Does poor man's lighting really work?

I

Indyreel

Well-known member
I've shopped around and am honestly disgusted at how incredibly overpriced video lighting is. I may be crazy, but I think I can duplicate what's out there by using my head and taking a trip to HomeDepot.

For example:

HMI - can be replaced with white light spot lights, with a white diffuser.

Tungston - can be replaced with halogen worklights.

Keeno Lights - I can just buy a cheap fixture and put keeno bulbs in it.

Am I being too simplistic, or will this work, provided that I use gels and diffusers?
 
You haven't even mentioned bulb replacement.

We are moving almost exclusively to LED lighting, which is more harsh than flos, but more durable and can be handled with diffusion.

And it isn't a perfect solution, but for many of what we do makes sense and is a value.

I have a review of one LED lighting solution, and have asked that it be placed here at dvxuser.com

But haven't heard back from the powers that be.
 
I have been quite pleased with my el-cheapo lighting. BUT, to be honest, if buying decent stuff off Ebay, you can get some good deals, and it's kinda hard to beat.

Yes the worklights are bright, and pretty cheap. A 1.2k worklight is about $50. But then you need to diffuse it a bit to remove the shadows. And it would help if you could control the spill. A Mole or Arri 1k on Ebay is hitting $300 - $325 or so?

So by the time you fashion up some barn doors (2 sets) and some diffusion with a frame and a way to attach it to the work lights, you're going to be in it for a fair bit of money. Not saying you can't do it cheaper than a pro light, but frankly, it's not ENOUGH cheaper for me to try and use these home depot solutions as anything more than a stop gap.
 
The difference is the same as any tool. If you just need the tool to do one specific job and then you won't need it again, go for the el-cheapo. It may be fine for that one job.

But if this is a tool that you are going to use 5 days a week it's going to get abused. When it fails and your client is paying 15 people to stand around and watch you to fix your light, you'll be wondering if that extra money would have been well spent.

So it depends on your intended use. Sometimes your money is better spent on a different area of your production.
 
Talent can overcome a lot of weaker gear. But as soon as you start making money, go on e-bay and get some better tools. When clients bring you out to shoot for them, it looks better if you have professional tools instead of some hardware store odds and ends.
I'm not knocking resourcefulness, but if you want to instill confidence in clients, professional gear makes it easier.

Plus the right tools help get the right look. We have dozens of different lighting instruments for various applications. Knowing what to use and when is key to quality lighting.
 
Indyreel said:
I've shopped around and am honestly disgusted at how incredibly overpriced video lighting is. I may be crazy, but I think I can duplicate what's out there by using my head and taking a trip to HomeDepot.

For example:

HMI - can be replaced with white light spot lights, with a white diffuser.

Tungston - can be replaced with halogen worklights.

Keeno Lights - I can just buy a cheap fixture and put keeno bulbs in it.

Am I being too simplistic, or will this work, provided that I use gels and diffusers?
Click to expand...

There is a reason lighting is expensive. Reliability comes to mind. Proper colour temperature is another big one.
 
Lighting is essential

But Janusz could light the shite out of a scene using a candle, a flashlight and a firefly.

I think one can can accomplish plenty on a Home Depot budget, but if you don;t know what to do with the lights, it's going to look like it.
 
I talked to someone I know from a production who said that their DP friend is developing the patent for making cheap HMI light panels with fluorescent-like tubes or something, has anyone heard of this?
 
I'm looking for a few less expensive solutions myself. I would imagine that the color temp. variations could be controlled by a manual white balance and using a little grey matter to aid the situation. The grey matter is the cheapest thing of all but is used the least... Trial and error and not getting your expectations above your abilities and skills is gonna give you a very acceptable result.
 
Look, with just about anything in this business, it's not what you're using, it's how you use it.

I've seen video from guys with $100 worth of Home Depot worklights look 10 times as good as they guy with $20k worth of Arris. It all depends on how you use them. You can have as much crap as you want, you're not going to see the fixtures themselves on camera (or at least I hope not!), but the right tools in the right hands will look much better. If you have a bunch of expensive lights and don't know how to use them, it will look like junk. If you have a bunch of cheap lighs and know exactly what you're doing, it should look great.
 
