What color temperature are your house lights??

[bpalermini]

Originally Posted by Steve Vanciel

You can buy color correction media sleeves to put on your fluorescent tubes to help balance their color temperature with other sources.
http://www.gamonline.com/catalog/gamtube/index.php

SteveV
Orlando, FL

That's great. Thanks for the link Steve. I need to figure out how many bulbs we have. There are a lot. They are above and below a sofit that goes almost all the way around our sanctuary.

[BrianKilpatrick]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

Also, keep in mind, LED house lighting is all the rage right now, but it is not for everyone. Many churches, just based on how little the space is used would not benefit from an LED retrofit. /end caveat

Could you explain that a little? Do you mean because its a physically small space its overkill or because its not used frequently enough to justify the costs of installation? If so, how much more is it compared to the next best thing? What is the next best option?

[RickR]

The "best" option is always to have an expert look at your space and your needs.

If you don't use the space alot (Sundays 4 hours only) then incandescent/halogen is cheap and very easily used. If you do a lot more hours the most common solution is to add some fluorescents on a separate switch. These would be for most meetings, cleaning, setup, etc.

The main drawback of LEDs is the up front costs. You will need to borrow from the electrical bill 5-10 years into the future. But getting that money today is really tough.

[Esoteric]

Most churches (Sunday and Wednesday usage appx 12-20 hours a week) will normally need 20-30 years or more to see an ROI (or a SIGNIFICANT increase in energy prices) because of the upfront cost. It is generally not cost efficient. And I love LEDs.

For example your normal 300W pendant is $100-$150 each, lamps are $10 or $15 each. The LED fixtures run $400-$500 or so each. Your electrical savings are 300W vs 96W, so that looks impressive until you realize you pay for your electricity in KILOwatt hours. Most churches pay $.08 to $.11 per kWh. So, if you are on the high end of that usage, you are looking at saving $.40 per unit per week. So, best case scenario you are looking at 15 years for ROI. And that is best case. When you add increased installation costs, that number gets even bigger. And those numbers are for new installations. For retrofits, add another 5-10 years off the top.

We normally just do incandescent/halogen lighting for house lights in churches, except in rare instances.

Of course you should always bring in a professional. Your mileage may vary.

Mike

[BrianKilpatrick]

Thanks Mike, I'd hire you if you were closer lol

[Esoteric]

Thanks Brian.

We do work all over the nation and many people find us more reasonable than even their local shops.

[D.R.HADDOCK]

What color temp have you decided on ?
It is important to select the correct temp for the atmosphere you want !
Do you know the different colors.
Warm white 3000 to 4000
Natural white 4000 to 5000
Daylight 5000 to 7000
MERCURY VAPOUR IS NATURAL
METAL HALIDE IS DAYLIGHT
INCANDESANT IS WARM WHITE
what are your considerations ?

[bpalermini]

So, I followed THIS LINK from Steve, above and found that a 1000 foot roll of color correction filter will cover all of the tubes in our sofit with some left over for about $2,300.

The tubes we use have a color temperature of 4100 according to the GE website. They are dimable and we normally run them at around 50%. Our stage fixtures are ETC with 750 watt bulbs and 500 watt bulbs.

What filter do I want to use to make the florescent light balance with the tungsten? And, is it the minus green or the CTO filters that we need? Finally, do you agree this will make our sanctuary look better in person and on video?



Yes, unfortunately the walls are painted a shade of green. In this photo, as you can see the camera white balanced for the fluorescent light on the walls above the sofit which are painted light gray. The folding door to the left of the stage is also a neutral gray color. Balancing for the florescents makes the people on stage very red/orange looking in still photos and video.

When you white balance for the people the background gets that mushy, green look which the color of the wall does not help.



More photos are HERE and HERE if it would help.

Your thoughts and advice would be very much appreciated. Of course I will also talk to the company to get their advice but I want to start that conversation with good information and clear thinking.

Thanks.

[petereit]

Personally, I wouldn't spend the money buying color correction sleeves. I'd buy a 5-gallon bucket of black paint and a black curtain and be done with it all. It would solve your color problem and your talent would look fabulous against the black background.

[wogster]

Originally Posted by bpalermini

So, I followed THIS LINK from Steve, above and found that a 1000 foot roll of color correction filter will cover all of the tubes in our sofit with some left over for about $2,300.

The tubes we use have a color temperature of 4100 according to the GE website. They are dimable and we normally run them at around 50%. Our stage fixtures are ETC with 750 watt bulbs and 500 watt bulbs.

What filter do I want to use to make the florescent light balance with the tungsten? And, is it the minus green or the CTO filters that we need? Finally, do you agree this will make our sanctuary look better in person and on video?



Yes, unfortunately the walls are painted a shade of green. In this photo, as you can see the camera white balanced for the fluorescent light on the walls above the sofit which are painted light gray. The folding door to the left of the stage is also a neutral gray color. Balancing for the florescents makes the people on stage very red/orange looking in still photos and video.

When you white balance for the people the background gets that mushy, green look which the color of the wall does not help.



More photos are HERE and HERE if it would help.

Your thoughts and advice would be very much appreciated. Of course I will also talk to the company to get their advice but I want to start that conversation with good information and clear thinking.

Thanks.

I would guess that a colour correcting filter is going to be a deep purple colour (the actual colour is called magenta) which cuts the amount of green put out by the florescent lights to the level of red and blue output, giving white. This often cuts the total amount of light output, by a significant amount. A photographic florescent filter is about 4 stops, and 1 stop means half as much light. So figure that a standard 40w tube is going to be giving the same amount of light as a 5w tube, and that could mean a lot less light being available.

If your video taping, a better idea is a camera that has a white balance feature, get 5 sheets of bright white paper, put them as a stack on a clip board, put that in front of the camera on stage, then hit the white balance button, your done. Colour in the room off stage, usually does not matter, because it's often darker and colour casts don't show as much.

[petereit]

No one knows what color your walls are supposed to be. Everyone knows what color skin is supposed to be.

I use a 2'x4' white foam core board from Hobby Lobby placed where my lead singer/pastor is with all stage lighting on, zoom all cameras in full on the white board, then punch the white balance button on all my cameras. My cyc lighting never looks right on camera, but no one but me ever notices. I tried to get it right once and 3 people asked me the next week why everyone's faces looked a little red. Learned my lesson.

Oh, and just in case it hasn't been said; Never, never, NEVER set your camera to auto white balance. Never! EVER!