In camera lighting or post colour grade

8salacious9 · Oct 12, 2013

Basically I want my scene to be completely pink, do i use a gel on the arri light or do i shoot as normal then grade it to be pink after, my worry is that dslr footage (h.264) will cause colour banding and other issues if i try to get the colour i want , whereas the gel is all pink therefore im only adjusting the image look rather than messing with the colours..

hopefully you understand what i mean.

knightly · Oct 12, 2013

That would be much easier to do in post... but if there were parts of the image you wanted to be less pink in the final, you could gel that light on set with the complement to the pink you're aiming for to balance that portion of the image away from the pink... it'll look weird on set, but look correct in post.

Both is my final answer to your question. If you plan on grading, you should light considering what you're aiming for after the grade.

ChimpPhobiaFilms · Oct 12, 2013

+1 to what Knightly said.

But before you decide to shoot the scene with pink lighting, ask yourself: do you really want to shoot it pink? What if you want to change it later?

But if you are sure that you want it pink, I'd light it pink then refine it in post.

8salacious9 · Oct 12, 2013

its definitly going to be pink, its part of the theme, as i said my main worry was not being able to have everything pink in post if shooting normal causing image problems, thus my thinking was if its going to be pink anyway then i could just gel it pink and then adjust it from then on causing little image interference..

but of course just wasnt sure, I should probably test it right..

jax_rox · Oct 12, 2013

test, test, test.

I would probably recommend a combination of both - get it pink by gelling the lights, and then if you need it more pink, push it further in post.

Making everything pink in post will have a different look to gelling your lights pink on the day.

baoliun · Oct 12, 2013

jax_rox said:
test, test, test.

I would probably recommend a combination of both - get it pink by gelling the lights, and then if you need it more pink, push it further in post.

Making everything pink in post will have a different look to gelling your lights pink on the day.

If you gel the lights with "effect" gels,can you further play with white balance? Or do you still balance to tungsten and go from there?

harmonica44 · Oct 12, 2013

If you put gel over the light, then try to white balance it, it will come looking funny. If you know the look you want before shooting, can you dial in the color temperature in your camera manually?

knightly · Oct 13, 2013

I wouldn't push/pull this with the white balance. That affects the whole image. WB to the type of light you're using (usually tungsten), then add gels to get the desired color from each light. You can get a pink filter for the lens of your camera, which would essentially be the same as pushing the WB to the complement of the pink you want and affect the whole image.

Once you color your scene, if you were to then WB to that light, you would fundamentally undo the color work you'd just done. Always WB to the lights you're using before gelling them.

RED ROBOT · Oct 13, 2013

I would very highly suggest not to do it entirely in post , which always comes off terrible .

Gel your lights pink and try to push the look as much as you can and as close as you want it on set , and then just perfect it in post.

WalterB · Oct 16, 2013

With art-direction/set design you can also add more pink to the image.
That way you can have real pink (because of the color of the objects/walls/clothes) and pinkish (because of the light) together in camera.