Halogen work light from Home Depot

imageonepictures

imageonepictures

Well-known member
Hey,

Anyone used this setup with their DVX? I am shooting my feature in 24p next summer. Lookign for ways to cut back on unnecessary spending.

I hear they can be pretty cheap. Only a few bucks.

Chris
 
They are really cheap, but they can be a pain to work with. They produce very harsh light so you may want to diffuse them a bit. Be careful to keep the diffusion far enough away from them because they get extremely hot. You may also want to look into creating some sort of barndoors for them, because they just spill light all over the place.
 
I usually keep the cage on them and cover it with parchment paper to diffuse the light. Use C47s (aka clothespins) to keep the parchment onto them. You can also bounce them off the wall. Like horsefilms said -- they're hard to control. Pro light is better but if this is all you can afford now.
Jgastelb
 
I love low-budget lighting...

I echo the sentiments about the (extreme) heat and general spill of light. Barndoors would be nice to add.

Also, halogen lights tend to be warmer/redder than the tungsten preset, so manually white balance or be ready to correct it in post.

Another option that is cheap is the clip-on aluminum scoops you can get for about $10. You can put any standard bulb in there, which is easy to get from 40w up to 200w and beyond. I keep a couple scoops around and a box of assorted bulbs. You can tape/clip diffussion material on them and you can clip them on a lot of available surfaces.

I still use the halogens from time to time, since it's a convenient way to get 500w of light quickly. I've used the halogens outside a window when shooting at night when it's supposed to be day.

I've gotten a lot of milage out of a $40 set of halogens and a $50 worth of scoops and bulbs. I also keep some cheap (around $10) 2 foot flouros around, one warm and one cool, but haven't had to use them a lot.
 
I use "Home Depot" lights a LOT. With a little imagination, you can really enhance and control the light output from these. I have 500 watt and 250 watt heads that I've detached from the stands and rigged a nut-and-bolt system for mounting on my light stands. I don't use the metal cage. I do use parchment paper for diffusion. I've had it clipped close to the lights for 8+ hours straight on several shoots and not a single burn on the paper.

I also have an extensive collection of clip lights.

These cheap lighting options work great but are limiting. If you are creative, you can really do a lot with them.
 
Does anyone have any footage shot with Home Depot lights?
I'd like to see some that I actually knew for sure was home depot light.
I've seen alot of footage that I thought was a work light but had no way of confirming it.
 
Halogen worklights rock and so do the metal scoops

I used them religiously to shoot the video in my sig, also for new video



They do get hot, and I have burned diffusers in front of them (shower curtains, b-paper etc)

The only thing I do to them is remove the little wire screens - and when you put the bulb in make sure to wear gloves, because the oil from your fingers can actually make the bulbs explode fyi

In the end it really doesn't matter what you light with - more expensive isn't better, just easier to use... but if you're doing indie stuff it's not like you have 30 paid people waiting on your beck and call, so play around with the lighting...

Light is light. That's all there is to it.
 
I've used these many times with my HVX, and they work well. As stated, it is very easy to overexpose.

My main problem with these is heat. When shooting indoors in smaller rooms, it really gets to be a problem. I have four of these hooked up in a 10x12 room, and they raised the temp. by about ten degrees. Not a big problem in the winter, but in the summertime the AC generally won't keep up. This can of course become a problem if the subject your taping starts sweating....
 
What about color correct bulbs? Does anyone know of bulbs that are 3200K that fit into the worklights? Or are the ones that come with it 3200k?
 
actually, it would be cool to know where to get both of these

500 watt 120V tungsten bulb
600 watt 120V tungsten bulb

both similar to these work light bulbs, called halogen?
 
I went to a lighting seminar awhile back and this lighting guy that has been in the industry for 40 years shows us one of his favorite lights. It was one of those $7 little silver lights with the spring clamp that you just screw normal light bulbs in. He was on this big production and an actor was real sensitive to light so he did some tests with his little silver spring clamp and it work great. They were worried about looking less than pro so a guy from the art department took the light, painted it black, threw the Warner Bros. Stencil on it and it was good to go. He actually had lighting guys from other productions asking him where he got it and how they could get their hands on it. Smoke and Mirrors! It just goes to show that there are a million ways to skin a cat. I have used everything from Lowell and Arri to Home Depot Shop Lights. I once used the glow from an cell phones LCD to great effect. The more tools you have in your box the better.
 
PaPa said:
actually, it would be cool to know where to get both of these

500 watt 120V tungsten bulb
600 watt 120V tungsten bulb

both similar to these work light bulbs, called halogen?
Click to expand...


bump
 
i dont need daylight bulbs, i have gels for that, im just looking for tungsten.

( sorry if your replying to someone else ) im being self centered right now :)
 
Sorry Papa not sure where in the US, but I managed to pick some up locally from a store.

I have seen worklights used for ambient light in big budget movies actually as part of the set at least 3 times in the last few months.
 
The problem with tungsten bulbs, instead of halogen/quartz types is that the former blackens as they are used. Tungsten evaporates and adhers to the glass.

The result is the light gets redder and you need to correct them.
 
i found some on bhphotovideo.com

the price ranges from 8 bucks to 20

some of them say they are color corrected to 3200 k, and the others say nothing. Are they not close to 3200 k? My new lights have tungsten balanced lamps in them, and compard to my work lights, my camera doesnt notice a differenec, if anything, maybe 100 degrees at most. but it doesnt change the picture enough. So is it risky to just go with worklight lamps in controlled light fixtures?
 
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