Basic Lighting Advice Needed - Thanks!

[Vince27]

hi -

I've been looking on the B&H site for some starter lights...

I will basically be using these lights for things like interviews, how to videos, and basically if I just need to light up a room nice for filming...

I own an HMC150 -

Question 1 - which lights are best to go with? (tungsten, LED, fluorescent etc...) - what are the major differences between these lights? are there any advantages/disadvantages? why would you use one type as opposed to another?

Question 2 - do these different kinds of lights affect the camera's recording in any way? (i remember reading in my HMC book that different types of lights may need different settings on the camera) - which leads me to believe that certain lights may cause problems with the camera??

Question 3 - alot of the starter kits I was looking at all seem to come with bulbs that are 500 watts - this seems extremely bright to me - isn't this too bright? It seems like 500w would completely blow out the subjects & cause a ton of over-exposure - no?? I just recently shot something using 65w bulbs because 90w was too much... so 500w seems like it would just completely blow everything out to me - or do you need 500w if you are using an umbrella or a softbox? - speaking of which...

Question 4 - should i go with an umbrella? or a softbox? (it seems like this is the way to go instead of just straight light)?

Question 5 - (stupid question) - when you use an umbrella, which way do you point it to light the room/subject? do you shoot the light through it? or do you have the inside of the umbrella reflect the light out towards the subject?


Any help/guidance is much appreciated!
- Thanks for the insight!

 

[Gabel]

1. Well they all serve different purposes. LEDs gets you a lot of light for little wattage and are great for people doing more documentary stuff (I do about 90% narrative and I'm not too big of a fan of LEDs). Flourescents and tungsten are both good, for different things. Tungstens comes in two variants: Open-face or Fresnel. Fresnel are lenses in front of the light that allows you to go from flood (spread out) to very spotted light. Open face lacks these lenses. But they both come with barn-doors, which allows you to flag the light. This is important as tungsten is very hard light, coming from small sources. They look great as key-lights in black & white with their hard, pronounced shadows, or in color, when trying to get a low key look, simulating a hard light source (say a hard bulb in the ceiling), but for other purposes should have some diffusion on them to soften them. But a non-diffused fresnel around 150-300w is my preferred light for backlight though. Flourescents on the other hand are soft-lights. The tubes are larger, giving them a softer look (basically, larger source means softer light). They are great for getting soft and even light on a person. I almost always use flourescents as key and fill lights when shooting normally in color, as their soft look works great for getting nice and even light. They're also not as hot, making it much nicer for the talent. I own all kinds of these lights, each working as a different tool for me.

2. Here their probably talking about white-balance. Lights have different color temperatures, with daylight being more or less "neutral white", while tungsten has a yellow-white. As such when shooting tungsten with lots of yellow colors, if they are corrected they tend to loose their color.

3. Well, for once, you often want to stop down (Hollywood-films are usually shoot at T4-5.6), plus the more wattage is needed when looking for a brighter look. I own two 2kw blondes (open-face tungsten) that I often shoot with a reflector to get up the exposure of a room. Using that I can get an even light in the room, then using the others to control the character.

4. I prefer softboxes or diffusion paper.

5. You shoot it as a reflector.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

hi -


Question 5 - (stupid question) - when you use an umbrella, which way do you point it to light the room/subject? do you shoot the light through it? or do you have the inside of the umbrella reflect the light out towards the subject?


Any help/guidance is much appreciated!
- Thanks for the insight!

There are translucent umbrellas, which one would shoot the light 'through' towards the subject. They add diffusion, but different from a 'softbox'. Obviously, for an umbrella with an opaque reflector, the use is to shoot the light into the reflector, with the reflector 'aimed' at the subject and set.

While I'm sure 'movie' use exists, from various shots of sets, I've seen mostly frames with diffusion screens, an big light's 'free standing' behind, or softboxes, rather than translucent umbrellas.

 

[nwstudios]

hi -

I so 500w seems like it would just completely blow everything out to me - or do you need 500w if you are using an umbrella or a softbox? - speaking of which...



Any help/guidance is much appreciated!
- Thanks for the insight!

500 watts is not as much as it sounds because the light is usually bounced or diffused.