hey folks welcome to today's show-and-tell my name is Joey Fameli I'm
a video producer here at tested there for my Show and Tell it is something
video related it's actually a video tool that I've been using on essentially
every set the last few years that is the 1985 version of the minolta color meter
- some of you guys might know what a light meter is color meters are actually
kind of a different tool they only measure the source of the light and
nothing do it the camera really it's more about just checking the color of
lights and being that especially we attested operate so much in a world of
practical lights LED lights you have tungsten for nails all these different
light sources it's important for us to measure the color temperature of those
lights so that we can match them up and then give that data to the camera to do
the white balance a in the camera but also it's much bigger than that it's
much it's about it's about preventing what's called a color crossover I'm
going to talk about the VR series we did as a prime example of this then the VR
series is a 180 experience so the frame is 180 and what we were finding was that
throughout a shop as you look through as you're looking through the headset and
you're looking at a full shop you're getting lights that are all sorts of
different color temperatures only like the very almost almost in perceivable by
the eye when you're on set and you're looking at it looks fine but when you're
actually looking at it through the headset after you've been that footage
back it's interpreting those colors slightly differently and it's not
handling them as well and your eyes aren't there do the job to have
neutralized it itself so what we were seeing was just color just color bleeds
and color cross over all over the place he gave you this like big yellowish spot
on one side of the room and a green spot over here and a blue spot over here and
there's magenta the skin fuzz magenta over here so to solve that issue what I
was doing was every day every morning we'd walk into a set walk into a shop
that we're gonna shoot him and I'd walk around and basically check that the
color temperatures of all the different lights of all the different sides of the
room to know like either this is gonna be a problematic part of the room or we
should turn that light off or maybe we can gel that one over there and kind of
neutralize it to match the source of light that's behind our care in this
light in the subject if that makes sense now looking at in
this frame when I was setting up this garage you see behind me I have these
very orange practicals where they called string lights kind of popping down above
that as a fluorescent light these are all shop lights these are all practicals
and then I'm front of me I have my film lights so before I even struck those I
went back there and I checked the balances I checked those first tractor
string lights and I saw that those were way too warm not only way too warm but
like the the tint was like super yellow-green so saw some dulling spray
actually just doled him out quite a bit so you're getting a much dimmer version
of that and it's not spreading the light out so much but it was still casting a
bit of a weird kind of greenness then when I did it I turned the fluorescent
on above it and I checked that temperature and that was adding that was
adding more green to the situation you've had your camera more exactly with
what the but the temperature the light was but the tint was making everything
behind me very green yellow so that told me that I could neutralize that by using
some like purples or going to the opposite end of the color spectrum so
grab some purple gels and I put them up there and then did more readings until I
got something that matched closer to like a neutral a neutral neutral tint
and then a white balance that I can adjust these lights to so with that
neutralized I came up here and I knew because I did another reading I knew
exactly what to set these lights to because they're bicolor LEDs and did a
reading on those as I changed it it turns out these LEDs are slightly
inaccurate so it tells you hey there it's 4,000 Kelvin it's actually
registering like 3,500 you know I knew that because the tool so I was able to
compensate for that dial that in to be neutral and then I can go a little bit
warmer if I want a little warmer skin tone so it's really like it's a
measuring device not only for the camera before a room I can really walk around I
can measure measure lights and things that I can't quite pick up with the eye
but I know that the camera will pick up this will help me not only find those
problematic errors but then like give it you know make it a math problem
essentially take gels and start reducing that number down there's even like a
light balancing index that will tell you which gels you want to bring it to a
neutral but I have so many different colors of gels I was able to mix and
match and audition lights and quickly who could be audition something try on
the meter see what that the number is changing to and then go from there not
even have to use the camera so to speak so it's a great pre-production tool to
walk around and do things and get everything ready so when the camera it
hits the ground if the sticks you you're closer to a starting point and it's just
it's kind of flying you you know that I'm a little obsessed with lights it's
just kind of fun to figure out what different lights are doing to an
environment and how color rendition is happening it's really cool for me at
least why did the 1985 version well these things run about $2,000 a piece
they're pretty expensive this was on eBay for like I think I got it for 250
it was a steal there are some that I think are like iPad versions that they
connect through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and they're just the center part this
actually comes off if it ever broke if you ever need to change it I don't I
don't think I could ever get a replacement part for this so this is
will stay on here forever but the iPhone versions are essentially this piece and
then the iPhone gives you the data oh this is this is at this car temperature
and this bounce so I'll definitely play with one of those in the future but
that's it right now 35 years old and still running great every now and then
it needs a little like it kind of it kind of freezes up and you give a little
hit but I mean I'm I'm 35 and I need that every now and then as well let's
keep going so that again is the minolta color meter to the 1985 Edition you can
probably still find this on eBay if you're really into it or just look up
some of those iPhone versions or iPads if you really want to play with it well
thank you guys for checking out this show-and-tell on my color beer I'll see
you guys next time bye you