Lighting Red vs Red Filter

[TheodorAdam]

Hello,

I would like to ask for an opinion,

Im shooting a scene that is supposed to be completely red, a “Redroom”. I was wondering if there would be any downsides to shooting this scene with a Red Tiffen photography filter on the camera (Arri Mini) instead lighting it red with lights. Besides compensating for the light loss caused by the filter (2-3 stops).

Thank you for any feedback,

Topic

[dmullenasc]

In theory there wouldn’t be much difference shooting under completely red lighting and under white lighting with a red filter. However sometimes darkrooms have faint tiny lights on machines that would give you a small non-red spot of light.

The main issue to consider is loss of sharpness when everything is red due to the fact that only 25% of the Bayer filter is red — plus your camera may be recording in something other than 4:4:4.

Softness under red light is an issue even when shooting film.

I haven’t tested this myself, but some have suggested shooting under white light or some color light that still allows information to be recorded in the other two channels, maybe magenta or orange light (or filter) and then correcting the image to red in post color-correction. In theory, this may help you retain some sharpness. Worth testing.

[Author]

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