Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/05/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ben Holmes wrote: > > I'm becoming very sensitive to images lately, and have noticed an increase > in the use of incandescent light in color photos, both in print ads and on > television. It gives a very pleasent mood to skin when it's exposed > correctly. Has anyone worked with this type of light in combination with > chrome emulsions? > I'd be interested in anyone's opinion on how to diffuse it, expose for it, > choose a film for it, etc. Ben, I have a couple of cheap used theatre lights, tungsten, 1000W. Sometimes I use them in combination with strobes to warm things and use slow shutter speeds to get that blurr. Sometimes I'll put daylight filters on them to balance. Depands on the effect desired. I wish I could afford two or three HMIs, but at $5000 for a 1200W units, I'm going to wait a while. I've seen rental units used here in the studio during rentals when photographers from NY hae shot for Calvin Klein, Nordstroms, JC Penny, etc and used BIG mother HMIs. Sure is clean light. More interesting is the look of many television commercials, especially romantic or "human" touch stuff. The closeups of people are with daylight balanced color but the backgrounds are rich summer late afternoon warm. I've been wondering (but haven't taken the time to work it out) how to filter for it. We could use say an 81C or even 81EF on camera and then use a bluish filter on strobe to bring the key light on people back close to 5200K while retaining the warmth of the background. I've found that whenever I heavily light with color gels, that it is important to keep something lit with white light as a reference, otherwise it is too heavy handed. If you can get a hold of a recent FPG International catalogue, look at the pix by Ron Chapple--I understand he does a lot of combination lighting and much of his stuff has a warm, dreamy kind of feel. If you do some experimenting, I'd love to know the results. Donal Philby San Diego