Lighting in the studio: New technologies

Although the sense of beauty, the art of supporting with an optical language the expressiveness of a scene, of accentuating the dramatic tension, of achieving the perfect contrast, of dissolving or highlighting the details of a background, were and remain the responsibility of the creative work of the director of photography, the technology developed in artifacts, types of controls and automation of lighting, greatly speeds up that management of lights and shadows whose fundamental importance is increasingly clearly seen in the competitive world of television production.

The close relationship between cameras and lights is a widely known premise. It existed in the black and white world of the first screens, it was maintained with the appearance of color on television and today it is reaffirmed when one of the main reasons to think about changing the lighting system of a television studio, is precisely the development of cameras that achieve a maximum use of energy.

Indeed, one of the great transformations is the considerable reduction in the level of lighting required to record. This is the case when adopting cameras that use CCD systems (Charget Coupled Divice), an image capture element that far exceeds the light sensitivity of traditional tubes such as plumbicon and vivicon. Carlos Fernández, manager of the Colombian company SEEL -Sistemas Eléctricos y Electrónicos Ltda-, explains how, a scene that previously required 200 fc., today can be worked perfectly with a lighting level between 80 and 100 fc., or, in other words, while an old camera with f4 lenses required 150 fc., of light, with the same lenses, the current ones operate with only 50 fc. The impact of this change on the requirements of the lighting system is strong and implies various alternatives for its management.

According to experts, adapting lighting techniques to this new level of sensitivity is not as simple as might be believed. In the first instance, if only traditional halogen light sources are used, it is logical that the number of reflectors needs to be reduced. But working in these conditions means continuing to face problems such as excess heat or light jumps that technology has already overcome.

Additionally, if you choose to reduce the amount of light in each lamp, reducing, for example, the light level of a spot by 50% by changing its focus to one of lower intensity, it happens that the LCL ratio or harmonic relationship between the filaments of the lamp, the reflector and the center of the lenses, is altered. To use a quartz light in the conditions of the current levels of light intensity, without modifying the characteristics for which it has been designed, it would be necessary to use an adapter.

Likewise, by reducing these levels by lowering the amount of current in each bulb, the problem is faced that the color temperature also decreases, creating alterations such as a predominant red tone. Then it becomes necessary to go to color correctors.

In this way, it is understood how even when traditional lights coexist with the latest camera systems, these have led to the parallel development of lights perfectly compatible with current lighting levels.

While to shoot outdoors with quartz lights it was necessary to use corrective filters and a great effort was required to avoid light jumps between different environments – which implied a considerable loss of time and therefore an increase in production costs – the development of HMI discharge lights, allowed to illuminate in the day in a form compatible with the color temperature of the sun that avoids the use of filters.

A 1000 w. artifact, in quartz illumination, can be replaced by an HMI light of 200 to 250 w. In addition to the considerably lower energy consumption, the latter system not only generates much less heat but illuminates a considerably wider spectrum. The structures are also more elaborate and can be manipulated by centering or focusing beams of light. A face illuminated with the HMI system, for example, can reveal nuances that quartz lights could not capture.

Within the HMI lights are the fresnel type, with a diversity of wattage ranging from 200 to 12,000 watts, and the PAR types, which range between 1200 and 4000 watts and bring their reflector inside a sealed unit that does not allow to move the focal point, but that in return encompass much more space.

With an optimal use of the HMI system, not only outdoor recording is facilitated and its costs are reduced, but the expressive possibilities of the image are intensified, since it is undoubtedly captured in a much more complete way. However, it should not be forgotten that improving artistic lighting techniques depends first and foremost on the creative use of resources.

In line with the technological advances of television cameras, during the last years a type of light has been developed with really novel characteristics: as its light spectrum is very similar to that which is capable of capturing a camera and therefore, it only produces the light that will actually be used, it achieves such a high level of efficiency in energy consumption that it does not produce heat. This completely avoids the use of air conditioning and even decreases the amount of makeup needed to appear on screen.

In this way, The "Cold Light" or SRGB (Sustained Red-Green-Blue), from Videssence, is formed by operating trichromatic lamps, with high-frequency electronic ballasts. By generating only red, green and blue light consistently, a perfect complement to the new light sensitivity of the cameras is achieved since these lights are produced 100% within the optical spectrum that they capture. This achieves a maximum reduction in energy demand.

Even when cold light is emitted from sources apparently similar to fluorescent, its principles are radically different. Not only is SRGB much more intense, but such intensity is constant. In addition, the lamp chemistry also ensures a continuous color temperature and has a greater efficiency range as it produces 90 more lumens per watt.

