Mixing fluorescent and incandescent lights?

I'm shooting a scene in a bookstore and because the owner is donating the
time and space, I'm trying to be the least intrusive possible: I'm not
moving anything, and I'm not re-lighting the whole place (I don't think I
have enough lights to light the 20-foot-high store, anyway).

The store is lit by fluorescents on the ceiling, and I'm wondering what my
options are for fill. I know you're not supposed to mix incandescent and
fluorescent lights, but what can I actually get away with? I have blue gels
(but not green) and I have reflectors. There won't be any daylight
streaming in through the window.

I'm not going for awards in lighting and cinematography, but I'd like to
avoid a flat look if possible, so any suggestions are welcome.



jaybee

 

You have two color temps. Convert the one you can most afford to
convert.

If you mean your video lights are incandescent and the store is
flouro, yes, you're going to have to buy the proper gels for the video
lights to make them match, losing a lot of power in the process. Or
get some of the store's spare flouro tubes and buy a cheap flouro
fixture from the home center, and shoot all-flourescent. Won't take
much.

If your reflectors were colored a bit, they could modify whatever
light they are reflecting, so your halogens, bounced into a green
colored board, might match a little closer to the overheads for the
price of a spray can of paint, but getting the exact light-color mix
would be tricky and you said you didn't want flat, soft lighting?

You could also just average-out the white balance by balancing to a
non-white card, or thru a gel, such that you deliberately have a poor
color balance but it's *consistent* across the board, and that may be
easier to adjust in post.

 

Different types of flos have substantially diferent colors.
I haven't had to deal with it much since everybody switched
to chip based cameras. With tube cameras you could get
away with 1/4 to 1/2 daylight correction blue much of the time.
If you ballanced favoring the flos then your tungsten lights
might tend to look a little magenta which is preferable to
ballancing favoring the tungsten lights with blue correction
where the flos tend to look greenish.

The few chip cameras I worked with before shifting to post and
graphics seemed to be more critical to the green tinge than the
tube cameras were. You might have to create a gell sandwich
to match to the flos with current cameras.

David

 

Thanks to the both of you.

I've been meaning to add a greem gel to my collection for precisely this
situation, but there's no time to mail-order one for the shoot. So
instead I'll rely on the ceiling fixtures and use scoops with fluorescent
bulbs for additional lighting.


jaybee