Gel color for events being recorded

[Zachary Tarantino]

Hey all,

Our theatre has been increasingly used as a venue for conferencing events that are recorded or photographed, as well as viewed from the audience. Normally, we just hang some additional front fill and replace our normal gels with L201 + R119 to make sure the wash is even across the stage.

We haven't gotten any complaints for this, but I sometimes think it's too blue for me as an audience member. I've seen a couple other people say to use L203 instead. What do y'all prefer to use?

Thanks!

 

[SteveB]

What does it look like on the screen is the 100 dollar question. L201 is a 5600K correction, thus if the camera(s) balance to 3200K it’s going to look blue. If the video folks ask to do a white balance and you turn on the units with L201, it’ll drive the cameras to daylight, which will warm up everything that is lit without the 201.

You really need to see what the video looks like but I’d generally just do no color, especially if it’s an HPL lamp at
3200K.

 

[techieman33]

It's all about what the camera wants. Though normally we go no color, it's all about getting as much even light on stage as possible.

 

[JonCarter]

If the ultimate result of the event is the video end product (as opposed to the local audience), discuss your lighting w/the video people and work out what looks best to them with their camera field(s) of view, color balance, angles, etc. Discuss depth vs. overly flat lighting--you may be able to help with it..

 

[eadler]

And don't forget that dimming lamps makes them shift warm.

The lighting folks here use a lot of R3006 and L420 (on studio fresnels on a ~14' fixed hung grid)

 

[Mike Donovan]

Hi. I prefer the Rosco CTBs over Lee. I find the Lee CTBs to be a bit too green. R3204 is my go-to, 3202 is too blue to the naked eye. Between my colour correcting and video’s white balancing, we usually find R3204 is a good middle ground for both the eye and the camera. We usually use 575W Source Fours and 1K Strand Fresnels.

 

[egilson1]

It also depends on if there are other sources, e.g. projectors, that the cameras will pick up. You want your stage wash to match the CT of the screens, or movers, or other sources.

That being said I use to do 3200 for stage wash if I had no haze and wanted the movers to show up.

Ethan

 

[JD]

The trick is to pick a color temperature and stick with it. A professional video crew will do a "white balance" to set their equipment to the color being considered white. Otherwise, you couldn't use the equipment outside (5700) and inside (3200.)
So, if you pick 2800, 3000, 3200, 4000, 5700, whatever, it will be fine as long as ALL your lighting sources are the same color.

 

[JonCarter]

Agreed: pick a color temp & coordinate w/the video guys. (Or light w/the color temp they want--either way.) Also, the video may not have the "dynamic range" of your audience' eyes (or yours!), so for best video you may need to adjust the dynamic range of your lighting. Discuss w/video people!

 

[techieman33]

Agreed: pick a color temp & coordinate w/the video guys. (Or light w/the color temp they want--either way.) Also, the video may not have the "dynamic range" of your audience' eyes (or yours!), so for best video you may need to adjust the dynamic range of your lighting. Discuss w/video people!

It's always nice to have a camera feed to the lighting booth so you can see what the camera sees as your programming. That's not always possible, but if it can be arranged then it's nice to have.

 

[macsound]

Usually for me it's always no color with frost. Our video guys were always more concerned with coverage and shadowy spots than color temp.
I've attended tons of events where all the frontlight had ctb and to the 2000 people in the room it looks like we're in a hospital from 1990.