Lighting with fluorescent

N.Klaeser

N.Klaeser

Member
Hi,

I am a newbie to the news world.

When interviewing a talking head under fluorescent lighting do you cut the overheads and light with your gear or leave the overheads on and add light?

I use LED lighting.
 
Depends. I often turn them off to see what I have to work with but sometimes they can add to the shot if left on. A bit like painting your canvas white and then painting on top :)
 
The trick is to do the lighting first before you mic up. They will chat happily with the talent as you light but as soon as a reporter is mic'd they think its time to go and every second you take after that is a lifetime :)
 
N.Klaeser said:
Seems though that reporters are not patent enough to wait to light a scene.
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This goes along with something that sometimes takes many years to realize: It's not JUST the reporters story. It's YOUR story, too. Don't be "pushed around" and rushed. If taking two minutes to light makes it better, do it. Spin it that better looking visuals will help the reporter get that next better job.
 
N.Klaeser said:
Seems though that reporters are not patent enough to wait to light a scene.
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When I was in local news I use to do this all the time. If the reporter sigh's when you set up lights don't say anything to them in front of the interviewer. Wait until they start writing the story then 15 minutes after they start writing ask them if their done yet. If the answer is " no" wait another 5 minutes and ask again. Do it until you hear the words "what's your hurry" then say "you rushed me doing my craft it's only fair that I get to rush you doing yours".
Works every time. Like RUN&GUN said it's not your story or the reporters story, it's both your story. Good luck!
 
I always turn them off. However, sometimes you find yourself in buildings or areas where the lights are on permanently and can't be turned off so you have to work around it.
 
depends I usually turn them off but not always the trick is to reinforce in a lot of these situations. Sometimes I get a room where I can kill half of them and reinforce what is left to highlight what I want.

But it really depends on what type of fluorescents you are talking about. New ones tend to be fairly clean at 3200 or 5000k at least compared to the old ones. But every so often I walk into a place that is still running those old green monstrosity's that were proven to drive people insane. Those I tend to turn off right away.
 
The Thing on The Sticks said:
But every so often I walk into a place that is still running those old green monstrosity's that were proven to drive people insane. Those I tend to turn off right away.
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I asked a guy how they could stand working under those things and he said their building manager had bought hundreds cheap and wouldn't replace them with more modern lights till he used them all up.
 
Run&Gun said:
This goes along with something that sometimes takes many years to realize: It's not JUST the reporters story. It's YOUR story, too. Don't be "pushed around" and rushed. If taking two minutes to light makes it better, do it. Spin it that better looking visuals will help the reporter get that next better job.
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This.

I can't remember the last time I had a reporter try to tell me that there "isn't enough time" to light an interview.

I do remember that I laughed out loud as I got my gear out of the news unit. ;)
 
My $.02- If you leave the fluorescent lights on, do NOT use your shutter. Turn off the shutter completely or you'll experience rolling colors. Also, I used to work with a reporter who would do LOOOOOOONG interviews. Not sit down style, just "Oh, let's grab this guy" type of SOT and then ask 100 questions. That's OK as long as they logged the tape, but to break this reporter of this habit, I made him/her use a stick mic at arms length. I'd make both of us stand at least 3-4 feet from the subject(to get a better DOF shot((wink, wink, nudge, nudge)). I'm on sticks, so I really didn't care how long winded they got. Interviews got to the point very quickly when this person had to hold their arm outstretched for a few minutes. Try it, take something simple, like a canned beverage. See how long you can hold it, straight out, at arm's length. Those of us who have taken CC classes know exactly what this is like!
 
FeedingFrenzy said:
I made him/her use a stick mic at arms length.
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I'd be worried that this would backfire & you'd record back audio as the reporter's arm gets tired, lowers down and away from the mouth of the person you're interviewing.

Maybe you were in such a situation that drastic measures were needed, but it seems like you risked ruining the interview to try to prove a point.

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I know we're talking about overhead lights, but I want to add that there is a difference between consumer fluorescent bulbs (which can flicker, have mixed color temp & poor skin tones) & professional film / video fluorescent bulbs (which won't flicker, have dialed in color temp & good skin tones).

I was told by a boss to try to avoid fluorescent lights whenever I could, so I was surprised the first time I went to NAB & saw a bunch of booths selling fluorescent bulbs for video usage. I kind of made a fool of myself asking stupid questions at the Kinoflo booth, but I learned why their lights cost what they do. (And having using Kinoflo Diva lights for a few years, boy can I say they're nice lights.)

And beyond consumer (or office) fluorescent lights, I've also seen some consumer LED lights that have flicker & ugly skin tones, so I know keep an eye out for LED bulbs / fixtures when I'm shooting.
 
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