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With the right equipment and a deep
knowledge of the four main attributes
of light, you can achieve great lighting
in just about any scenario.Color, part 1
Understanding how color and light
work is essential to successful light-Capturing light
Your camcorder captures light, records
it and stores it in such a way that allows
you to play it back so everyone can
see what your camera saw. That’s all it
does and, more importantly, that’s all it
knows. You are responsible for control-
ling the light you are about to capture.
Light has four attributes you can work
with to make your scenes look the way
you intend. The color, intensity, quality
and direction of your light sources all
play a role in determining the overall
look of your video. Whether your goal
is a contrasty film noir scene or a flat
lifeless office scene, it’s your job to light
it properly so your camera will capture
the results you need.LIGHTING
Lighting is one of the most chal-
lenging aspects of video produc-
tion, but the right equipment
and knowledge of the four main
attributes of light makes great
lighting possible in any scenario.
by Terry O’Rourkeing. There are two factors to consider:
getting colors to look natural, and
using color to set the mood of a scene.
Achieving natural looking colors in
your footage has everything to do with
the white balance you set on your
camera and what’s referred to as the
color temperature of the light sources
in your scene.
All light sources have a color
temperature, which is measured in
degrees kelvin. It’s a bit confusing, but
this has nothing to do with how hot
a light source is to the touch. Instead,
light sources with different color
temperatures produce a wide range of
color casts that you must counteract
with your white balance.
Sources like a lit match or tungsten
lights have lower color temperatures
at or below 3200k and give a amber or
reddish cast, while sources with higher
color temperatures like direct sunlight
have color temperatures of 5600k and
above and give off a more bluish cast.
Our brains are adept at counteract-
ing these color casts even in mixed
temperatures. White generally looks
white, even when we walk from a low
lit room to the bright outdoors. We ba-
sically have perfect auto-white balance.The four attributes of light
Fire light Direct sunlight
(clear day)Photo flood or
Halogen bulb1,200K 3,200K 5,600KHOW COLOR TEMPERATURE IS MEASURED
Color temperature meters measure in units of kelvin, which is a measure-
ment of absolute temperature and has the scientific symbol K. Physical
temperature which you can feel is measured in thermal radiation. Color tem-
perature which you can see is measured in electromagnetic radiation. The
sun radiates electromagnetic energy at 5000k at noon. Most cameras and
films are designed to respond favorably to 5000k. Some film (type B films)
are designed to give accurate color results at 3200k. As the sun rises and
sets, the temperature changes due to the effects of the earth’s atmosphere.
Standard incandescent 100 watt bulbs radiate at about 3200k.390 C03 Lighting.indd 46 9/24/19 2:23 PMVIDEOMAKER >>> NOVEMBER 2019 47
LIGHTING
The four attributes of light
Your camera, on the other hand, needs a little
more help to render colors naturally. It only has
the ability to interpret one color temperature at
a given point in time. With your white balance
set to auto, you might get away with a shot that
moves from indoor tungsten lights (3200k) to
outdoor sunlight (5600k) — but what about
mixed temperatures?
Let’s say we have an indoor interview, and we
want to use the natural light coming in through
the window. In our light kit, we have a couple
tungsten lights. Mixing the tungsten lights (3200k)
with outdoor light (5600k) streaming in through
a window puts our camera in a difficult scenario.
White balancing to 3200k, or “indoor,” will result
in a bluish tint on the parts of our scene receiving
the outdoor light, while the parts hit by the tung-
sten light will look natural. Setting our balance to
5600k, or “outdoor,” will result in amber tint to the
portions of the scene lit by the tungsten light. The
whole idea is to make sure all your light sources
have the same temperature, so your colors appear
natural when you set your white balance.
Luckily, there are several techniques for dealing
with this. You can use color temperature correc-
tion gels over your lights or windows to convert
from them from one color temperature to anoth-
er. For example, placing a CTB (color temperature
blue) gel over the tungsten light in our example
would convert the 3200k light into 5600k light.
Now setting your white balance to 5600k, or “out-
door,” would produce natural color in your foot-
age. This would also be useful if you were mixing
the tungsten light and an LED or fluorescent light
that had a 5600k temperature.
Another option is to cover your windows
with CTO (color temperature orange) gels. This
would convert the 5600k light to 3200k light.
From there, setting your white balance to 3200k
or “indoor” would allow you to capture natural
color in your shot.Color, part 2
Using proper white balance to produce natural
looking colors is a great place to start. However,
once you’ve got the white balance on your camera
all set, you may also want to use color to create a
mood in your scene. That “white light” you see is
really the additive property of light at work. Red,
green and blue light are combining to create that
“white.” In fact, these three primary colors com-
bine in different variations to form every color of
light that your camera sees.
We can, of course, filter out some color in
order to give our scene the look we want usingLIGHTING NOVEMBER 2019
Proper white balance is important for creating a realistic image. However,
once you have that mastered, you can also use colored party gels to add inter-
est to your image or enhance your story.SMARTPHONE APPS TO MEASURE INTENSITY
There are several apps available for your smartphone’s cam-
era that will accurately measure light intensity (luminous emit-
tance) and display the results in Lux. To better understand
light intensity and how it can differ dramatically from room
to room or indoors to outdoors, you can measure the lighting
while moving around various rooms and other environments.
This will give you more insight than your eyes alone.To measure lighting, point your camera toward a white sheet
of paper in each environment. This will give you the reflective
lighting from the white paper, but since it’s the same paper in
each environment, the results are pretty consistent. Pointing
the smartphone camera at the subject itself results in a reflec-
tive reading which can be very inconsistent due to reflective
surfaces, windows and other issues.Professional light meters have removable translucent sen-
sor covers and can read incident light with the cover installed
and reflective light without the cover. Incident lighting is the
lighting falling on the subject or room. Reflective lighting is the
lighting reflecting from the subject or room and can be influ-
enced by mirrors, polished surfaces and the color of walls as
well as many other factors.390 C03 Lighting.indd 47 9/24/19 2:24 PM