Originally Posted by bm bradley

FC's are just another way to measure light.... that's all. not really relevant to shooting with a DSLR. for instance when I worked on sitcoms we put the keys at about 70fc's and the fill around 40fc, on the news the keys came in at 100fc's and the backlights at 125fc's.

I haven't used a foot candel meter since the TV days. the last film I worked on we metered using F stops (think it was 'jack frost' with michael keaton) the set I was working on was llit at F 5.8 @ 500 asa, which is pretty unusual for a film. most films are lit between F2 and F4 with clarity and detail pulled with shutter speed from what I can figure out.

I'm buying a new light monday that is rated in FC's, that's why I looked all this crap up... the light puts out a 9.1 circle at 10 feet with 520 FC; here's some FC info.

http://www.signaturelighting.net/des...ht/howmuch.htm