What camera would be best for me when it comes to color grading?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I was just told that if I light the walls, then the actors have to be lit brighter since the backgroung should be darker than the actors, is what they meant. Is that true?

When you say that blue LED lights will motivate the walls, where would the motivation of the color of the light be coming from?

[Brian Drysdale]

It's all relative, the actors will be lit to a higher level than the walls, but if the light levels on the walls aren't high, the lights on the actors don't need to be that powerful.

Do you think things out? If the wall have blue LEDs in shot as practicals lighting them and the rest of the scene has tungsten lighting, what to you think is motivating the walls to be blue?

[Paul R Johnson]

Do you actually have the budget to light the set a consistent brightness then add your acting light? The drop off on wide areas is quite obvious unless you have multiple light sources? If you are going to buy lights (I remember you not liking/able to hire) there are some variable colour lights available that let you dial in all the available hues at different saturations. With a decent large screen monitor you could simply light the set like that?

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Do you actually have the budget to light the set a consistent brightness then add your acting light? The drop off on wide areas is quite obvious unless you have multiple light sources? If you are going to buy lights (I remember you not liking/able to hire) there are some variable colour lights available that let you dial in all the available hues at different saturations. With a decent large screen monitor you could simply light the set like that?

Oh okay, last time I checked, the lights were you dial in the hues, actually cost quite a bit more, compared to lights, where you put CTB gels on instead. But I can have another look in prices. I can get a DP, just like knowing my option and other opinions as well, if that's okay, especially if a DP becomes unavailable or something while shooting. What do you mean by 'drop off' in this context?

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

It's all relative, the actors will be lit to a higher level than the walls, but if the light levels on the walls aren't high, the lights on the actors don't need to be that powerful.

Do you think things out? If the wall have blue LEDs in shot as practicals lighting them and the rest of the scene has tungsten lighting, what to you think is motivating the walls to be blue?

The blue walls would just be there to help separate the background from the actors, cinematography wise. That's the motivation really. Is that not enough? But you see this in movies like in that tutorial I posted where they show the background being blue/teal, and the actors are more warm in the skin tones.

[Brian Drysdale]

Yes, but the costume also has a teal tone in the tutorial. This is more about a "look" rather than separating the actors from the background. You don't need to use colour for that, they did it all the time in black and white movies.

If using blue lighting on the walls, you probably would need motivation, because they probably won't look like painted walls. Neither does the wall in the video tutorial, it looks like a colour correction effect, rather than paint.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Does the costume have to be teal though, as long as the background lighting is? Isn't that enough teal to create a contrast from the actors?

[Paul R Johnson]

Don't forget that what is being done in the grades that use this cyan/pink split is the trick of using bluey light to evoke cold/fear/tense and the pink flesh tones being warm/friendly/happy type emotion split - not just a colour contrast.

Drop off is the phenomena you get when using too few light sources to light a larger area - double the distance, quarter the brightness - so the way will drop off in intensity, then go back up again as the next fixture takes over - so to light a 20ft wide wall, you might need 3 or even 4 light sources.

There's bit of a problem with gel. CTB OR CTO is colour correction, so won't give you the cyan colour you want. Lee and Rosco have plenty of gels in that rough category of cyan-blue/green. The only slight issue is that when you stick these onto LED light sources, the colour is often not exactly what you expect due to the phosphors in the LEDs, but tinting the white light on the scenery/set is possible, but you'll need to experiment to wash a set with the right colour - hence why colourists do it as shown in the tutorials. The gels reduce the light levels quite a bit anyway, so it will be more dark than you imagine, so you might not need the deep colour versions. Here's some of the range.

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

Oh okay. Does the costume have to be teal though, as long as the background lighting is? Isn't that enough teal to create a contrast from the actors?

You're going to get teal on the costumes if you use colour correction, unless you're going to get into really involved work doing more that using just the skin tones.This is all part of an overall look and has nothing to do with the walls being the blueish colour. If you do it, the whole film should probably have the same look.

If you light the background walls using coloured gels, you can light the actor separably from the wall, so the costumes are their natural colour.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks, and thanks for the gel options!

If I color the movie to have a very teal look, do you think that the audience will think it's motivation-less though, if the color is not coming from a source in the story?

Also, the thing about clothes, is, is that it's hard to get teal costumes. For example, the project I am working on the characters will wear business suit type attire, but no normal store sells teal colored suits, fashion wise though.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan, people wear normal clothes. I don't think anyone does this trick with the physical people, it's post effect because to do this kind of thing is absurdly complex. You're the first person who's trying to create looks, LUT changes or colourisation by really changing the colour of the things in shot. What are you trying to do? There are fashions in cinema, but would you not edit the video with proper colour balance so white is white, and then when the edit is complete and you can view everything, look at the product and try some different looks - especially as there are so many just as presets before you tweak things.

I just don't see what you are trying to do by even considering trying to get clothes in non-normal colours.

