© Charlie Borland www.greatphotographycourses.net
Filter and lighting gel comparison charts
(3.1) Kelvin temperature color relationship: Amber warmer warm Daylight cool cooler blueish blue
3200K 3800K 4500K 5500K 6200k 6800 7500K 8000K
(3.2)The following is a color chart of light sources and their respective Kelvin temperature.
Artificial Light sources: Candle Flame 1800K Sodium Vapor 2100K 40 Watt Bulb 2600K 75 Watt Bulb 2800K 100Watt Bulb 2900K 200 Watt Bulb 3000K Tungsten 3200K Mercury Vapor 3300K Photoflood Lamp 3400K Carbon Arc 5000K H.M.I. 5500K
Daylight: Sunlight, sunrise or sunset 2800-3000K Sunlight; one hour after sunrise/sunset 3200-3400K Sunlight; two hours after sunrise/before sunset 3900-4100K Direct sunlight midday 5000-5500K Overcast sky 6000-8000K
LIGHTING GELS
Chart 3.4 shows the lighting gels color and number. As mentioned previously, you take a color meter reading and then place the gels on the strobe that are opposite of the filters placed on the camera lens. If you want to convert your strobe to Cool White Fluorescent you would place a 3304 Green over your light and if you want to make it tungsten light at 3200K, you add Amber 3407 to your light. Then place the appropriate filters on-camera, or adjust digital white bal- ance.
The relationship of the color (3.4) Lighting Gels wheel’s opposite colors works Color Lighting Gel __Converts______here as well. A blue 3202 is the opposite of Amber 3407 and Blue 3202 Full CTB Tungsten to Daylight Blue 3208 is the opposite of Blue 3204 ½ Blue CTB 3410, they cancel each other Blue 3206 1/3 Blue CTB out. NOTE: 3401 and 3407 are Blue 3208 1/4 Blue CTB virtually the same. They both Blue 3216 1/8 Blue CTB convert daylight to tungsten. Green 3304 Cool White Fluorescent to daylight 3401 convert to 3200K while Green 3315 about half or above green 3407 converts to 2900K. Amber 3401/3407 Full CTO, Daylight to Tungsten Amber 3408 ½ Amber CTO Amber 3409 ¼ Amber CTO Amber 3410 1/8 Amber CTO CTO= Color Temperature Orange CTB = Color Temperature Blue CC FILTER AND COLOR GEL COMPARISON Chart 3.5 indicates which filter to put on your lens when using daylight film and also tells you which gel to put on your light. Remember, the gel on your light is the opposite color of the filter you put on your film camera. These recommendations are fairly accurate, but if you need precise color, you should always test. You will notice that in the 80 and 82 series CC filters, the gels recommended for your light include both an Amber and Blue gel. The reason is that the amber gels are more amber than needed, so by combining a weaker blue with the stronger amber, you are weakening the ambers Kelvin temperature slightly to be more precise with the CC filter.
(3.5) Filters for Film Cameras or WB for digi cameras Ambient Put This filter on or set this Put this Color Temperature film camera lens WB on digi camera gel on your light____ 3200K 80A Blue 3200k 3407 (Full Amber) 3500K 80B Blue 3500k 3407 (Full Amber) + 3208 (Blue) 3800K 80C Blue 3800k 3407 (Full Amber) + ½ 3208 4100K 80D Blue 4100k 3408 (1/2 Amber) + 3206 (Blue) 4400K 82C Blue 4400k 3410 (1/4 Amber) + 3206 (Blue) 4700K 82B Blue 4700k 3410 (1/8 Amber) 5000K 82A Blue 5000k 3409 (1/4 Amber) + 3206 (Blue) 5500K None 5500k 5800K 81 Amber 5800k Too weak to counter gel 6100K 81A Amber 6100k 3208 (1/4 Blue) 6400K 81B Amber 6400k 3208 (1/4 Blue) 6700K 81C Amber 6700k 3206 (1/3 Blue) 7100K 81D Amber 7100k 3206 (1/3 Blue) 7500K 81EF Amber 7500k 3204 (1/2 Blue) 8000K 81EF Amber 8000k 3204 (1/2 Blue) 9000-10,000K 85C Very Amber 9-10000k 3202 (Full Blue) 14,000 + 85 Very Amber as high as goes 3202 (Full Blue)
The above chart is an example from testing I have done. You should test this yourself for color accura- cy.