Death to sodium lighting.
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D. Gregor Hagey, CSC
I am not crazy about more blue light sources at night. From what I've read Blue light suppresses melatonin more than any other wavelength, which leads to higher rates of cancer and diabetes. Orange and red light sources would be better for our health at night. It's long been recommended that night shift workers where blue blockers while they work. Not sure if I could get away with that for night shoots though.
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Thomas Townend
Interesting. Astronomy shops always sell a huge selection of ‘low pass’ filters for photographers that want to eliminate certain wavelengths of light that I’ve always been curious about. However most of the appear to resemble welding glass so aren’t practical for live action shooting - even though they promise to unlock esoteric parts of the spectrum. Tom Townend, Cinematographer/London
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dhisur@...
I have noticed that the projected shadows of the leef of the trees looks very different under the LED lighting (when it is composed by multiple small LED chips).
The shadows of the leef projected on the ground, looks like pixelated. It is not really pleasing. I prefer the shadows produced by the sodium lighting. Daniel Henríquez Ilic Filmmaker / Photographer Fotoquímica Films SpA Santiago de Chile
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Stuart Brereton
There’s been a few articles I’ve read recently about scientific evidence that LED street lighting has actually led to increased light pollution, as city councils are encouraged to use more of it because it’s ‘cheaper’. This in turn has vastly offset the savings it has supposed to have been making. Stuart Brereton DP, LA
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Pete Challinger
Unlike Art and others we don't have to put up with orange or blue-white lights at night where I live. On clear nights the light source is very close to a standard D48.4 Illuminant. On the other hand the brightness is a bit lacking and I have been unable to find the DMX address for the Milky Way to turn it up! Pete Pete Challinger, VP US Operations for Photon Beard Ltd.
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>And the colour rendition ain’t amazing. I mean, everything isn’t orange at least but... At least when the light is orange you don't expect color rendition to be very good. When the light is white you do expect it to be good, but it won't be. I can always tell when I'm looking at an inexpensive white LED light: it feels "metallic" to me, in that it's bright but there's no color. It's disturbing. Personally I think they should put sodium vapor on one side of the street and mercury vapor on the other, for a warm/cool effect. (Where I live, in San Jose, we have low pressure sodium lights that are extremely orange-red so as not to interfere with Lick Observatory, which does a lot of spectroscopy work and asked the city to install lights of a wavelength that they'd never see in space.)
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John Rossetti
At first I liked the move to LED, until I remembered one of the reasons we went to Sodium in the first place. FOG sodium was attributed with the best penetration / glare properties for driving in fog.
Reference here http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/SO%20Spectral.htm “Traditionally, it has been proposed that low pressure sodium light is the safest to drive under. This is due to its monochromatic output which improves the perception of contrast and allows the light to penetrate fog and rain with the minimum of dispersion”
It is definitely playing havoc with sleep patterns in my area (in the country) and some wildlife organisations think wildlife is being “confused”
Here is someone who also has their doubts http://luxreview.com/article/2015/01/i-m-not-anti-led-but
For filming in the streets they are “helpful” but as has already been said may cause problems when winding back the clock, still, sparks could gel up each lamp in shot !! or the location scouts could work hard at finding “Sodium Still” areas.
Ho Hum
John Rossetti – London and other LED lit areas.
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Jan Klier
Unfortunately it’s not only the color but also the quality of light that changes. Our local village recently upgraded to LED lights. The fixtures they use have a sparse grid of LEDs leading to odd shadow patterns. Phone and cable tv wires don’t leave a single shadow line on the street, but a pattern of 5 or 6 six parallel lines. Getting that type of light on actor’s faces is less than flattering.
. . .
Jan Klier DP NYC
On Nov 25, 2017, at 8:08 PM, Ted Hayash <ted.hayash@...> wrote:
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David Pringle
Ted Hayash wrote - “a different look going forward” ……. “they don’t lend the same character to a place.” As a specialty lighting company who designs, builds and rents specialized lighting (mainly Lightning Strikes and SoftSun) we were called on a number of years back (15 or so) to build some “portable” street lights to be used to supplement existing High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide as well as Mercury Vapor. The light weight heads we made were strapped to existing light poles right next to a standard street light to increase the light level while keeping the same color characteristics. With wattages from 250 to 1,000 were able to add two to three stops in this fashion. Since this first use, they have seen use in a variety of outdoor practical lighting situations, and have grown in quantity to more than one hundred. Today they continue to do service mainly to replace LED street lights in a situation where the old dirty gritty orange/yellowish cast of a high pressure Sodium street light is more appropriate to the mood of the scene than that the clean harsh look of a modern LED……or even just the softer somewhat more natural and cleaner color look of metal halide, without the harsh glare of an LED street light. David Pringle, owner/founder, Lightning Strikes-SoftSun-Luminys Systems, North Hollywood, CA, USA Office Hours Monday - Friday 8:00 - 18:00 Let's consider our environmental responsibility before printing this e-mail - Save paper. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. Luminys System Corp.,11961 Sherman Rd.,North Hollywood,CA 91605, www.luminyscorp.com
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Interestingly if you look up LED street lighting guidelines, it does seem that people are taking those issues seriously.
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Osram are even making Amber coloured street lights: https://www.osram.com/ls/news/amber/index.jsp Michael Michael J Sanders Director of Photography/Cinematographer reel & credits @ www.mjsanders.co.uk mobile: 07976 269818 diary: 020 8426 2200
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Oh no, hadn’t thought of that.
. . .
Obvious when you think about It. Michael J Sanders: Director of Photography
On 25 Nov 2017, at 19:05, Feli di Giorgio <feli2@...> wrote:
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Argyris_Theos_cml
Pretty good in deed. When I saw the pic it felt like pressing the "like" button :-) Best Argyris Theos, gsc DoP, Athens Greece, +306944725315 Skype Argyris.Theos via iPhone
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They may look good, but the excessive blue light emission from the LED is wrecking havoc with sleep cycles of people, animals and plants… Feli di Giorgio VFX / Cupertino
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Thomas Townend
On 25 Nov 2017, at 15:19, Michael Sanders <glowstars@...> wrote:My street went LED about a year ago (also Hackney). I have had to convert to heavier bedroom curtains. The thing is, it isn’t much brighter than Sodium used to be. It’s not like one can shoot under it without supplemental lighting. And the colour rendition ain’t amazing. I mean, everything isn’t orange at least but... You just know the next thing you have to shoot in a suburban street in London will be set in 1987 and you’ll be scratching your head how to get everything sodium coloured ;-) Tom Townend Cinematographer/London.
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Ted Hayash
There was an article making the rounds a few years ago about how films set and filmed in Los Angeles will have a different look going forward as most of the city street lights have been changed to LED. While these new sources are certainly easier to match, they don’t lend the same character to a place.
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My local council in Hackney, London is rapidly removing the sodium lighting around the borough and replacing it with LED.
Looks pretty good.. Michael J Sanders: Director of Photography
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