Light Kit Conundrum: Daylight or Tungsten?

N

notharrylume

Active member
Developing a plan to acquire my first light kit I face a problem I can't resolve.

I want to shoot location interiors using available window light supplemented by hard (mostly Fresnel) and soft sources. Soft sources is easy because I know I can get econmical high CRI flo fixtures balanced to either daylight or tungsten. They are cool and use elctricity ecnomically.

Hard light is my problem. Tungsten Fresnels are economical but they are hot and tax the electrical circuits of locations. Further, they need to be balanced to the color of the window light.

I know that I can by rolls of CTO to cover the windows, but that is not inexpensive, and it involves quite a bit of work. CTO will knock down the intensity of the window light, which is good.

I know I can gel the tungsten fresnels with CTB, but that knocks a stop off the light intensity forcing the use of more wattage creating more heat and potentially circuit blowing electricity.

I know that I can use HMI Fresnels to solve the tungsten Fresnel problems with a daylight balanced source that uses electricity efficiently and genersates less heat, but they are ruinously expensive - costing maybe 10 times what a comparable tungsten fixture does.

What would you do?
 
I didn't have a choice and depends on your budget you don't have one either. I went Tungsten and gelled the windows. Gelling windows doesn't take long, 5 minutes for 2 regular sized windows. If I had the money I would have gone 100% HMI because I like the low engergy vs brighter lights. I mean a 600watt HMI is brighter and uses less engergy than a 1000w Tungsten. But you have to build up. Two good Tungsten lighting kits can push you back $4,500 easy. And you'll need that and maybe more to get a good movie/short shoot going.
 
Gelling windows every time does not sound practical, especially if you expect to see through the gel. It will get scratched very quickly and end up being a pain, IMO. I gelled 6 big windows for my last movie, because I needed every ounce of light from the tungstens, and it was a story element that warm light was coming through the windows... but I don't know if it was really worth it.

Anyway, what about a couple tungsten fresnels and some kind of cool flourescent source? A $30 Eiko light in a china ball does pretty well for me, and they're daylight balanced. Then you can use a tungsten for some warmth and highlights/ backlight.
 
I agree that Gelling has it's ups and downs. But we Gelled windows with one roll of Gel (truth is we could have done it with half, but we lost several of the sheets we cut). Throughout a 35+ day shoot, Gelling everyday. You need to pull the gels down carefully and roll them up. This will allow them to go up probably about 10 to 15 times without any visible wear. And even when ours got kinda bent up, you could still barely tell, esepcially if the windows had any time of curtains or blinds over them.

When you're spending 45 minutes to get the lighting right (feature work) I just don't think a few minutes of gel is that big of a deal. But that opinion comes from someone who is on:

A: a limited budget
B: making a feature, not short, not video television interview, etc
C: organizing 2 to 3 hours for each 90 second scene.
 
If you can't afford the HMIs, go with Tungsten, gel with CTB.

Are you shooting film? If so - they you are going to have more issues. Digital, just white balance. Put a 1/2 Blue on the lights, so you are already up 650 degrees kelvin. It has 52%ish transmission opposed to the Full Blue with a transmission of like 35%.

You wouldn't be increasing wattage unless you added another fixture to compensate for light lost while gelling. Or, you could get a higher wattage light and gel down from there.

The most economical way is going tungsten and gelling it to match.
 
Are you planning on buying lights or renting?

I've always been a buyer instead of a renter because of the fact you get the use the lights indefinitely, however, recently I've begun to realize the advantages of renting. You can get better quality light renting HMI's and then you don't have to worry about getting generators or consistently monitoring circuit loads (all the time) like with high wattage tungsten lights. Not as much gelling to worry about as well depending on the situation. And one of the bigger reasons I like renting is because I don't have to maintain the equipment or store it. Now I don't mean that I trash rental equipment, but rather that I don't have buy bulbs and maintain wire connections and store all the light fixtures, stands, barndoors, scrimms etc. Once I'm done with it and return it I can forget about it.

So to summarize, I'd say rent HMI's until you can afford to purchase taking into account all the upkeep.

Best,
Andy
 
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