trying to set up a blue background light

[Nino Giannotti]

To start, what color is the background now. You must first take that into consideration. Unless it’s a neutral color, white or grey or even black you might never get a good blue out of it.

CTB is not pure blue it’s a color correction filter, this means that before it achieve a particular color, in this case blue, it must filter-out anything that is not blue.

go here:

https://www.efplighting.com/?Filters_and_gels

You can find an understandable explanation.

You should use something different instead of a color correction filter. There are color enhancement or cine-gel filters

go to:

https://rosco.com/us/filters/index.asp to see what’s available

Nino

EFPlighting.com

[Mike Eberly]

Nino,
Thanks so much for your suggestions. I’ve been reading a lot from the EFP Lighting website you mentioned.

To answer your question, I was practicing lighting techniques on an interior red brick wall. This sounds like it may be the reason why I can’t get the blue to show over such a strong and opposite color.

I also looked at the rosco link you sent. Is there a particular deep blue gel you might recommend?

Thanks very much,
Mike

[Dennis Size]

My personal favorites are Roscolux 68 or 80.
Spatter or lightly sponge your red brick wall with gray paint to help the color to “pop”.
If you use Roscolux 77 (which has more green than red in it) it will help neutralize the red of the brick.

DS

[Nino Giannotti]

Mike,

If you can get a hold of any HMI light, half of your problem will be solved. The output color of an HMI is alredy toward the blue spectrum so you don’t have to worry about filtering out reds and yellows. The camera will see the HMI as a bright blue light, add some blue gel to that and the red on the bricks should not be an issue any more. I assume that your camera will be set at 3200K tungsten light. Use it on preset or white balance it with the HMI off. You have to contain the HMI only where you need it, if the light spills into the rest of your image than you’ll have a problem with all the colors.

But wouldn’t blue bricks look kind of strange?

Nino

EFPlighting.com

[Mike Eberly]

Thanks very much, Dennis – I’ll look into those gels. The gray paint… I guess I’d have to check with the building owner first? 🙂

Mike

[Mike Eberly]

Nino – thanks for the advice. I’ll look more into HMI’s and see what I can afford! Sounds like renting might be the way to go. I appreciate it.

You’re right about the blue bricks! It’s more an experiment than anything else… I guess if I can make a red wall blue, it’d represent some kind of victory to me. maybe? I don’t know.