Despite having the quality to generate less heat, SRGB lights are flat, very open, cannot be focused or directed and do not have such a complete spectrum. In addition, they do not give the same volume or depth of the HMIs, and are limited when it comes to highlighting expressive and dramatic resources. For these reasons, cold lights are ideal for programs that do not require effects lights, as would be the case with newscasts.

In general, all light fixtures, including quartz, have mechanical developments that tend towards smaller, more precise, strong and compact elements and towards greater ventilation that prolongs the life of the lamp. Nowadays the reflectors are more efficient, some use materials such as Alsac aluminum that is of high refractance and also its bulbs maintain throughout their half-life the color temperature in a minimum range. In other words, they are not losing their effectiveness with use, as would happen years ago with previous artifacts.

More than a decade ago, the need to increase the efficiency in the control of the infinite variables created by the combination of reflectors, scenes and types of illuminations, led to the development of dimmers operated in connection with microprocessors.

Although, in the words of engineer Carlos Fernández, "the creative contribution of automation has been limited, because the novels are still illuminated by cinematographers and not computers." But undoubtedly, the development of a technological combination capable of remembering the level of illumination of a set and grouping it, with the help of specialized software, and the inclusion of other variables capable of designing new illuminations, has greatly streamlined the work with lights.

Thanks to the electronic controls, the studio engineer can, from a console, monitor the temperature of each dimmer, the current, detect which lamp is off, adjust the potentiometers and take advantage of countless technical aids that allow him to quickly evaluate faults in his lighting system, the operating conditions and solve any problem very quickly. It is also not necessary to illuminate when recording.

Today it is possible to program a whole lighting design in advance by memorizing on the computer and even printing. Thanks to the automatic configuration and interface improvements, at the time it is necessary to press a button to obtain the precise position and levels in the lighting of the afternoon program and then readjust it for the evening newscast.

According to engineer Román Becerra, manager of NYL Electrónica and Canon's representative for Colombia, in recent years the technology has advanced significantly by minimizing RF signals, or the electronic and electrical noises that occur when turning each dimmer on and off. Likewise, the information for controlling power consumption is becoming more accurate.

The latter is due not only to the connection of the dimmers with digital systems but also to the use in them of solid state elements (Solid Stade Releve) that allows to adjust the intensity of each lamp with an efficiency of 95 to 98%. Additionally, dimmers have considerably reduced their size and are becoming easier to operate.

On the other hand, today there are greater facilities in the installation of lighting control systems, because while before each dimmer required a control cable, today a single cable can carry the information of 512 or even 1024 dimmers.

One of the latest innovations in the technical lighting infrastructure is the mobile grill system. "This advance is the product of the search to make scenography adjustment times and recording times more efficient," says engineer Román Becerra. This technique is based on the development of a mechanical support of tubes, with electric motors that rise or fall and move the reflectors according to electronic orders."

In this way, mobile grills allow the operator to modify the parameters of the lighting devices from a computer. This implies a great speed of assembly and changes in the positioning of the reflectors.

Faced with all these novelties there are two fundamental aspects to highlight: the first – emphasized by the engineer Román Becerra – is that economic studies show how the investment made in sophisticated equipment that allows its operation from a computer or in lighting devices of HMI or SRGB, it is paid very soon with the saving of expensive television time and is reflected in the productivity of the studio. The second – in which the engineer Carlos Fernández insists – is that the effectiveness of the new technological options does not rest on the artifacts but on the artistic sensibility of those who operate them.

"Illuminating," says Efraín Cárdenas, director of photography at R.T.I. Television, "is not as it is usually believed, simply lighting.

"To illuminate is, above all, to understand the shadows." For him, who over 25 years has unraveled the language of light and shadow, the lighting is always the same. The rest consists of creating a single shadow with multiple sources of light and getting the different degrees of illumination required by each environment to make them visually plausible, or simply, in interpreting the optical language of feelings: the luminosity of joy, the gloomy light of sadness, the contrasts of the drama...

But it is a matter of sensitivity to develop that understanding that makes cinematographers pursuers of a sense of reality in each scene and beings capable of understanding the light intensities of silence or passion, it is indisputable that the leap from an almost artisanal handling of technical supports to automated controls and to equipment that facilitates that the lighting "does not feel", has provided greater opportunities to take advantage of the light.

In fact, thanks to the light sensitivity of the new cameras and, according to Román Becerra, to the competitiveness demands imposed by the privatization of television – a recent case in some Latin American countries – the importance of light in the creation of its multisensory world is being understood and it is being recognized that a excellent scenery does not compensate for poor lighting.

In any case, for the director of photography Efraín Cárdenas, in Latin America we still underuse the equipment, neglect its memory potential and fall into the uniformization of the illuminations. The only alternative is to train people who really manage the equipment and who at the same time know the sunlight, know of gloom and backlights or, in a word, are experts in shadows, because precisely with these lighting is created.