While I agree with what most here are saying, let's try to remember something. The original poster is not an ASC member, and it's doubtful that he has vast experience in lighting. While it is true, a master cinematographer, or even someone with vast experience in lighting could make do with crude tools, those of us new to the game could use all the help we can get.

So speaking solely for myself, even though I've gone out and got different cheap lighting and tried to buy matching bulbs, the fact remains that I am working my BUTT off to try to make them work well. Trying to come up with diffusion options for the worklamps and the aluminum reflectors. Trying to figure out ways of getting the color temps matched. Etc., etc.

This would all be MUCH easier with a few Kinos or a nice set of Frenels with some gel holders. I am not afraid to admit that my results are limited primarily by my skill and knowledge and not my tools. So to that end, I'd prefer to have the best tools I can afford.
 
Well put, Perrone, but he asked if they can work. The answer is yes. It doesn't matter what light you're using, if you don't know how to use it, whether $20k or $10, neither are going to look good unless you get lucky.
 
if you cant be bothered to spell it right (tungsten and kino) however, i wouldn't put a ton of confidence in your ability to duplicate the product.

as its been said before. especially with the kino stuff - there is a HELL of a lot more to it than the bulbs. the bulb in fact is the LEAST of your worry. funny though, while the electronics in a kino fixture are superb - the build quality is absolute ASS! i cant believe they get those prices for coroplast and wire!?!?!?
 
I have to say that if you aren't experienced, you still won't be experienced whether the lights are from Home Depot or Arri.

And remember that not all lighting situations require the same attention to detail. Some do and others don't.

We haven't learned what the OP mostly does and wants to do.
 
One major issue is the two categories of light, hard and soft. Soft is pretty easy to do, hard light is a bit more difficult. Hard light really should come from a point source to be controllable.

The next issue is the color temp of the light. Tungsten or any filament type is going to be ~3500K which is very orange when compared to daylight or daylight tuned arc lights (HMI / fluorescent). The Color Rendering Index of an arc type light is another important issue to be on top of.

Finally, the quantity of light that you can get from home made fixtures will be limited. You will be surprised how much light you will need in certain situations.

My own track is to buy about seven fixtures from Coollights.biz, build a few small softlight fixtures from the Big Box Stores, and have enough bulbs from fullspectrumsolutions to fill needed practicals.

Bob
 
What do you think about using gels on a home depot light to get it around the right temp? I know its not the best solution, but it could help get the job done.
 
I have to say for all of the trumpeting on the web about how, "it's the skills not the gear" that is posted, I have yet to see what I would term as good or great lighting where the poster used Home Depot lighting.

Anyone out there, can you post a still of the some kick ass lighting setup with screenshot of result and of setup showing just Home Depot type lighting? I have been looking for years and years and I have yet to see what I would term "good lighting" solely performed with Home Depot type lights. I would love to be proved wrong.

Definitely not saying it can't be done, but I agree with some of the other posters. The people who could make Home Depot lighting look good are using Arris, Moles and Kinos and the people using Home Depot lighting generally are newbies who don't yet know how to light.

Could it be done? Definitely. Will a person who is new to lighting be able to do it? Doubtful although not impossible. The main problem is that Home Depot type lighting is hard to control. In order to control it properly, you really need stuff that is expensive to many beginners like C-stands, flags, scrims, barndoors, silks, etc. So if you need all of that pro stuff to control the light, why not just buy some real lights in the first place?

Best,

Dan
 
I think that the expense imposed by the lighting companies is because of the limited number of sales, and because the powers that be just pay what these companies charge... I think that the revolution is going on though. That coolights website is great. Vidled is a much better price than the lightpanels and a better product... and their's great website on how to build our own flo's.


personally one of the greatest things I've found are those cheap Tent LED's for 10 bucks that have 48 bulbs and are really bright... Love 'em and they are cheap!


If we aren't content with the expensive prices then other manufacturers will make what we call for and at a reduced price. Dan is so right though that the other accessories are what really help to make a person a complete lighting technician.
 
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