How can I change the color temperature to daylight on the halogen work lamps or on any light fixture. is there a good book on lighting tricks on how to and dont's

You cant really change the color temperature of the lights, but you can fake it. If your outdoors, and need some fill light, one, you could just leave them undifussed. Or two, you could use bounce boards to light your actors with the avaliable sun light. Just use sheets of styrafoam, or big sheets of cardboard that you paint white. Just put them to the side, or below your actors, and "bounce" the light on them. Good luck.
R. Michael

And you shall know us by the trail of dead.

ya my biggest problem with making movies is I don't know enough about lighting. ANy good tips and books etc will be beneficial for all of us filmmakers out there

"Everything you know is wrong"

- disinfo.com

yes, you can change the color tempeerature of any light that is emitted, be it a Halogen, Tungsten, Xenon, or even Daylight . . .

but . . . the only way to do so is to buy color temperature gels which when places over the light change its existing color temp. Both Rosco and Lee sell them to filter out, neutralize, or change the effect and color temperature of light. try filmtools.com or any place that sells motion picture expendables.

finding info online or at the library, or even at Amazon.com, which sells many books on lighting will answer even more of your questions, check them out.

Tizzy, check them out as well, anything in film is possible, you just got to find it and then correct it.

Professional Lighting Handbook by Carlson & Carlson

Set Lighting Technicians Handbook by Harry C. Box

and a really good one which interprets everything very well and not too technically is
Film Lighting by Kris Malkiewicz

check'em out. i believe that Amazon.com sells all of these.

Ya know, the 500 watt Home Depot-style work lights use the same bulb as the Lowel Tota. For around 10 bucks, you can buy a color corrected bulb. It's more efficient (more light with less heat) than gels. Just make sure to get equal wattage (no 750 or 1k s). Although, I don't think there's a 5600k Tota bulb available.

joren.

at the moment I am reading PAINTING WITH LIGHT, old skool but very nice book

so you mean to say that if i have the halogen home depot lights that i can put gels in front of them. like what color cause i want them to be cool not warm. also tizzy what kind of lighting method did you use for the interior and to make it look percievable. i see in one picture that you had your actor sitting by a window and the exterior looks blue, and the interior looks warm. did you light outside with gels. and the inside with warm gels. also is it good to light from scratch. like if i was lighting a room with my lights then use the existing lights in the room for show but dim them down. like in a room the bulb in the fixture is always warm. dont use that right. i need help

Ok, in that pic I had three lights. One was outside on the balcony. It was a larger flourecent work light, but Flourecesnts put off like a greenish light, and films have grown to associate a somewhat blueish glow to night, so I just put some light blue gels in front of it. (Kubrick, your right, and my wording was awful. I meant to say you couldnt alter the light, meaning the physical bulb, and housing, itself, and then completley left out gels. I am a moron.)
This was continuous, and put a nice blueish light on the walls, and the glass door, but did nothing to the actor, so I had a dome work lamp with a Hologen bulb (they register white on video) Diffused, and with a light blue gel, just off camera left, and a little behind the actor, putting that light blue cut of light on his side. The rest of the apratment was supposed to be light by candles, so my key light was on his face, but heavily diffused so it was soft, and with a light orange gel for the candle effect. It was infront of him, and a bit to camera right.

As for your lights, versus existing, there is no set answer. You have to experiment with each location. I was once on a feature shoot where they were spending forever trying to light this dinning room. It just kept looking flat. The D.P. told everyone to take a break, and shut off all the lights, except the existings. He happened to glance at the monitor. It looked great! We shot with those, and a small fill light on the actors faces, just to chase off shadows. Play with it. You just dont want your image to look flat. Use light to give it depth. Anything else, just let me know.
R. Michael

And you shall know us by the trail of dead.

so i should go to home depot buy at least four duel 1000 watts lights then gets some filters and ill be ok for the time being.

how did you light the other scene in the other picture you had where the guy looks like he is in the basement or something looks very professional. i cant wait to start school now. im going to go to full sail in july. i just want to know some stuff before i start. thANKs aLOt

what are lighting gels made out of?
could you make em yourself?

