LIGHTING
For clear good-quality pictures you will need between 500 and 100,000 lux
-
you can record in less light, however
the picture quality may suffer. Adequate lighting is also essential for correct white balance.
Brightness
Situation
Blue sky
100,000 (Lux)
Clear day at noon
(100,000)
Clear day at loam (65.000)
10,000
Clear day at 3pm (35.000)
Cloudy day at noon (32,000)
Cloudy day at loam (25,000)
1,000
Cloudy day, one hour after
sunnse
(2.000)
Clear day, one hour before sunset (1,000)
Fluorescent
light
near
wmdow
(1,000)
Factory floor (700-800)
Sales counter
rn
department store (500-700)
Bowling alley (500)
Library (400-500)
Offlce
wtth
fluorescent lighting (400-500)
Fluorescent desk lamp (400)
Flashlight at lm (250)
100
10
Shop stairway (100)
During lntermlsson at
movie
theatre (15-35)
Cigarette lighter at 30cm (15-20)
Candles on birthday cake at 20cm (1 O-l 5)
Candlelight
l
These are approximations.
*Auto White Balance should normally be used
in the colour
temperature range shown above. However it will satisfac-
torily operate from
2500°K
up to
8000°K,
but the picture may
become redder or bluer, respectively.
Video Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important areas in
home videos. Also one of the most overlooked.
Good lighting can often mean the difference bet-
ween a great picture and a poor quality one. And
lighting is essential for correct white balance.
In most outdoor situations natural lighting is
adequate for home videos. Indoors the situation
becomes more complicated. Artificial lighting is re-
quired and tungsten (or quartz) lamps provide the
most natural of artificial light sources, while provid-
ing a constant colour temperature over a long life.
Colour
Temperature
Situation Colour
White Balance
Range
10,000
(“K)
Clear day
Blue
9.000
Colour
TV
8,000
Cloudy day
7,000 Rainy
day
6,500 Dayllght
fluorescent light
6,000 Camera flashbulb
5,500
A
5.000
Blue photolamp
White
U
4.500
White
fluorescent
light
3,500
Off-white fluorescent
light
T
Tungsten photolamp
3,200 Halogen lamp
2.800
Tungsten lamp
Yellow
Iodine lamp
Good lighting is difficult to achieve-and there are
many problems to catch the unwary. Simply
mounting one light on or several lights either side
of the camcorder will only make your subject look
flat and two-dimensional. To make a subject more
interesting, use the lighting to model your subject
and to add or create emphasis in a scene.
35