Budget Night Lighting

escozooz

escozooz

Well-known member
For a super low budget shoot what is an effect way to light for night. No HMI or anything above 2k.

I'm planning on WB for tungsten and using chinaballs and practical lamps for fill and motivated light.

What is a good "moonlight" source. CTB on a tunsten lamp? I'm planning on having a kino-flo daylight source also. What is the most effective way of making it into believable "moon/night light?"

I'm not talking about full blue soap opera night either. I'm going to experiment but I am interested in what other people have done.

thanks.

:kali: :kali: BANG ***** :crybaby: WHAAA
 
The first question is how much power do you have access to? The key thing when shooting night scenes is to be able to light the background or shoot in a location where the background is already lit for you.
 
Not much power sadly.

2x 650w
1x 300w
1x 4 bank kino

I'm lighting INT nights so I don't have to light up a street or anything.
 
Again depending on what the location actually is, what you're aiming for style wise and the blocking of the action it might be wise to key with the kino and use all the remaining lights on the background. Keep in mind also that the Kino won't throw light too far. I would try to avoid CTB'ing your lights as it's going to eat up a lot of light doing so. Try to balance all your lighting to tungsten and you can tweak it cooler later in post if you want to.
 
So what would be a good "big" light with a longer throw? I can't afford anything too big.

Arri 1k/2k Frensel?
Are there any cheap Par? ETC? lights?

What about these used HMI's?
http://www.visualproducts.com/store04.asp?ID=70&Cat=7&Cat2=68

It would be a stretch but I could probably afford one of the $1200 kits, with a ballast, head cord, and lamp.

What would you recommend?

I was going to get a Kino4bank ($1000) but would an HMI be more useful?
 
If you can get HMI's they'll be the most effecient in terms of light output per watt. The thing is with a 1200 HMI all you're gonna have is one big light - cause it looks like you only have 1x 15amp circuit (???) - so that only leaves you with enough juice to power the 300 or the Kino. In something like a forest location I would rather have a whole lot of smaller lights to pick out and paint a lot of details in the background. Something like Dedo lights might work for background details.

What is it that you're shooting exactly?

Par cans are another good thing for effecient output. You'll get plenty of throw on one of these things on a Narrow or Very Narrow spot globe.
 
Here is what I did for a no budget outside shot that I needed this weekend. Needed a shot of a person exiting their house at night onto their porch.

I shot "day for night" in the early morning. Balanced for tungsten. Had a couple of practicals to light the person's face and body. No direct sunlight/sky in frame. Background goes blue. Turned down the f-stop a few clicks to get it a little dark.

Not perfect. But for no budget, it'll do.
 
I'm shooting a romantic comedy feature, mainly small rooms and medium sized offices and restaurants.

I'm going to ghetto tie in, and leash 100' extension cords to the different fuses in the house. So we should have 2 or 3. There plenty of both Night and Day scenes.

I have 3 tungsten lamps and I'm deciding between a daylight kino or I guess an HMI fresnel. I don't still understand how VP can sell them so cheaply.

The HMI would be nice to fill in Daylight or blast through a window, but I going to need a senior stand and yeah its just more work to setup etc.

I'm still leaning towards a flo, but I'm still researching.

So for night, all sources being tungsten is acceptable? Even window light?
 
The HMI would probably be more versataile. You can always shoot it through a frame of diffusion to soften it up but you can't make a kino a hard source. Sorry about the last few posts...I didn't even clue in that you might be shooting night interiors. Just assumed it was exteriors. You'd probably want your window moonlight generally a little cooler if your interiors are supposed to look like they're being lit with practicals.
 
So what you really need is jus background white light?

..maybe instead of buying really exspensive lights...get a few work light halogens at like home depot..and get special white bulbs for them...cuz the ones that come in the lights are more of a yellow tint.
 
I ended up getting:

Lee 1200w and 575w HMI Fresnels with electric ballasts. Those with the junior stands was a little over my budget but hopefully they will be worth it. Kinos will have to wait until next time.

:crybaby:
 
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