help with lighting !!!

A

africanmarty

Well-known member
I baught 3 flood light and stands ( two lights per stand ) and together they are rated at 1000w ( 2x 500w) they are were cheap and work great, the only problem is that they are very bright and very hot ! infact too bright and hot to expect any talent to be under them for too long. There is only an on and off switch how can i solve this problem ?? i need the light power as i'm shooting indors and using my letus 35 so the cam and 35 adaptor are chewing alot of light and to add to the problem i'm using the no gain trick, so i require extra light to make the scene visable... what can i do ? i tried putting a bed sheet over the lights but then the light from them is not enough for the camera to view the scene... any ideas help would be appriciated.

this would be needed to shoot the new short i'm going to make script (unfinished) here :
http://hv20.com/showthread.php?p=37090#post37090

- Marty.
 
Buy some foam core & bounce the lights off it or light thru some diffusion material even a white plastic shower curtain would help. Just don't get to close to the hot lights
 
Dimmers is an option but will change color temp, may or may not be important to you. You could likely get smaller bulbs and use which you need, or scrims, even screening can do, metal heat resistant, or ND gels.

But for the heat and excess light a smaller bulb in the fixture may be very helpful.
 
wow alot of quick replies and fast, thanks guys. As for the shower curtain idea i dont have any at home could i pick one up from home depot ?? as for a smaller bulb do you mean get some 250w to replace the 500w ?? and for dimmers would that require me to tamper with the elecricals ?? i'm not the most electrical person ...

- Marty
 
A dimmer is simple -- just plug the light into the dimmer, plug the dimmer into the wall, and you're good to go. Of course, this means less light for your camera -- which is the whole point in the first place.

In shooting 'Tangled Web', I used that same light PLUS a single 250w work light, in a bedroom that measures about 12'x14'. I bounced the lights off the ceilings/walls, and it wasn't so uncomfortable that the actors complained or anything. I used no dimmers, and for the 'daytime' scenes I had the full 1000w coming from that light.

Keep your takes short. Between takes, kill the lights and cool the room as much as you can. And let your actors go to another (cooler) room. You should be fine.
 
No sarcasm intended here, but you spent 2k on your lens setup and you want to light your scene with less than $50 in lighting and $0 in grip...

This is a good lesson in applying the same level of detail to every stage of production.

If you can't afford to buy professional cinema lights you can always rent some now and save up to buy a few units in the future. Professional units have things like barn doors, spot/flood mechanisms, eggcrates, fresnel lenses, etc. Little things that add up to a lot.

A scene will look only as good as it's lit so don't underestimate the value of good lighting.
 
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Well, there is a place for cheap halogen worklights on lots of my productions. I probably shoot 20% of my setups with at least one. Nice even light, cheap, dimmable, and while they do spill light everywhere, it's nothing blackwrap and patience can't fix. Getting color temp to play nice is a pain in the ass, but I think I might invest in higher-quality lamps to get a more predictable performance. Right now I keep a bunch of 1/4 CTB for that.

When I do use them, it's usually for backgrounds, highlighting buildings at dusk/night, or sometimes bounce light off a wall or ceiling. Never directly at the talent.

I think the 300w and 500w are the same size lamp, so you should be able to swap them if you want. Maybe I've seen a 250w the same size, but I think usually the 250s are a bit smaller.
 
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