[Brian Drysdale]

Regarding orange and teal motivation, a whole raft of films have been made with that look, however, if you look around in the real world it doesn't exist, I suspect that it's taken as a visual style that's in at the moment by the audience. There are lots of different looks used in films and the director has to decide which is appropriate for the story and the way they're going to tell it.

If you have doubts about the motivation don't use it

If you have doubts about the practicality of the process, don't do it.

From your replies, you sound like someone way out of their depth.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. I have no doubt about the motivation, I was just told by a couple of others before when I asked about it, and they said that lighting the walls behind the actors to be blue, would look too strange. But if that is okay, cause cinema is not reality, than I am okay with it.

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Ryan, people wear normal clothes. I don't think anyone does this trick with the physical people, it's post effect because to do this kind of thing is absurdly complex. You're the first person who's trying to create looks, LUT changes or colourisation by really changing the colour of the things in shot. What are you trying to do? There are fashions in cinema, but would you not edit the video with proper colour balance so white is white, and then when the edit is complete and you can view everything, look at the product and try some different looks - especially as there are so many just as presets before you tweak things.

I just don't see what you are trying to do by even considering trying to get clothes in non-normal colours.

Oh it's just you said make sure that the costumes were teal to, so I thought you were talking about during shooting, since we were talking about getting it right in camera with lighting the walls to be teal.

[John Nantz]

With regard to LED lights, a lot has changed in the past few years. Besides getting less expensive, the color has got better, and color temperature is adjustable. One thing I don’t think has changed is the amount of light that gets lost with a gel. I’m appalled at how much is lost even with a 1/8 or 1/4 magenta. It’s an awful lot. This is based on my 600 LED Cool Lights.

Speaking of teal and that green color, in looking at the news from the Oscars there was a picture of Jennifer Lopez from an earlier Oscar presentation wearing a nice green dress. Besides being a singer and actress, she is also a producer. It’d be really nice to team up with her on a film and add some stardom to gain publicity.

Jennifer Lopez's Oscar dress: https://static1.therichestimages.com...p&w=738&h=1125

This is about lighting, costumes, and color so it's on topic, right?

Edit: One more thing. Thinking about lighting, one needs lots of room. In Hollywood they have sets set up do do all this stuff. The walls are higher and there's room to move the camera further back so there is frame to work with. When coming up with the script and visualizing the the movie, one needs to be planning for the place where this will be filmed. There's a lot of work to do. Might even have to adjust the script to fit the available set. Just thinkin'

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by John Nantz

With regard to LED lights, a lot has changed in the past few years. Besides getting less expensive, the color has got better, and color temperature is adjustable. One thing I don’t think has changed is the amount of light that gets lost with a gel. I’m appalled at how much is lost even with a 1/8 or 1/4 magenta. It’s an awful lot. This is based on my 600 LED Cool Lights.

Speaking of teal and that green color, in looking at the news from the Oscars there was a picture of Jennifer Lopez from an earlier Oscar presentation wearing a nice green dress. Besides being a singer and actress, she is also a producer. It’d be really nice to team up with her on a film and add some stardom to gain publicity.

Jennifer Lopez's Oscar dress: https://static1.therichestimages.com...p&w=738&h=1125

This is about lighting, costumes, and color so it's on topic, right?

Edit: One more thing. Thinking about lighting, one needs lots of room. In Hollywood they have sets set up do do all this stuff. The walls are higher and there's room to move the camera further back so there is frame to work with. When coming up with the script and visualizing the the movie, one needs to be planning for the place where this will be filmed. There's a lot of work to do. Might even have to adjust the script to fit the available set. Just thinkin'

Oh okay. Unfortunately I am forced to use real locations with lower walls, of course... I know the gels cut down the lights quite a bit, and have used them before on a couple of projects so far. However, if I am lighting the walls in the background blue, and the lights on the actors are suppose to be brighter than the background, then does it matter if the background wall lights are cut down, therefore?

[John Nantz]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

Oh okay. Unfortunately I am forced to use real locations with lower walls, of course... I know the gels cut down the lights quite a bit, and have used them before on a couple of projects so far.

Granted, you hav used gels, but dang, on LEDs it's mind boggling how much light they suck up. I'm thinking of the throw of the light that's needed to wash the walls behind the actors and how far away the actors have to be from the walls to get the wash without shadows.

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

However, if I am lighting the walls in the background blue, and the lights on the actors are suppose to be brighter than the background, then does it matter if the background wall lights are cut down, therefore?

This is not my expertise area but having worked with lights in what I'd call less than friendly spaces, because of limited space, it's amazing how much room is needed to get the cams, actors, and background the way one visualizes it in their head. Regular rooms and ceilings aren't your friend when one needs separation to avoid shadows. Hollywood has sets designed to be able to do this sort of thing but reading about all the importance of the background walls, finding something indoors that will work in the typical script, I think might be tough.

In your area, finding something outdoors with temperatures one can work in will be limited and then there will be longer days with many hours of daylight to further complicate things. Again just thinkin' ahead.