Bruce, hopefully I can add something helpful to this discussion. I'm not very knowledgable about photography, but originally my college degree's focus was stage lighting for live productions. I remember when LED stage lighting was starting to become popular - such a wonderful idea: cooler, birghter, cheaper lights...
Anyways, the LED lamps I'm familiar with are usually 5600K color temperature, although there are also 'warm white' lamps that are 2800K. I don't suggest shooting on your tungsten setting. Cotty has an excellent point suggesting to shoot in RAW because the lighting temperature will often change from minute to minute as different lights, colors, and brightness settings are used. A lighting instrument will produce a huge range of color temperatures just as it is dimmed or brightned, and then of course there's filters to consider: the colored plastic put up in front of lights to change the color. I do recommend proactively asking to walk on the stage and get a couple of readings before the show. Call the venue location, or show up an hour early, and ask to speak to whomever is in charge of lighting. Chances are, they'll let you meter to your heart's desire if you ask nicely. Make sure they understand you won't be flashing if there's a no camera policy. Lighting folks also love to be bribed with photographs of their own work, so perhaps you can promise them a CD of your work for their portfolio. Ask if they can show you a couple of different lighting settings that they use most frequently that will give you a good range of what to expect. Good luck! rg2 On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 6:40 PM, Bruce Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > > Anthony Farr wrote: >> >> If you put a white diffuser in front of the lens, or better yet get a >> diffuser/lens cap like video cameras used to have, you could point the >> camera at the light source and perform a custom white balance. > > I think that's the key: custom white balance, in situ. I can probably get a > chance to perform a custom WB while the floods are set to bright white (all > LEDs on) before the bands start, and leave the camera set that way. Maybe I > can record those WB settings for re-use at the same venue? I'll have to > experiment. > > And I agree in general with you Cotty and Derby: mood of the lights is > important -- just not always. I think you are thinking about a show, eg a > play or a carefully scripted music performance, where the lights aren't just > being played with randomly. But I'm most often shooting amateur setups like > at an open-mic where the performers just get up cold and the lighting guys > are students. Basically, chaos ensues. :-) So "mood" doesn't really apply > there, and I just try to get the best looking shots of the performers I can. > > And yes, I always shoot raw and make adjustments during PP. > > BTW, I Googled a bunch this morning and found that LED lights appear to be > able to produce light at just about any colour temp imaginable, so there's no > single answer to the physics aspect of my question. Therefore, custom white > balance and raw appears to be the best bet. > > Thanks guys! > > -bmw > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
