What kind of bulbs to use...

UncleBenji1977

UncleBenji1977

Well-known member
Ed Burns talked about how he could light a scene using only 3 china lanterns. Well, my question is, what kind of bulb would be best to use? I was looking at what was called daylight bulbs. Do you think these would be ideal, or does anyone reccomend something else, and why? Thanks!
 
Where to start the list?

You could use compact fluorescent bulbs, either in daylight or tungsten, regular household bulbs, those wierd Also 140w HMI bulbs, "daylight" photoflood lights...

I guess what you put in it would be determined by the shooting environment - indoor day time, indoor night, outdoor night.

I'd say just get a couple of the biggest tungsten bulbs that will fit (safely) and move on from there...
 
i like the 500W tungsten bulbs in a nice big China lantern, 26"+ for safety's sake. I prefer the paper ones to Nylon. Paper gives better light texture.
 
There was a pretty long post recently where a couple of people were showing the chinese lantern setup they'd used for a film they made. It basically had a bunch of E26 Y sockets all attached together to make a tree of compact fluorescent lights. I believe they used the Home Depot ones if I remember correctly. Just do a search for chinese lantern (in the DIY area) and see what comes up.

I've used a 200w compact fluorescent in them too with good results. You just need a mogul socket if you do that though.
 
I used to do that, but now i just opt for a single 500w color correct source. more power, more push through the china ball.
 
I've thought about having some chinese lanterns made from silk. I bet that would be an interesting choice for light transmission quality, toughness standing up to heat, etc.
 
is silk heat resistant? i wasnt sure..... then again we do use "silks" with big power sources but i figured they were treated Nylon.
 
You can get polyster "silks" or silk "silks" Most use polyster because they are cheaper and more or less bullet proof.
 
Well you could do anything really once you hookup with a china lantern factory ;-) I even thought about getting some large cylinders made like spacelights. In fact, I wonder if a cylinder might not be more logical anyway for a number of reasons. I had a 24" tall nylon cylinder at one time which seemed about as good as the larger china balls I had. I know many don't like the nylon though for various reasons.

I can get real silk, no problem. I was thinking of trying both real silk and the stuff we call "silk" diffusion material which is heat resistant and testing both out. Timur may be right and real silk may not have so much heat resistance. But a "failure mode" test could certainly make for a fun video to post here in any case wouldn't it? With the proper "don't try this at home warning" of course.

What about a cylinder or ball with a black backing. Then you've got a more portable softbox IMHO. These lanterns have a way of knocking down much quicker than a softbox. All you're lacking at that point is the "lantern harp" or lanternlock solution to hold the bulb.
 
It'd be nice to have a china ball that has the back half silvered on one side and the other black.

I've done it before with "reflectix" silver material and black duva on the outside, but it's kind of a pain.

You are right in that something built in would be nice for quick setup and take down.

Perhaps a version with the top blacked out too for overhead lighting.

An affordable lantern harp is appealing. It'd be nice to have 3-4 in the kit on stand by.
 
j said:
It'd be nice to have a china ball that has the back half silvered on one side and the other black.

I've done it before with "reflectix" silver material and black duva on the outside, but it's kind of a pain.

You are right in that something built in would be nice for quick setup and take down.

Perhaps a version with the top blacked out too for overhead lighting.

An affordable lantern harp is appealing. It'd be nice to have 3-4 in the kit on stand by.
Click to expand...


Stop disclosing secrets........ ;)

thats a great trick. they sell it at facbric stores. its not real duvatine, but it is silvered on oneside, black on the other and basically light proof. GREAT stuff. turns a 300w china ball into a source that more resembles a 300 w softbox. more power.
 
I had to get back to work, and I'm just now returning to this thread. Thanks for all the comments. Now, I have several options. I just ordered 3 26 inch china lanterns, and 3 standard bulb sockets. Do I need to find different sockets? What's ideal, and where do I get it... And what bulbs should i get for daylight type scenes, and then bulbs for interior evening lighting? Thanks! By the way, I saw the Cool Lights site. You have some great stuff, but I couldn't find any of your bulbs for a standard socket. May be that you don't have them. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
Yes I don't carry any spirals or screw in E26 or mogul based bulbs at this point but I expect that to change at some point in the future as soon as I locate a reliable and consistent source for quality bulbs. There's a lot more to go wrong with the self-ballasted CFL's so it takes a bit more quality control to insure success like I've got with the 55w tubes I manufactured.

Timur may have more info on the 500w bulb and daylight color but I imagine that's mostly a tungsten colored solution that would require some color correction to get it to daylight. If you want a 200w daylight bulb you can try these two options in a mogul-based bulb:


http://www.servicelighting.com/catalog_product.cfm?prod=MX35871


http://www.teksupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&storeId=10001&productId=65629&langId=-1&division=TekSupply&pageId=ItemDetail&parent_category_rn=&top_category=&breadcrumb_trail=Lighting+Fixtures+%26+Bulbs%7CLight+Bulbs&breadcrumb_categoryIds=35044%7C35054&isDoc=

My CL-SFT1 fixture is a mogul base and works with those bulbs just fine.

For spiral E26 socket type bulbs you've got Home Depot which works pretty well and a couple of others with higher CRI from places like:

http://www.naturallighting.com

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/

 
We used a big 500w daylight balanced bulb in a china ball along with other lights to give slight highlights in Check. The idea was to mimic natural window lighting on a cloudy day and not to have harsh blacks. I think it all depends on what you are looking to accomplish. We had boxes of different lights to use but wound up only using a few. The problem with China balls is that the light falls off fast and if you use them for close ups you have to make sure you can mimic that in a wide.
 
I'm looking at the same set ups. It's confusing....50/50 split. People like the CFL and others like Tungsten.

Timur, I've seen you're work and wanted to know what you thought. Inside scene of a house/apt, kitchen, living room, etc..etc..china ball set up.
 
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