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Lighting a School classroom
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Just found a place in NYC called Barbizon. They have GE 40’s in stock. The guy there told me that they were 5200 (the bulbtronics were 5600) and that 5200 would likely be a better match for daylight. I think I’ll go with those, unless anyone has any strong objections.
Dan S.
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Dan,
Now you’re catching on; figure out what you need, find it, buy it, use it. Doesn’t it feel good?
JS
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Yeah…thanks John.
(You helped me get here)Dan S.
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John, can I trouble you for one more piece of advice, then I promise I’ll shut up about this.
The flouro tubes that are presently in the classroom are 30 watt. The ones I’m about to order are 40 watt. There are 36 tubes in each room, so that changing them would mean an increase of 360 watts for each room. Judging by the test video I shared a few posts back, do you think that the extra wattage will over-power the room? I suppose I could always stop the camera down to a higher f-stop or use the internal ND filter in the camera. I’d also add that I think I will use a Letus adaptor with a 35mm lens, which eats up about 1/2 stop of light. And my gut says, “better too much than too little light.”
But if it is thought to be too much overhead light, I could ask the custodian to only put in 2 out of 3 for each ceiling fixture. I guess that would take the overall wattage of the room down 90 watts from what it is now. The problem is that when I walk into the classroom on Friday for the shoot, it will be too late to mess with the ceiling flouros. So I have to give it my best shot beforehand. I will add that I’m also bringing one Kino Flo floor light (I believe it’s the 3 lamp version) and I might bring the wide on-camera litepanel you suggested a while back.
Thanks again, and I PROMISE this is it!
Dan S.
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Extra wattage will not overpower. With Letus, you’ll need more light as you well know, so relamp all the globes with the daylite colored.
JS
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THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dan S.
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Hi John,
Just wanted to let you know that the system worked–lamping the overheads with daylight flos, and letting the natural light mix from the windows. What a difference! Just set the white balance to daylight and all the colors and skin tones look so much better. And it worked pretty much anywhere in the room, even had a nice effect when the windows washed out the background.
Thanks again.
-Dan
Dan S.
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Dan,
That’s great to hear. I hope you come away with the understanding that lighting is not brain surgery and should not be over-thought. Your initial instincts are usually right and the difficulty inevitably comes from self-censoring because of cost (either of gear or labor). The challenge is therefore not to think of an alternate plan, but how to accomplish what you know you must do!
JS
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YEA JOHN!!!!
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Hi John,
It’s been ages since you helped me with this classroom problem.
Thought I’d share the results with you. Thanks again for all your patience!https://www.scholastic.com/administrator/education-videos/education-leaders/
Dan S.
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