Light Plus Color Equals Different Moods, Effects

Color temperature is one of the many properties of light that we can change and take advantage of when it comes to shooting. On most shows you will find yourself either changing, converting or correcting a unit with gels or an onboard dial that changes color temperature. Of course, there have been projects where I have been unable to fly, rig or strike anything, and completely utilize available light.

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

As with anything in lighting, there are countless possibilities in terms of effects and moods that can be created with color; all of these stem from the story. Location also indicates what the cinematographer should consider. Sometimes you are correcting or changing what available light is already there or even recreating an environment with which that the audience is familiar.

For example, traffic lights on a stage for a poor man's process or even street lights outside of a window on location where there are none. Not only can we enhance the image with color, but every member of our audience associates colors with particular emotions. A strong understanding of the language of color is vital for a director of photography.

More often than not, we speak in two different base temperatures in lighting for cinema: tungsten (3200 K) and daylight (5500 K). Obviously, when we are lighting, we go all over the Kelvin scale having to deal with fluorescents, etc., but these are the foundation that we build from when putting a lighting package together and lighting a space.

The lower the number is on the scale, the warmer the color; and the higher, the cooler. Tungsten is orange and daylight is blue. Conversion gels, Color Temperature Orange (CTO) and Color Temperature Blue (CTB) will convert tungsten to daylight and vice-versa.

Set prepared with blue wash to blacklight scene in Atlantis Gene

LINK:	http://www.tvtechnology.com/resources/0006/light-plus-color-equals-dif...
	See more stories from tvtechnology

Most recent headlines