FEATURE THEHOT LIST
1. LED GOES RGB!
It wasn’t that long ago that LED lights were being touted as the best new thing in filmmaking, and many scoffed. The view was they were inconsistent in colour, weren’t powerful enough and would never take over from the hot tungsten and HMI lights the film industry had used for decades. But that has changed a lot in recent years, as LED technology has boomed. And as camera sensors have improved, there often isn’t the need for such powerful lights as a filmmaker can crank up the ISO. LEDs are typically smaller and lighter, quicker to spark into life and don’t need anywhere near the power of larger HMI lights. Huge ballast packs and trucks filled with generators are not needed any more. And if they are used a lot, the savings in electricity over older-style hot lights can make financial sense. They are flicker free and many can be wirelessly controlled via Wi-Fi or DMX, so it can integrate with existing systems. The technology has now reached a new point, with many of the serious brands launching LED lights – in everything from large soft panels to punchy hard lights – with red, green and blue output as well as the traditional daylight or tungsten balance. With a bit of tint thrown in if you were lucky. At the major shows this year, the big thing in lighting was RGB or RGBW lights, signifying that these lights could either have adjustable colour temperature and tint to produce white light, or be set to output any colour you like via a mix of red, green and blue. This has been a major breakthrough to get the colours accurate, as well as being able to produce clean white light. Byron Brown, product manager of industry giant Litepanels, said: “Quality control of LEDs will continue to be a critical factor in creating top-quality lighting. Most top quality, multicolour LED lighting products will also be calibrated at the factory to ensure consistent and accurate colour performance.” For now, there are more large, soft light panels available than more punchy lights as they overheat if too much power is in too small a space. Incandescent and HMI bulbs create an enormous amount of power in a very small space, while LED technology is still catching up. But this is
IMAGES Embrace the rainbow with the latest RGB and RGBW lights from the likes of ARRI, Litepanels and Fiilex.
“Quality control of LEDs will continue to be a critical factor”
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PRO MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2018
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