Best Techniques for Poor($) Lighting?

Elmy

Elmy

Well-known member
I'd love to be able to practice techniques with playing with lighting, getting great shots with my camera. However I have almost little to no money for real lights, and other equipment. So what are some techniques, for lack of better word, to "poor man's light". Maybe cheap lights that work wonders, or ways to use home lighting or other things for advantage. Do reflectors help a lot? I desperately want to work on my skills, I've worked up some substitutes but I'd like to hear if there's anything cool you guys know of.
 
First thing is Home Depot lights are actually pretty helpful. They spill a lot of light but if you can find a way to control it, it puts up a lot more value than what you pay for. There are some articles and videos online about rigging barn doors and all sorts of things, worth checking out.

Indy Mogul (on youtube) has something about building your own florescent rig which is cheap and pretty good.

Chinaballs work wonders, good ambience, fills, etc. Cheap and effective. You can hang them off anything because they're so light...be creative with them. Make sure you pay attention to them on set because they get hot.

Use natural lighting to your advantage. Choosing time of day wisely, knowing what to expose for, etc. You can get beautiful images with natural light alone if you know what you're looking for.

Reflectors are handy to have. You can make them yourself with things like tinfoil and cardboard... but you can actually get good ones for pretty cheap. These are especially handy outside or inside when there's a reasonable amount of light already, lets you add a fill or something to add a little depth.

Anyway those are some things you can start with. I'm no expert on the matter, I'm sure someone else will have more ideas for you.

I just scored myself five free Fresnels by approaching my old high school and asking the tech guy there if they had any old lights they didn't use anymore. You might be able to try the same thing with local theatre groups, schools, etc...maybe they'll let you borrow some lights for a while?
 
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Reflectors are pretty cheap, you can use them to your advantage greatly.

You can also make a really poor man's mirror board if you find a decent shiny material. This'll help for daylight, bouncing a strong natural light source through windows, or even outside for rim, back or key.

Order some 85W CFL's in 5500K and 3400K. They're large bulbs that you can throw in china balls and will add quite a nice amount of ambience.

Also, those same things in your typical worklight w/silver reflector up high can make a pretty decent edge.

You will want to invest in some blackwrap if you can afford it. And anything you can use to chop light, diffuse light. Even if that's torn white sheets with very very tiny or nonexistant thread patterns. You can tape/staple these to frames and use them to diffuse light pretty well.

And small CFLs to go in lamps do wonders as well.
 
Also, something to replace flags for negative fill. I think a 4x4 gel frame for diffusion and a 4x4 flag are more useful than lights. I guess it depends where he's shooting and what time of day though.
 
Foamcore (foil adhered to thick styrofoam)works great as a reflector and is extremely light, requires no assembly, just disassembly, meaning, you buy a 4'x8' sheet at HD, and cut it up into managable sections, or however you see fit.
 
wow, Frank, that is worth looking into for me anyway...i like that it's bright but diffusable (well, all lights are i suppose), and compact...link to a website where these can be purchased in the States?

Chris
 
damn...just checked the shipping link on the ELTA product...the ELTA brand doesn't ship to the states...Phillips makes one but it's about 200 bucks. well, if all it is is 2x 40w 24" daylight flourescent tubes and a diffuser, i could make one for less that the ELTA.
 
thanks for the suggestions guys, I like the chinaball idea, not something I've thought of. I like that ELTA light but they dont ship to US? =/
 
Grab yourself some cinefoil (black wrap) as well. Its great to control light spills etc. You can rig it to do just about anything. E.G. never done it, but you could literally close down a worklight to do what you want with black wrap.
 
I bought heat resistant lamps from e-bay- 15.00, flimsy stands- 20.00, and umbrella soft boxes- 30 bucks. I used Compact fluorescent light bulbs at 85-90 watts which is rated for the fixture but gives about a 300-400 watt throw incandescent which means at about 65 to 70 dollars a kit, I add a 400 watt light to my arsenal. I have actually used them on a couple of shorts, mixing color temp and stuff, and I was surprised at the coverage and the small amount of control that I had with such a cheap kit. Add worklights and cinefoil and baby, you've got yourself a stew going!
 
Clamp lights (with various sizes/shapes of reflectors), blackwrap and foamcore (black and white). You can do a heckuvalot with just that. I think for about $100 you could buy like 6 or 7 clamp lights with bulbs and enough blackwrap and foamcore to do the job. They have small reflectors which make the light narrow and bigger ones for flood. They do wonders. And even when you get enough money to buy some movie lights, these won't be wasted. I've got a nice kit of professional fixtures but on almost every shoot, the clamp lights come out for something.

Good luck.

~~Dave
 
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