without adding more shadows. -
Thanks for the post. I now love Home Depot, thanks to your great idea. It did work for the most part. I had to cover a few lights (all were controlled by one switch, bummer) and then bounce a spare light off the ceiling to get enough room fill. And it worked ALMOST perfectly. I used every single piece of equipment I own and the only shadow I had was on his shoulder. Dang it. If I moved a light, the shadow would be somewhere else. I doubt the client will care, but I know it’s there and oh, it’s so annoying. 🙁
Anyway. Thanks for the help. The lighting went well enough because of your suggestion.
-
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Glad it worked for you, ugly and low-rent an idea as it was. What matters most is the result, and if you’re happy, I’m ecstatic.
-
BTW, if they are tubes in the overheads, all on one circuit, and you need some of them off, you don’t need to cover them; just slightly unscrew them… and remember to fix them again when you strike.:-)
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up