I was just trying something to look creey. Like has been said before, blue is associated with night so I took a wal-mart grocery bag (the blue plastic one) and folded it up a few times and placed it over the light on my camera, it looked VERY nice! All the lights were off in the room except the light from my laptop with a white desktop... it was nice I tell ya!! NICE!

P.S. Becareful when using gels or things as gels on lights that aren't made for them!! they melt :P

Full Sail!? Must you go there? Can you get your money back? Sorry, i dont like that school, but dont panic. Hopefully I might be able to give you some tips on how to make the most of it. You may want to e-mail me directl;y for that ( tizzyentertainment@juno.com) I dont want to bash that school anymore on these boards.

That said, moving on..
This shot...

I assume, is the one your reffering to. ok, first, its in a stairwell in my home, the shadows on the back wall, and on my face are the railing, which has a cool design. I simply shined one of my domed lights, un diffused, but with a light blue gel, toward it to create the shadow effect of bars, which makes sense in the character structure. There was another light, with diffusuion at the top opf the stairs, but far away, as to not disrupt the shadow. It was bassically just enough so you could see my face (yes, that is my ugly, angry mug.) Finally, that blue light on my chin is another domed light, with a thin single sheet of diffusion, and another light blue gel, but I believe I folded it ocver once or twice for a stronger color. (There are windows in the door below, that is supposed to be where this light is coming from.) It was clamped to the stair railing, but down low, beneath me, and angled up. It is just off camera left. Id say it was about 3 1/2 feet away.
I really like shadows, and use them whenever it makes sense to. I love creating patterns in background lighting that consists of heavy shadows, just to make it a bit more interesting. You should try to paint with your light. I use everything from wicker baskets, to action figures to create shadows. I have created shadows like blinds by cutting slits in big pieces of cardboard. Experiment, have fun with it. Lighting should be one more extension of your storytelling.
There are some greta movies you should see for their lighting. "The Yards" with Mark Whalberg was very interesting. They did the same thing "A street car named desire" did with their lighting. It was really true to their environment, but was constructed so that everyone who was being dishonest would be in partial shadows. Growing more difficult to see as their lies progressed. Only in the end, when he tells the truth, do you see Mark's character completlry light. Also, the Cohen brothers B7W film, "The Man who Wasnt there" has some of the most incredible black and white lighting I have ever seen. Truly beautiful. Like I said, have fun with it. In the mean time, here is a few more stills from "Intersection"
R. Michael



And you shall know us by the trail of dead.

Hmm.... You can actually lower the color temperture of the globes in certain fixtures (Most tungstens) by doing one of two things. First, you can simply wait for the thing to age. Leave it on for hours on end and watch it lose intensity and shift towards the yellow end of the spectrum. Or, you can put it on a squeezer and dim it down a bit. The more you dim lights down the oranger/yellower they tend to get. Fluro's may start to flicker a bit more sparadically when squeezed down, but you can use this as an effect at times.

Of course, Arclights and HMi's actually take a few minutes to get up to both color temperture and intensity. All of these things are considered more problematic than beneficial though, but any lighting technician should understand this stuff.

You can make your own gels, but it's far more cost effective to buy them considering the chemicals, scientific equipment, labor and money spent on years of education in physics and chemestry needed to get your home gel lab up and running.

Nota "Gaffer of the week" Mono

Whats a good home depot kit I could get for under say...200 dollars. I need to light a fairly large exterior area with blue light, as well as some standard interior shots (day and night).

what kind of light would you guys recommend for a key light, fill light, and some background lights if im buying it from home depot. i already bought assorted rosco color correcting filters and some coler effects filters {same company}. thank you