Lighting school classrooms

[JoeKitchen]

I would gel them to match ambient, since it does save time in post; plus you will retain more color saturation and linearity.  But what colors you need could and will vary on many things.  Most importantly would be how much of the room is lit with light coming in through the windows vs the room lights?  

If the former, you will need more blue in your lights, and that could vary depending on the time of day.  It the latter, you will need more Straw and green in your lights.  

Also, you kind of have to know if the bulbs are warm tone or cold tone to get an exact match?  And sometimes people run out and buy a different kind then what they started with, so there could be a mix.  It is hard to know what to bring in terms of gels without scouting and taking color light readings.  

My advice, bring as many colors as you can afford to buy and eyeball it on location.  Or you could bring one or two generic sets of gels and do the rest in post.  

[Kaypee]

Those conomarks look interesting. Is the colour temp consistent with them?

[Kaypee]

'taking color light readings'. Are you using a colour meter Jo? Also are you using LR or capture 1 for your colour adjustments? I hear C1 is better so might trial it.

[gazwas]

I've not used Lightroom for a long while (version 2) but my understanding is that both are on par regarding colour adjustments. C1's advanced colour editor tool is excellent and great for subtle colour shifts or desaturating specific colours. It can also be painted on an adjustment layer so only effecting specific areas of an image. However, it can't make huge colour changes like the way adjusting the global colour balance does (eg. 2700K household lightbulbs to 5500K daylight).

One extremely useful tool to architectural photographers that C1 does not have but LR does is the ability to adjust colour balance on an adjustment layer and I've no idea why C1 STILL does not offer this?

[Kaypee]

One extremely useful tool to architectural photographers that C1 does not have but LR does is the ability to adjust colour balance on an adjustment layer and I've no idea why C1 STILL does not offer this?

I'm intrigued. Is that on an Photoshop adjustment layer imported into LR or using the layer plug in?

[gazwas]

I might be getting my names mixed up....

Local adjustments in C1 are done with 'adjustment layers' but I think in LR its not layers, just adjustment brush? Sorry, very rusty on LR and very institutionalised with C1.

[Kaypee]

I thought I was missing something exciting then! You can brush on colour adjustments in the same way you can on ACR in Lightroom. I think that came in through version 4 or 5.

[gazwas]

I thought I was missing something exciting then!

All the same, being able to paint on a colour balance adjustment that only effects a specific area of on image is very exciting to a C1 user...... well to me at least!

[David Eichler]

Apologies if this veers away from MF but as it seems to be the place where most arch photographers post I thought (hoped!) it would be ok.

I am shooting the interior of a college with large class rooms and a number of shots will require the students to be in shot. Usually I would be carrying a number of flash heads (Bowens) but I would like to travel light as possible and wanted to see if there was a lighter alternative. As its multiple people and i wont be directing them I would rather not be dragging the shutter, and thought there may be some other lights on the market that would a bit more manageable without an assistant. 

Thanks
KP

I think I might consider mini battery/pack systems like Lumedyne, Elinchrom or Norman. Or, alternatively, maybe Quantums?