Color spectrometers are a valuable tool to confirm the quality of the lights you use on your video and film sets. In this continuation of our Color Spectrometer series, we review the Asensetek Lighting Passport spectrometers, looking at its functionality, features, and how well it takes various measurements of light.
Color spectrometers are important for testing the color quality of lights used in your video and film projects. Many common color indices — such as CRI and TLCI — only tell a small fraction of a very large picture. Without fully looking at the color quality of your lights you may find out in post that you used a low quality light for your scenes, which ended up destroying the color in your image.
This article discusses how to use the average color spectrometer, what color characteristics to look out for, how to understand all the data and graphs, and how to take the spectrometer to the next level such as comparing light from a fixture before and after adding gels like CTO, minus green, and others.
In future articles we will look at specific spectrometers — such as Sekonic C700, UPRTek CV600, Asensetek Lighting Passport Essence Pro, and Asensetek Lighting Passport Standard Pro — along with their specific features and some of their limitations.
Back in April Aputure released an LED fixture so impressive it won Best Lighting Product at NAB 2017. The LED fixture overcomes many shortcomings of most other LEDs on the market: it casts a hard light, yet can easily accept common light modifiers to make it soft. It is so compact and lightweight that you can use it in even the most remote locations. Since it can be battery powered, line power and generators are no longer part of the conversation. These are just some of the amazing features of this light. Read more to see all it can do!
Bicolor LED lights sound like a great idea. However does mixing dissimilar lights result in high quality color across the entire range of color temperatures? Or will the entire range of light be sub-par from the manufacturer compromising the LED diode in order to make the two emitters mix?
We extensively tested a bicolor LED from a very well respected LED manufacturer to better understand the issues. We measured the CRI (Ra), CRI (Re), TLCI, CQS, TM-30-15, and color temperature to determine how the color quality stacked up across all levels of brightness (dimming) for the entire color temperature range.
The results are very … illuminating!
To get the most of our LED database of 165 LED lights, we explain how to read the color spectra and understand CRI (Ra), CRI (Re), TLCI, CQS, and TM-30-15.
![Newest Aputure LEDs: Review of the COB120T and M9 [Video]](https://indiecinemaacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/AR018-Title-Web-180x180.jpg)
Aputure has done it again with two amazing lights: the tungsten balanced 1.5kW point source Light Storm COB 120t and the daylight balanced “camera mounted LED” Amaran M9. Both have VERY high CRI (Ra)/ CRI (Re) / TLCI / CQS / TM30-15 results, with some of the best R9 (saturated red) values of 160 different LEDs that we’ve tested.
LED ribbon lights are thin, flexible and have limitless possibilities on-set to light your video projects. They now allow you to place light anywhere, including in the palm of an actor’s hand, a prop, or taped to a wall or railing. We cover how to work with ribbon LEDs, review three common brands along with their CRI values, and then suggest useful LED ribbon accessories.
When it comes to LEDs the majority of affordable options on the market do not produce great results. So we were a bit skeptical when we first heard of Aputure’s low cost LED lights. Our results: wow! In this video, we’ll share with you our real world experience with them and how they actually perform on-set.
Last week I covered how a light meter is still necessary in our digital age. This week it’s time to learn how to use the light meter. In this video I cover the incident meter and the spot meter, and when to use them. Then it’s demonstration time, using the meter in different ways to properly expose a scene. Finally, I give you some tips and tricks on how to quickly determine the lighting ratios and range of your scene, along with a few more.
As digital cinema cameras become the norm on set, people often ask, “Do cinematographers really need a light meter? Isn’t digital imagery simply ‘What You See Is What You Get?’” In this post I discuss how incredibly valuable a light meter is in speeding up your shoot, helping you communicate effectively with your gaffer, and increasing your abilities as a filmmaker.
Filming an action film is a daunting task even under the best of circumstances. More overwhelming is when you only have three in your lighting crew and you’re cramming two days worth of set-ups into one day. That was what we had to pull off for the short film, “Easy Day” (2013). In this post, I’m going to share how we did it, and then give you three lighting tips that will make your next action film look amazing.
Did you know that your old color meter no longer works with today’s LED lights? In this video, Ryan shows you why and what to do about it.
Oof! Very strange and unfortunate that Sekonic discontinued...May 31, 2023 - 4:00 pm by Tim
Since Sekonic NO LONGER makes the chart you need for creating...May 2, 2023 - 12:49 am by QuintonYes, often renting lights is the best way for startups....September 18, 2022 - 7:09 pm by Tim
