easily portable lighting for on the go?

mjdorris

mjdorris

Well-known member
Hi all,

I'm doing some corporate work for a company that doesn't have the biggest budget in the world (as is the case with everyone these days), and will be flying from Boston to LA to do the shoot, which is basically some floor coverage of a conference, b-roll, and some sit down interviews.

Neither one of use wants to pay the extra money to ship my light kit out there on an airline, which I think is somewhere in the range of $200 because of the weight and the fact that it's an extra bag.

What are some solutions for portable lighting that could a) provide some nice but probably soft lighting for a sit down interview, and b) be able to bounce off walls/ceilings to provide enough light in a large conference room to get a decent exposure on an HVX200 (not the A). Ideally these would all fit into a suitcase or duffle bag, and not weigh very much.

I was thinking of maybe grabbing some boom mic stands, some china balls, and a few photo flood lights. I think I could easily light the sit downs with the china balls, one key and one fill, and probably lug a 200w along for a kicker. I could use the fixtures in a hood later to bounce hopefully enough light around to light up a room.

I don't have much experience with photofloods however, I'm sort of a Lowel Hard Light kind of guy, so I guess I'm asking if 2-3 photofloods bounced off a wall/ceiling would provide enough light to get a decent shot off in a large conference room.

-Matt
 
I'm trying to assemble a travel kit. I also have a suspicion that I can assemble the right light kit for cheaper than renting.
 
Instead of sending you out there with your gear, it would be cheaper to hire a local with their own gear. Oops! Did I just blow your gig?
 
Edited Due To Irritability:

Capt Quirk: No you did not blow my gig. I have a long history with these guys, and am giving them a highly discounted rate. They want to work with me, rather than a stranger, and I want to work with them.

So to modify my original post-- without renting lights, and without hiring someone, what are some ways that people have found to travel with easily portable and cheap lights?
 
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If you're just looking to bounce a bunch of light in the conference room, tota's pointed at the ceiling may be your best small sized bet. Just depends what you mean by conference room. Have been in some that are 10'x15' and some that are 40'x80'. Just make sure the ceiling is white if you plan to bounce. I walked into a room with a black ceiling once and had to quickly come up with plan B...

For interviews alot can be done with a few lowell pro-lights and some foam core. Just get the foam core while you are there and consider it expendable. A medium flex fill can fold up nice and small too but just adds to the cost.

A roll of blackwrap can be really handy for stuff like this too where you don't have all the tools you may want.

Not sure of the current regs on golf cases but they are a handy way to transport light stands and tripod without getting dinged for being oversized. This may have changed though as far as how the classify golf cases.

They aren't cheap but a couple of Zylights can round out a travel kit really well too - battery powered and full control of color and color temp. Not cheap though...

Pack your sandbags empty and just fill them with whatever you can find on location.
 
For these situations, I carry-on a Lowel GO Jet Set Three Light Kit. They come in hard or soft cases. I recommend the soft case for simple airline carry-on-ability.

The kit includes three lights 2) v-lights up to 500w and 1) pro-light up to 250w. My kit has two umbrellas for soft lighting (I think only one came with the kit). It also has a nifty gel holder and an assortment of gels.

Lowel makes a nice, priced-right selection of clamps, mounts, etc for a wide variety of hanging options. I think a floor mount comes standard with this kit as well.
 
Here's what I do when I need portable lighting.

I use a petrol cocoon backpack. Here's what I can fit in it.

HPX170
Speedring
2 Tota Lights (I could probably fit 4)
2 Lowel Pro Lights
Gels
Extra bulbs
Misc. Gear
I can strap 4 small bogen light stands to the bag
Chimera
Buy some foamcore at your destination

The bag is heavy as hell, but I can pack a ton into it.
 
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I don't think photofloods will do it. I agree with the idea of Totas into the ceiling. A Rifa may be another idea. These should pack down fairly small.
 
Here is a reasonably-priced option if you don't require a lot of wattage:

http://www.skaeser.com/servlet/the-706/600-WATT-PBL-UMBRELLA/Detail

You could get two of these with different types of umbrellas and have a lot of tuneability between the direct focusable spot/flood and the soft bounce umbrellas.

I have a single 2 light kit and these work great if you don't need tons of light. The stands are light but strong too. I really like them for the price. Yes there is better out there but this is a decent lower priced solution.
 
Well, we had another shoot that required me to come up with a solution in one night. Here's what I came up with--

took my black hiking backpack/dufflebag, went out to TJ Maxx and bought some really fluffy towels that happened to be on sale, and carefully wrapped up 3 stands, a pro light, a tota, and a rifa 55ex, and managed to fit that in the duffle bag with all of my gels, cords, and stringers/clips.

it was definitely enough light for a small room, and i'm hoping that with a little better packing i can fit a 1k or 500w in there to bounce/flood with. All of it weighed only 35lbs as well, which was nice as i can hopefully fit a dinky little tripod in there as well without getting charged for being overweight.

I'm going to look into all of your suggestions too, they're much appreciated!

-Matt
 
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