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I hear a lot of videographers and gaffers say, "Warm up that light with some half CTO". CTO is an abbreviation for Color Temperature Orange. What they mean is, they are going to add some orange gel to the front of the light to make it seem "WARMER."
If an Astrophysicist were on the set he/she might give us all an ear full, something like "Warmer you say? Warmer is more blue." And once again the scientist would be right. The color temperature of light is measured in Kelvin. We see it as a color spectrum ranging from red to a whitish blue. The hotter a star, the more blue it is. A more orange star is cooler, like a red giant. Our sun is quite cool compared to some stars, therefore it is more ORANGE. I know this seems opposite form what you might think. How could blue be warmer than orange, when orange is like a flame? Think about the arc of a welder. You should never look directly at one, but if you did, you would see a very bright BLUE light, much hotter that an orange flame.
Our human experience keeps us even more confused. How can blue be warm when the sky just before dawn is more blue and the air is much cooler? The answer is, they have nothing to do with each other. Morning air is cool because the thermal effect of the sun has not been present for several hours. The blue in this case is the sunlight refracting through earths atmosphere and giving us blue before other colors.
It is that earthly condition that makes all Gaffers, Directors and even Directors of Photography say, "Warm it up with some CTO". As humans we will never experience the blue hot light of a blue giant star. We have other stars to deal with and we must make them all look good.
Below is a chart of light sources and their approximate color temperatures, but first some of my favorite rules I love to break when working with different colors of light and camera white balance.
*White Balance is for wimps, but even I do it sometimes. If you are unsure of yourself or your situation, white balance your camera. To do this, place a white slip of paper IN THE SAME LIGHT AS YOUR SUBJECT and zoom in on it. Press your white balance button and let the camera do its thing. This tells the camera what white looks like so the rest of the colors look good too. When you don't have a lot of time or control, this is a sure way to at least get good skin tone. If you are shooting in a forest with green leaves filtering the light. The skin of your subject might look green too. White balance your camera in that greenish light and you will fool the camera in to thinking the greenish light is white, thus taking the green out of the skin tone. Warm and Cool 'white balance cards' do a similar effect. If you have a white balance card with a slight shade of blue it fools the camera into thinking that slight blue is white and therefore gives the skin tone a more...dare I say WARM or golden look.
*Mixing color temperatures is a NO NO. That being said, I do it all the time. The trick is to have them appose not meld. If you are shooting an interior interview with Tungsten light (3200K), it looks beautiful to have the Daylight (5600K) from a window in the background acting as your backlight. Again, skin tone is what is important. Make sure your white balance or filter preset is adjusted for your key light color temperature that is illuminating the subjects face. The back, hair or kicker light can be almost any color that seems appropriate. In this case blue for daylight. Just keep the skin tone correct. Do not let the daylight mix with the tungsten, always work them from apposing sides.
*Motivate your colors. If you have a red neon light in the back ground, that is a perfect opportunity to add a red hair light. Unnatural colors as your key light on the skin are only good if they are motivated. An actor at a radar screen can have green on their face, someone at a computer can have blue, but these all need to appear they are coming from a practical object in the scene.
*Choose the right gel. Gels come in many different colors, but to a filmmaker there are two types, color correction or theatrical (party) gels. They all come in increments of their base color. For color correction, blue and orange are the most commonly used. 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or full blue and orange are used to balance between daylight and incandescent or tungsten light.
Example: A tungsten light with 1/2 blue will be approximately the same color temperature as daylight.
Another common color correction is Minus Green. This is a magenta gel that adds a reddish-purple color effectively making any green less prominent.
Here is a chart for different light sources and their color temperatures. Remember a lower temp is more orange, hotter is more blue.
TEMP SOURCE
1,700 K Match Flame
1,850 K Candle Flame
2,700 K -3,300 K Incandescent Bulb (common household bulb)
3,200 K Tungsten (professional Film or TV fixture)
3,400 K Photo Flood
4,100 K Moonlight
5,000 K Sunrise, Sunset
5,600 K Daylight
6,500 K Overcast day
9,300 K CRT or flat screen computer
Now that you know the lingo and the science, go warm up that light with some CTO... I mean... well you know what I mean. Make it look nice.
Happy Shooting.
Mike Boydstun
Director of Photography: Seattle, Washington
PhotoScape Tutorial-Backlight Correction