Any "must have" cheap light equipment for smaller productions?

M

Magic815

Member
Hi all,

So I do a mix of run-and-gun, small projects along with some larger effort short films. For the bigger efforts, I collaborate with a group of filmmakers that usually have access to some basic lighting kits (and then we rent any extra necessary lights for each production). However, I'm finding myself involved in a lot more smaller side projects where it is sometimes just me (and maybe a helper) getting footage in more of a run-and-gun setup, and there isn't time to coordinate with others and borrow/rent some lighting gear. (I.e. A friend wants me to help them shoot a small Kickstarter campaign video, etc, etc.)

For these instances, is there any "must have" gear in terms of lighting? I have a 5-in-1 reflector to help out with daytime shots (outdoor, or indoor by a window type stuff), but other than that I don't have any lighting gear to my name specifically. I'm not looking for professional quality light kits - as I'll rent those on a per-project basis for the larger productions. I'm mainly looking for cheaper items that have the highest "bang-for-buck" potential, with the widest range of potential uses.

Does something like that exist in the under $150 range? I definitely understand the idea of "you get what you pay for," so feel free to tell me there is nothing worthwhile to own at that pricepoint as opposed to shooting with natural light and renting the big stuff when needed (if that is what you truly believe). I don't mind looking at DIY items if there are any worthwhile solutions for these smaller projects (no strict deadlines, no real paying client to impress, etc).

Thanks!
 
I started out with work lights and clamp lights, along with wax paper for diffusion. My starting kit cost maybe $80-$100 for three 500w work lights, a couple 100-150w clamp lights, bulbs, and wax paper. The work lights come with stands and I used a cheap tripod I already had to mount the clamp light.


 
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Hahaha! Duuuude! ^ this video above. I'VE DONE THAT! It works EXACTLY as well as this video claims.

Plus - get about half a dozen round silver clamp-on hardware store lights! Get 2 at 12" diamenter and 2 at the 9" or 7" diameter. Ridiculously helpful for the price.
You can clip or tape gels and diffusion over them and you can clip them onto a million different things around your typical set without needing light stands.

I now have LED light panels and Arri Fresnels and everything - but I never go to a job without my duffle bag with my 4 silver hardware store lights in it.
 
I don't like home depot lights because they're hot, and they are not efficient watts to light output - you want strong portable lights on batteries, like the Aputures linked to above, or if you're on household ac circuits, something more efficient like fluorescent lights - there are many cheap fluorescent lights.
 
More 5-in-1 reflectors. They are the single most useful tool in my armoury and I always seem to wish I had just one more. Whether to use as a bounce to soften and spread the light, down low to fill in a face in a close up or 2-shot (esp. in a 2-shot where the key is favouring one person and casting the other into shadow), black side for negative fill, the inside for diffusion and/or to cut a more powerful point source in a tight space, this is the tool that just keeps on giving. Get a variety of sizes. They produce no heat and can be more subtle than any light source, or up close with one of the shiny sides surprisingly bright. The silver shiny side in particular produces a nice dappled effect due to the crinkles which in itself can go some way to making a blank wall slightly more interesting on no budget films with no art department. Just last night I was in a situation where I wasn't allowed to run an extension cord out of the window on (why, I don't know?) but I was able to put a higher power practical in the porch light and use a reflector to achieve enough of a hair light to separate the talent cleanly from the dark background. Get some cheap stands, sandbags and reflector arm holders and you can make use of any available lights, natural, practical or professional. On a set of inexperienced people there are no cords to trip over, they can't hurt anyone if they come down. You don't have to replace bulbs. You get a real feel for the directionality of light and the angles. Lighting a whole scene with one or two light sources will impress people and when working in hot summer temperatures with no aircon everyone will love you for every 650W fresnel you don't turn on.
 
OldCorpse said:
I don't like home depot lights because they're hot, and they are not efficient watts to light output - you want strong portable lights on batteries, like the Aputures linked to above, or if you're on household ac circuits, something more efficient like fluorescent lights - there are many cheap fluorescent lights.
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Efficiency is only relevant when it is relevant. If you're in a studio spending your own money on electricity and using 10's of thousands of watts of lights for several hours every day, then efficiency may be important. Or if you need to run on battery power then efficiency is important, but even florescent tends not to be efficient enough for battery power. On the other hand, if you do run and gun work, corporate work, interviews in different locations, studio work with a work light setup, etc., then you're only looking at perhaps 2000 watts of electricity, which if running for say four hours per shoot, comes out to be about $1 in electricity expenses, which in most cases you won't even be paying if you're on location shooting for a client. Even as a studio shooting eight hours per day with 20,000 watts and filming 200 days per year you're only looking at $4000 in electricity per year which, to replace 20,000 watts in tungsten with LED equivalent output would still take several years before the LED lights (assuming they weren't cheap LED lights) were paid off in savings. So efficiency to watt output is often irrelevant. Of course heat can be an issue, but it can often be dealt with by turning the air-conditioner on high before you start rolling, filming in larger circulated rooms, etc.

