DIY Airstar Balloon Light

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elrosten

Active member
Can't afford the real thing. In fact, I can't even find a sale price. But based of the rental rates these things don't look cheap. http://www.airstar-light.net/

So here's my theoretical DIY solution:

Buy 200watt 8u CF bulbs x 10.
B476534-20070423031229.jpg


And 30" nylon chinese lanterns x 10.
paperlanternstore_1986_45138421


Now with TEN of these I should be able to cluster them together and produce the tungsten equivalent of a 6k balloon. It'll pull around 18 amps so you could still use it on a household circuit. You couldn't float them necessarily but you could hang the lights in a big cluster from a crane or lift of some sort.

My goal is to light up about 100ft stretch of street at night. What I don't know is if 6k of softlight is enough or too much. Let the speculation begin. Does anyone see any reason this setup wouldn't work?

Thanks,
Jesse
 
Not enough for 100 foot stretch of night street. It's the wrong kind of light for that kind of coverage, unless you had more than one "cluster." Cool idea though.

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Great in theory, but you could probably rent the Balloon and make off better than the setup when time is a concern. And time? It's ALWAYS a concern.

Reason being that you would have to actually rent a crane or something to get it up high enough for proper dispersion of light. UNLESS you devise a proper setup and practice with it, perfect it, before you EVER use it on a real production.

Although for a SMALLER setup this could work. I think instead you should workout a system to lift it. First thought would be:

Sandbags and a Pulley system between four (four point support) stands so that you could easily lift by pulling ropes at all four corners or at two opposite corners. Sandbags to hold the cables and stands down of course.

It's not a bad idea at all! Just have to figure out how to get it up high enough.

You could also replace the 30" Nylons with a large enough white sheet for diffusion, but lifting all of the balls would be easier.

I like this idea!
 
You might want to try getting some larger weather balloons, fill them with helium and bounce light off them from the ground with 1200 HMI's. You can use a large fishing net to encase the balloon in and use that to tie it off so it doesn't blow away.

It's kind of poor man's lighting balloon.
 
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Hmm... just thought about something else, as well.

Given the fact that the lights themselves, with the chinas on them, aren't heavy at all... you could use heavy duty stands at their max height and a background support stretched between two of them with the lights mounted on that.

Definitely would have to sand bag it, and would have to have a pair or trio of grips to help with it but that could work.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. So maybe I won't get 100ft of 360degree ambient light out of the china ball setup, but I'd settle for half of that reach (50ft? I honestly don't know). Just so everyone knows, I'm not looking for a hard edged throw. Trying to recreate something like this:
Sleeping%20Dictionary%20Ml%20Solarc500.jpg


I've priced it out and I think the cluster would cost just under $1,000 when you add up tax and shipping for everything. From what I've seen, it looks like the day rate for a smaller Air Star system is around the same cost.

Yes, suspending it would be the trick. The whole thing should be relatively light so the quad cable system might work. The higher the better for recreating moonlight.

I also like the weather balloon idea. Has anyone actually done this successfully?
 
Dang man, I don't know if you're gonna get insane results like that from that setup.

That's pretty tight.
 
Yeah I don't know either. I'm hoping someone can chime in and let me know what 6k watts (tungsten equiv) of soft light will look like.
 
I'm pretty sure it'd be incredibly bright. LoL.

I think if you can't afford to rent one of those big things the next (SAFE) step would be to try to work around angles and hang your 1000.00 solution.

It won't be as safe as the Air Light deal, keep that in mind, and both solutions will take a few or more guys to setup properly and maintain.
 
The problem is, it just won't have the throw to do any good. Remember, all softlight has a pretty steep drop off. The HMI baloons have a bit more throw because they have an intense point light source behind them. I think the 8U bulbs aren't strong enough for anything other than a closeup type solution.
 
Could you theoretically stack 8U 200w Bulbs/Chinas in the center of a room for Ambience? Same for a concentration or grid of the same setup over a street square for ambient? Then again you wouldn't have the background lit so that's a problem.
 
elrosten said:
Yeah I don't know either. I'm hoping someone can chime in and let me know what 6k watts (tungsten equiv) of soft light will look like.
Click to expand...


I'll tell you a rig like that if up about 30 feet or so would be decent for a street corner, but that's about it. Even a 5K bounce at night 20 feet away is only "decent" in terms of the level it can provide for video. And what is this light supposed to be doing anyway? Just provide some ambient level?

Check it out:

http://www.lightsup.net/4k-tungsten.html

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Hey keep this updated, though, Elrosten.

It's not a bad idea to start off with by any means.
 
elrosten said:
Thanks for the ideas guys. So maybe I won't get 100ft of 360degree ambient light out of the china ball setup, but I'd settle for half of that reach (50ft? I honestly don't know). Just so everyone knows, I'm not looking for a hard edged throw. Trying to recreate something like this:
Sleeping%20Dictionary%20Ml%20Solarc500.jpg


I've priced it out and I think the cluster would cost just under $1,000 when you add up tax and shipping for everything. From what I've seen, it looks like the day rate for a smaller Air Star system is around the same cost.

Yes, suspending it would be the trick. The whole thing should be relatively light so the quad cable system might work. The higher the better for recreating moonlight.

I also like the weather balloon idea. Has anyone actually done this successfully?
Click to expand...

That is a 16K HMI, plus there are other lights on that shot. I know those guys that is Sourcemaker's ballons. I've used a lot of the smaller 2Ks but just for fill
 
elrosten said:
Thanks Chris and Richard for your insight. I'll keep brainstorming.
Click to expand...

One thing I have considered in the past but never tried for suspending a lighting rig like a large non helium balloon is to take 2 "mombo combo" type stands, weigh their bases down with sand bags, and stretch a lightweight aircraft cable from one to the other at the top and then attach the lighting rig in the center and run it all up to the top.

If you try this, let us know how it works.

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