Lighting Test

[Gohanto]

I hate to post a "what do you think of this shot" type of thread, but I've been bouncing back and forth on whether this lighting works for a scene. It's for a short film about a husband deciding between science work to save his sick wife or spending time with her as she is. I wanted the lighting to symbolize his choice between her sitting upstairs (CTO light on stairs) and his work below (green gelled fluorescent in room).

So basically my question is, if you saw this shot in a film, would you instantly jump to the conclusion that the DP didn't know what the heck he was doing since the color of it is just so extreme? Or that the film wasn't professional?

http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj209/Gohanto/?action=view&current=BasementLighting.jpg

Any opinion would be very helpful.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, it's a bit heavy on the green vs. orange... but I don't know if that's a green wall or not to judge how green the light would be on his face.

It should be a realistic cyan Cool White fluorescent color, not a forest or lime green. But if the wall is already green, it will look even greener in that Cool White color. So I really can't tell if the light itself is too green.

 

[Gohanto]

It's a white wall and the owner of the house doesn't want me to paint it. The gel over the Cool White fluorescent is a JAS Green (very strong green).

I guess the impression I was under was that the audience can accept almost any color of fluorescent lamps as a lot of movies I've seen either have them as shades of white, green, or blue. However I did probably go a little far here.

I'm looking for a color that's bold enough to contrast the CTO on the stairs, yet remain mostly realistic. My fear was if it didn't contrast enough it would look like an accident instead of an artistic choice.

Skin tone isn't the largest of concern as there is a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling which the actor will be mostly lit by (camera WB to the bulb so he'll have normal skin tone). Then the machine turns on and blows that bulb, resulting in his skin being lit only by whatever tint the fluorescent ends up as.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

A CalColor Cyan 60 would probably be a better color to use for that greenish fluorescent color, or Full or Half Plus Green + Full or Half CTB, if you're trying for a mercury vapor / Cool White industrial cyan color.

Remember that if the other light is of the opposite color tone, like orange, then you don't have to go as far in the opposite direction, as opposed to contrasting a green-ish light to a white light, to create a visible difference.

For example, a moonlight scene lit entirely with half-blue would look like a nice pale moonlight, but put a face in the shot lit with orange firelight and now that half-blue moonlight in the background looks much more blue.

A strong green gel would be more to emulate a green neon sign or green traffic light effect.