Make a gray scale light

[jaamulberry]

During a show our director want's there to be a photo effect right before the end of a scene. I was wondering if there was a gel or a way to make it look like a black and white photo for the special so that it washes out their clothes. So either a gel or a combination of gels that would make them gray scale.

 

[chausman]

R99 Chocolate will come close to a sepia-ish look.

 

[KLM]

I haven't done this yet, but experiment with R98, medium gray? Double it up if one cut isn't enough. I've always wondered if this kind of thing works with R98, but haven't had to try it myself.

 

[JD]

The trick to washing out color is to narrow the spectrum bandwidth. Usually, this involves going to one super-saturated color so that only that color reflects and everything else is black. This is impractical from an artistic point of view. We have to settle for something that simply gives a black and whit impression. A couple of daylight to incandescent correction filters sandwiched together somewhat achieves this. (Lee #204 6500 to 3200k)

 

[zmb]

I haven't done this yet, but experiment with R98, medium gray? Double it up if one cut isn't enough. I've always wondered if this kind of thing works with R98, but haven't had to try it myself.

R98 is gray because it evenly reducing the intensity of every color in the spectrum, remember white is the combo of all color and black is the absence. R98 exists to reduce intensity on non-dimmable sources like discharge lamps.

 

[lwinters630]

The trick to washing out color is . . . . . . so that only that color reflects . . . . . .

Some what the opposite, so the color is not reflected. Since light/color is a reflected value , if I want the person on stage who is wearing a red costume to appear black, I would shine a green light on them. Since the red will absorb every color but red, it will turn (relatively) black because there is no color to reflect back to our eyes. However if there are any green or white costumes then they will light up. So, this may take some intricate planing with the director/costumer as to stage areas to group colors. (In the same way you can take a secondary color and make it flip to one of the primary's in it.)

So the debate rages on..... can you project black? Since grey is a mix of black and white. I hold to the view that you cannot project black. Therefore using r98 to cut light will not really do that because it is just cutting the light output. I does prevent the light from shifting to amber/red like it would if you just dimmed it. Perhaps getting to a sepia look may be possible if the director will go for it.

So to create a black and white look you will need isolated areas in white, like a cyc or building with white light. Then only light the areas with color with a gel that is not part of that color. as stated earlier it is not practical on a general stage because any spill of the color onto the white will cause it to not be white.

Now think outside the box. . . . . dropping a black scrim, or back light with blinders, or . . . .

 

[shiben]

I would imagine the best way to achieve this effect might be to have a bunch of very large and bright strobe lights, and just whack everything with them. Maybe even some lighting generators or something... Basically something very, very large and incredibly bright might do it just by causing the audience to not really process the color information...

 

[WooferHound]

LED light will destroy color somewhat. Using an LED fixture that has white LEDs, and only using the white will make it look quite stark.

 

[jaamulberry]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Unfortunately the director wants top light specials in sharp squares with low general light around them. I am opposed to the effect it creates as it looks ridiculous for a realistic play but he loves it...