I'm shooting a scene for a film where the actor will be placed in front of a computer monitor. I want to use the monitor to light the actor, but I want to be able to adjust the color temperature to get the look I want. I have F.lux (https://justgetflux.com/), so I know changing monitor color temperature is possible, but I want to be able to control it. Preferably the program would be free, and I would be able to adjust the temperature in real time.
asked Apr 10, 2015 at 18:34
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What do you want to show on the screen?– p2orCommented Apr 10, 2015 at 19:06
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1I was planning on using a white image fullscreen, and then being able to adjust the temperature from there.– KC McLaughlinCommented Apr 10, 2015 at 19:07
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You can use flux to set your monitor temperature manually ... also, what monitor are you using? Mostly all mordern monitors have in-built options to change color saturation, temperature, brightness ... or, even easier, couldn't you just use an orange/red/whatever-colored image in fullscreen mode?– MoritzLostCommented Apr 10, 2015 at 19:31
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I have an older AOC monitor, the settings on it aren't very in-depth. The main issue is I want to be able to adjust the temperature live so I can see what it looks like, which is why I want a program. I did look into f.lux settings a little more, and it allow some modification, but I'd like something a little more flexible if anyone knows of something like that.– KC McLaughlinCommented Apr 10, 2015 at 22:24
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3 Answers
If you can't adjust the monitor, then send it something other than pure white.
@poor already posted an answer to do this with Blender, but that seems like HUGE overkill. I would have just booted Linux, logged in remotely, and done DISPLAY=:0 xsetroot -solid '#fff' to set a solid white background, or any other color I wanted.
And there's probably something you could run to open a fullscreen window with a color of your choice, to save the trouble of switching to a window manager that didn't clutter up the screen borders with stuff. Maybe a screensaver type of program?
I can't think off the top of my head what would give you a GUI color adjuster that would change most of the screen in realtime.
answered Apr 11, 2015 at 13:26
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Using a seperate OS seems even more overkill than installing a freeware program tbh Commented Apr 11, 2015 at 14:41
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You could additionally mention that it's possible to boot it via usb stick.– p2orCommented Apr 11, 2015 at 14:46
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1@Gin-San: If it was a computer I owned, it would already be running Linux :P Obviously go with whatever OS you already use. Commented Apr 12, 2015 at 1:06
Here is a hack. You can use Blender and the Blackbody Node of Cycles Render Engine. Following example shows a realtime viewport animation of the color temperature in kelvin:
- Create some geometry (e.g. a plane) as light emitter
- Setup an Emission shader
- Create a Blackbody node and plug it into the Emission Color
- Position your camera
- Switch your Camera by pressing Numpad 0
- Set the Viewport Shading to Rendered or press F12 to render the image
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Ya, good idea. If you can't adjust the monitor, then send it something other than pure white. Blender seems like HUGE overkill. I would have just booted Linux, logged in remotely, and done
DISPLAY=:0 xsetroot -solid '#fff'to set a solid white background. Commented Apr 11, 2015 at 12:32 -
@PeterCordes Thanks Peter. You are right, OP was asking to control it by kelvins and I thought Cycles is physically accurate and have an instant viewport interactivity/rendering, so it could work :) Why not converting your comment into an answer? I would like to upvote it ;)– p2orCommented Apr 11, 2015 at 12:45
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Thanks for the other good answers. Here is what I ended up doing.
I created a blank white html page and made it fullscreen, and then used f.lux to adjust the color temperature. It worked for me, but I should point out to anyone looking to use this solution in the future that it isn't perfect. F.lux doesn't give a very broad range of color temperatures. They were enough for my purposes, but someone looking for a very warm or very cool look might not be satisfied. In addition, f.lux changes the color temperature for the entire desktop on all monitors, so if you have something color-sensitive running during the shoot, like using the computer as a monitor, your colors will be off on that as well.
answered Apr 15, 2015 at 13:22