Church Concert Lighting Classical Soloist

O

Outerspace78

New member
Hi all

My wife is a classical singer and I often video her concerts for use on youtube / website

Now I'm not what you would call an expert on the subject of video or indeed lighting. I'm running a non HD consumer camera "Panasonic NV-GS250" so think tiny lens and not the best low light performance ...... wish I could upgrade but have other more pressing ££ requirements !

I feel better lighting at the event would help no end in improving the usually dark and noisy end result !

Church lighting is not really designed for concerts and I am looking for some advice on some lighting that would not be too obtrusive. Picture of potential venue below:-

photo.jpg

Concert usually starts circa 7:30 pm with the available natural light fading fast as it goes on, then usually relying on a few bare 60watt bulbs hanging from the ceiling !

My budget is very low to non existent so initial ideas is the use of DIY florescent's / DIY LED route (know a pressed metal fabrication company from my day job who I could rope in to help with casing ..)

Although suspect cost and quantity required of LED's would quickly put this option out (did find this interesting link http://uk.alibaba.com/products/bright-white-led-angle.html to manufacturers some with min order quantity of 1000 ) but getting confused by colour temp lumins etc ...

But open to all suggestions on possible lighting solutions such as second hand / hire etc..

Will also be recording the concert on a zoom H2 so need to be mindful not to introduce any RF interference ...

Thanks
Andrew in the UK
 
If you are talking a basically dark area, or dimly lit at best, introducing some light on the talent will dramatically improve your results. It won't take much light at all, if you are not going to light the entire area where the talent is located and what the camera records. What I have expereinced, poorly I might add, were situations where the area was kept dark and one bright spotlight was shown on the talent, which the camera completely overexposed. Because there was no other light, the contrast for the camera was huge and my results were terrible. These experiecnes were with Panny GS cameras, very similar to yours. Something as simple as two people, one left and one right, each holding a flashlight on the talent may improve your results significantly. If you could rent a followspot that is dimmable, that also would work. Here many bands and DJs use the lower priced ones which are quite capable. An on cam LED as those made in China would work well too. I would suggest one with around 128 LEDs which should light up the entire area well enough.

I shot this with my GH1, but it gives a good example of a cam being overpowered by too much light. Too much is as bad or worse than too little, so you need to play around a bit first to find where you need to be.
 
Hi

Yes basically it will be a dimly lit area, was thinking of an even overall lighting rather than just the subject, something simple and reasonably unobtrusive.

At one of the previous charity concerts she gave one of the locals organisied lighting which was basically coloured LED cans lighting the walls (not good as they flickered !) and a fixed spot light at the other end of the church shining into her face ....... she doesn't like being blinded as looses the feeling of interaction with the audience / I experienced the same over exposure issues as you mentioned.

Andrew
 
Why not use a couple of 500 W halogens mounted high ( like 12ft.) on tripods and powered from the AC mains. Lowel onnilights or similar. Even halogen outdoor construction lights would so, don't know how much they are there but these usually can be bought at home improvement stores for cheap.
They would surely cast enough light to light up the talent and the background as long as they are placed at an appropriate distance.
 
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