The problem with cheap florescent is that their colors tend to be poor. Work lights on the other hand have better CRI than HMI, Kinos, Litepanels, and all other non-tungsten high end and low end lights. So as a beginner in the industry you can actually get better image quality from work lights than you can from the more versatile and easier to control high end lights, which, while taking less work to get good results (hence their popularity with professionals), are incapable of having as good of a color as work lights. I think that's really their primary appeal for starting out, as when you're starting out, you're often willing to put more time and effort to get good quality, even if it means doing various workarounds to deal with the inconveniences of using hard to control hot lights. I've seen plenty of beginners start out with cheap florescent and their images just tend to look bad; there's typically a heavy green cast and they haven't yet learned basic color correction skills, and even if they had there's only so much you can do in post to improve poorly filmed colors.

Getting the Apurtures, for $150, you could only get two of the smaller ones. At two meters, the AL-H198 would give you 435 lux, which puts you at about f/3.2 at ISO 400. You'd probably want to put diffusion in front of it in many cases, so if you put a one stop diffusion then you'd be at f/2.2 at ISO 400. If you paired two together, shot them through the one stop diffusion, and used a reflector for bounce, then you'd be back to f/3.2 at ISO 400, which really isn't bad, especially if the colors and CRI is as good as it claims to be. You'd still want to consider a hair light; perhaps stretch the budget to $200 and get a third Apurture. When I was starting out a few years ago all of the cheaper LEDs were low output with bad color, but now there are better options available in the cheaper bracket.
 
I HAVE both of the Aputure lights listed above. As well as the older 528 model - which is the same housing as the 672 but with only 528 lights and a slightly lower CRI.

The 672 and the little guy do render great colors - and the 672 is brighter than the 528 - BUT THAT AIN'T BRIGHT. Not compared to the halogen work lights or even 1 650w fresnel.
They are both excellent as fill lights. Really excellent - so light weight and versatile it's ridiculous.
I'd say if I was forced to only use the Aputures I would not worry about the color - only the amount of light. By the time you've got as much light as you get from those halogen hardware store worklights - you've spent $500 EASILY.

I'll tell you this - that little h198 thing - KILLER as a hair and rim light because you can slap a Sony FN 770 or 970 battery on it and it's still light-weight. And with NO CORDS you can hoist it up on more affordable stands with no worries. All 3 are basically small light sources - but your shadows do not end up being as hard as the size would suggest because these lights SPREAD so wide (barn doors are pointless) that ambient reflections, even just from the subject itself, end up helpfully softening the edges.
 
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All - I really appreciate all of the responses so far! I see there are lots of avenues, and plan to investigate each further.

As for DIY stuff, does anyone have any comments on this DIY LED build? Outside of it being a pretty involved build (I'm an engineer and pretty handy so I might have a shot), are there any downsides to that sort of light? I know LED quality is still all over the place - but does anyone know about the quality of the ones he uses in his build? (Seen here). Just trying to see if there are any downsides to having a light like that before attempting to build it.
 
I used to do a lot of DIY (sometimes still modify some pro parts to fit my needs) but i would not recommend going that route. Basically you will never have the longevity, portability, control that a pro product has. Now, the point that some people simply get kicks out of building stuff "with a purpose" is not lost on me so if you are one of those people by any means go build yourself a spaceship! Still if you are like me and simply need your stuff to work... It's best to spend $. Think about it in another way too, DIY takes TONS of time. Since you are an engineer then you probably make good money - is it really worth it for you to "waste" your time on something that will have zero resale value? Wouldn't you rather spend that time doing engineering projects for $ and then spend that $ on real stuff? My 2 cents.
 
I've come across several DIY fixtures that are simply not available for sale. The Good Wife relies extensively on these "termite" fixtures, basically a long luan box with a few porcelain sockets and a rectangular face with a coroplast snoot that can be stapled on. There's also covered wagons, strip lights, etc. I'm all for DIY when it's done right, I'll admit that its not often the case though.
 
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