LED Lekos and Photography

[JonCarter]

Ego schmego. If they're in the biz they better know how to do the job.

Back to what I suggested a long time ago. Tell 'em to shoot grey cards, grey scales & color patches under YOUR light and then learn to print them.

 

[TimMc]

Heh, folks that get paid to do this on the side. Which is what spurred on the initial question, 'what can I tell them without hurting their ego?'

The exercise in color space and sensor rendering, above, suggests the photographer may wish to deploy some "fill light" of broader spectrum or see if the cameras can employ LUTS to scale the sensor's color space.

 

[Dominash]

I think the problem is complex in this case. The photographer doesn't know how to work with lights and post-processing. I faced a similar problem when I had to work with lights (they were using Showline SL 155 model). The photos were blurry and I was eventually fired for poor work. Of course, this was my problem only, because it was not about the lights, but about my inability to adapt. I even failed to work with the background remover properly, so I should've expected that. So, don't find the issues in the devices you use, it's a poor performance by your photographs. I'm sure because I was in the same situation. (It wasn't that difficult to learn the nuances, so now I'm cool with LED lights).

 

[macsound]

My theory is, the camera's white balance is set in the first scene and isn't adjusted as you progress through 450 light cues. Then when they get to post-processing the images, they can't be bothered to re-white balance all of the raw files, so all the life is sucked out of a re-white balanced JPG.
What saves you is shooting in Raw. Then you don't care what white balance setting you choose, you just need a bunch more time so process the enormous raw files.

A little off topic but I spend (spent, before covid) alot of time in Disneyland.
The entire parade route was previously lit 100% with 1000w pars, 8 per tower, 4 with a pinkish gel, 4 with a scroller of gel.
A couple years ago a single Altam LED Spectra Par was added.
Slightly before covid, refurbished towers were replacing the 8 1000w pars with 8 VL800 ProPars.
To the naked eye, the color produced in adjoining zones in the parade route weren't much different, in camera however, it was ugly. The biggest reason is because I set my color temperature manually in camera. No auto white balance. If you took a meter to the LED lit area, I'd guarantee it would read somewhere around 7000k and the incandescent area around 2800k.
So beyond color, you're looking at color temperature as all of those colors mix together.

In theatre, for video and photo purposes, I always attempt to have some fixtures be no color. Set the camera white balance to that.

For the record, we've had these issues for 50 years because moving lights have always been a vastly different color temperature than the halogen fixtures. You, as the photographer, have to decide which one is "white".

 

[TimMc]

My theory is, the camera's white balance is set in the first scene and isn't adjusted as you progress through 450 light cues. Then when they get to post-processing the images, they can't be bothered to re-white balance all of the raw files, so all the life is sucked out of a re-white balanced JPG.
What saves you is shooting in Raw. Then you don't care what white balance setting you choose, you just need a bunch more time so process the enormous raw files.

A little off topic but I spend (spent, before covid) alot of time in Disneyland.
The entire parade route was previously lit 100% with 1000w pars, 8 per tower, 4 with a pinkish gel, 4 with a scroller of gel.
A couple years ago a single Altam LED Spectra Par was added.
Slightly before covid, refurbished towers were replacing the 8 1000w pars with 8 VL800 ProPars.
To the naked eye, the color produced in adjoining zones in the parade route weren't much different, in camera however, it was ugly. The biggest reason is because I set my color temperature manually in camera. No auto white balance. If you took a meter to the LED lit area, I'd guarantee it would read somewhere around 7000k and the incandescent area around 2800k.
So beyond color, you're looking at color temperature as all of those colors mix together.

In theatre, for video and photo purposes, I always attempt to have some fixtures be no color. Set the camera white balance to that.

For the record, we've had these issues for 50 years because moving lights have always been a vastly different color temperature than the halogen fixtures. You, as the photographer, have to decide which one is "white".

A local theater photographer whose work I really like uses a couple of small photo strobes with diffusers. Now that I think about it, those provide a set, known "white" color temp. With that as a reference he can manipulate the razzle dazzle in Photoshop...