First lighting kit advice

C

Captshiznit

Member
Hi, I'm pretty new to film making etc but I'll keep it brief. I've read some of stickies for lighting set up basics and about types of lights and such however i'm still confused what to buy as my lighting kit. Basically I'm looking to produce lighting setup found in videos these videos (Best kind of examples I know of and can find) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfAh3uDXWEo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO1dtLU7PTw so as a first kit what kind of lights should I be looking at? I was thinking of purchasing 3 used Arri lights (I Know they are amongst best) I'm on a budget but I think used I can pick up 3 650w arris Fresnels for not too bad of a price (but would I need anything else like soft boxes etc? i'd have to factor those in then). I would appreciate any advice and if anyone has any links to lighting articles I would appreciate links. I just want to make sure I have enough light and the right light to get that kind of stuff linked above. Thanks!
 
The reason you are confused is that there are so many options and there is no single answer to your question. Everyone will have a different opinion of what you need and your needs will change for each project you work on.

My best advice is buy something, anything, and learn from it and then buy the next thing and learn from that. I know it's not very good advice as you likely have a limited budget. But once you start working with light, you will see what I mean.

3 Fresnels and some diffusion is a good start. You can accomplish diffusion with a softbox or a silk. The silk may be more versatile than the softbox.

You can also add to that kit with some very cheap PAR cans of various sizes. In those scenes, if they hadn't lit the background with the practicals, another option would have been to splash some light on the background with PAR cans.

Besides lights, you need to control the light. You do this with barn doors, scrims, dimmers, cinefoil, flags, and silks of various sizes.

So the three 650 Fresnels are a good start, but you will quickly be wanting much more.
 
Paul F said:
The reason you are confused is that there are so many options and there is no single answer to your question. Everyone will have a different opinion of what you need and your needs will change for each project you work on.
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haha yeah that sums it up! so many options. The stuff I will be working on only is most likely my own projects kind of like videos linked above, so it'll mostly be the same stuff all the time. However obviously like you said if you change shoots or location or whatever again it may need something different. :D
 
Those are fairly large sources lighting up those videos, the opposite of Fresnels. If you're on a tight budget, I wouldn't get more than two 650's. Those are difficult to find for a good price used. Spend the rest of the money on things to soften them (diffusion clipped across the barn doors won't do enough). My guess is that those videos are lit by soft boxes of some sort, you could also use diffusion frames or bounce to get that effect though. It's not so much the diffusion and bounce that will cost you much, but the things to hold them like C stands, frames, and clamps could come out to just as much as one of the lights.
 
Just starting out, you may want to consider some inexpensive lowel lights and invest some money into light modifiers. A flag kit and a few c-stands can do wonders, and you hardly ever have to upgrade gaffer/grip gear. A tota bounced into some foamcore or even an umbrella will give you that nice wrapped light and be more than half the cost of a fresnel. Once you are comfortable with light and getting paid gigs on the reg, if you find your work requires it sell the lowel and move on up to the big boys.
 
I wasn't impressed by those videos at all - in fact, I found some of the shadows distracting - and as for the annoying out of focus bits.......

The one thing you might find is a problem with a 3 Fresnel kit, is the heat. They get pretty hot in an enclosed space. Mine also have an annoying tendency to creak as they heat up. It soon stops but when you're recording any noises are not good.
 
paulears said:
I wasn't impressed by those videos at all - in fact, I found some of the shadows distracting - and as for the annoying out of focus bits.......

The one thing you might find is a problem with a 3 Fresnel kit, is the heat. They get pretty hot in an enclosed space. Mine also have an annoying tendency to creak as they heat up. It soon stops but when you're recording any noises are not good.
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Wow really? I thought it looked pretty good... well better than most youtube videos anyway. Can you elaborate on what you dislike about that video? I think the out of focus is part of their style.
 
Victor Nhat Nguyen said:
Wow really? I thought it looked pretty good...
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If you mentally take out the background lights, and just concentrate on how the performer's face is lit, this lighting is pretty awful. The person's face is split with soft lighting on each side of the face, leaving the bridge of their nose in shadow. It's as if there is no "key" light that should be sculpting the face in a flattering way.

My advice is to buy a compact Lowel kit ( Pro lights, Tota lights, DP lights, etc... ), a few umbrella's of various sizes ( they are compact and set-up instantly ) including a couple of shoot-through umbrellas, and a few 1000 watt dimmers ( $40 from B&H Photo ). You may want to build or buy some large scrims ( when you want large clean reflections ), and add on a flag kit to help control where the light falls and to block reflections.

The main thing for me when I bought my first lighting kit was portability, as I often had to work with next to no crew, so my equipment had to be compact and very portable.
 
everybody will have a different opinion about lighting. whats great to one guy is trash to another.
i was running camera just today on an annual corporate shoot and the lighting guy today was slagging what the guy from last year did. what the guy did today wasnt particularly "better" just different. it was a whole different approach.

i agree with the folks here that the lighting on your example videos isnt particularly "good". but it had moments where the approach worked better than others. while i didnt care for it on the players, i did like it on the guitars.

i think your'e probably just drawn in by the dramatic look. which is a reasonable reaction.

3 Fresnels and some diffusion is a good start. You can accomplish diffusion with a softbox or a silk. The silk may be more versatile than the softbox.
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very good advice. i got my start like nearly 20 years ago with a variety of lowels (omni, tota, v, pros...) and still have a little 3pc lowel pro 250 kit i use for quick and dirty interview stuff.

if you want to do music videos, id steer clear of LED or flourescents. they can look nice and the chinese stuff may seem cheap. but they wont give you the power and flexibility that a mixed set of fresnels will. i say get a used set of decent fresnels (a 300, 650 and 1k), a few silks, gels, flags and stands (oh AND dimmers) and you'll be set to go.

the only place that setup would be even close to a problem would be in a very small enclosed room (heat) or in a place with poor wiring (power draw)

if you were looking to do corporate / interview work, i would suggest looking into LEDs for their small footprint and low heat / power consumption
 
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