Lighting A Church

BigBeaner · Jun 7, 2006

Any tips lighting a small church that has 6 large windows: four colored red and blue, the other two are clear. We'll be shooting during the day using Vision2 200T and wondering if I should CTB our lights or just leave it to see how it turns out. I'm just worried that if I CTB the lights and slap on the 85A Filter not only would I lose 1/3 of a stop/light but then I might loose some of the blue light from the colored windows (just have to remember to put that in the notes for the colorist). Thanks.

laurent.a · Jun 14, 2006

Sure you'll lose a bit of blue from the mentionned windows, but CTBing your tungsten sources will lower them with a factor of 4 ! (2 stops loss).

Meaning a 2kW will only give the power a 500W would.

Since you have daylight coming through the windows, the 3 possibilities are

- Use daylight balanced stock

- Use tungsten stock with HMI lamps + 85 on the camera. And remember a 575 W HMI will give more light than a 1kW tungsten with no gel in front of it...

- Use tungsten stock and sources and CTO your windows.

BigBeaner · Jun 15, 2006

How bad would it actually look if I did shoot without CTO the windows with the windows? Maybe I should just get Fujis 250D or 500D.

laurent.a · Jun 15, 2006

Well, if you shoot tungsten stock with daylight coming through the window, that light will look very blue. How bad ? I can't answer. There is no such scale as the Richter's scale...

Using daylight stock sounds a good choice. If you think an alternative to 200 Vision 2 can be the Fuji stock you mention... I'd go for Reala or Eterna if you have to stick to Fuji... Kodak also makes very good daylight stock...

BigBeaner · Jun 17, 2006

Ya the 250D Kodak would be just as good. Maybe this will help better explain how bad mixed lighting could look maybe not on a scale but basically if It's just going to look a little or a lot more blue I don't think I care that much as maybe it would add to the scene or the colorist comes up with a new look from this. That or it'll look like total crap and a waste of my film, but I really don't think it would. Possibly a bit more amateur, I guess there's only one way to find out.

laurent.a · Jun 17, 2006

One thing you can do as a test is take a digital still camera and use the preset white balance options. Shoot in daylight with the white balance set on 3200 tungsten.

You could as well make the same test with a video camera, but if these media won't behave exactly like film does, I think a still image would be closer from film than a consumer video camera, as what extend the blue cast will look as well as what timing possibility you have.

Mind that depending on the timing system you have, the blue cast due to tungsten stock shot under daylight won't be totally correctible or without noticable loss of quality.

If you look for an alternative look from this filtering miss, mind that it's been done before, but as you say, it's certainly is an interesting test to do as a "beginner".

EDIT > Forgot to mention the fact that you will easier correct in the highlights. The bluish cast may be still visible in the shadows. Therefore, it'sv recommended to overexpose a bit (let's say 2/3 a stop) when not filtering daylight.

Also, if you edit on a computer some systems allow a a correction in shadows, midtones and highlights seperatly

BigBeaner · Jun 21, 2006

Ya the digital/video test is a good idea. My plan is just to use 500T with an 85 filter at 320 and if it's a little more warm I think that's goes more with the scene than the blue making it look cold.

JonBowerbank · Oct 25, 2006

I can attest to the digital camera method, I used it to get some examples of daylight shining through my window with a tungsten practical in the shot. It nearly replicated what you'd see on film.

Also, I'll assume the windows are way too big to put CTO gels on. That's always an option if it's a pheesable chore.

David Mullen ASC · Nov 25, 2006

I just lit a church. I used a lighting balloon with half HMI / half tungsten globes to create a light that was halfway between daylight and tungsten in color temp, and then shot my greyscale under that so that the interior light was white and the light coming through the windows was half-blue.

Since there was so much colored glass on the church windows, I don't think anyone would think it odd that it was tinted blue-ish and I wanted a colder look anyway. I had ungelled tungsten spots on the statues around the room, so those read warmer than normal. I used tungsten-balanced film in this case, but since the room was balanced for a halfway color, I could have used daylight-balanced film instead except that I wanted to be around 400 ASA (which is what I rated the 500T stock I was using.)