Home made lighting kits

Norm Sanders

Norm Sanders

Script Wrangler
I did a search for Do-It-Yourself lighting kits, and came across one that talked about using generic work lights that you can find at Home Depot, etc. That you could build a three light kit for under $100.

Anyone else ever try this & have good results? The more I think about it, the more it seems reasonable to do ... sure, it won't look NEARLY as pro as paying a ton of money, having it all matte black, etc.

Thoughts?
 
FIrst I bought some Home Depot Lights. Not enough control, even with black wrap.

Then I bought a cheap kit on ebay, with umbrellas and photofloods.

Then I bought a Britek kit with barndoors and softboxes and stands and more. For $500 you can have a nice kit from Rostronics right away. Or do it the way I did, and spend $1000 to get to the same place. Having decent equipment really affects how you work and the end result.

Next year, I expect I will want to add a couple of fresnels for better control, and maybe more.

It ALL depends on what you are gonna shoot and what your needs are. For movies, the kit I bought (and most everything else I bought too) would be almost worthless.
 
Okay, checked out the site (rostronics.com), and agree that getting pro lights like this for not TOO much more cost is the way to go. How do these guys compare to Amvona? ... just came across their site yesterday, though they don't appear to have a three light package/kit like rostronics does.

Galt, you said for filming they'd be worthless. How much power should I be looking for if I want to effectively light a medium sized room? Granted, their 1400w kit may not be enough (2 at 600w, and 1 at 200w), but what about using a few of their 1K watt lamps?

I'm proficient with editing, getting better with my camera work, but am a complete noob with lighting. Any advice is appreciated as we move forward to do our first short (for the zombie fest -- thankfully we probably don't have to have a ton of lighting for this genre as it'll have a darker feel/look anyway).
 
Don't forget there is a DVXUser discount with rostronics - at least that is what Jarred says :) Be sure to e-mail them and see how much cheaper it will be.
 
I said that the interview kit **I** bought (2 x 300/600 + 250) would be worthless for movies, I didn't say Rostronics lights were worthless for movies. But there are several threads here that can give you better info than I can about what you DO need. I haven't had to light a movie yet. Inside/outside, faking moonlight/night (you don't shoot in the dark, you light it "for night" and adjust in post), window gels, there is a ton to know. You might actually need MORE fixtures to doa night shoot, at lower wattages. Try some searches. and get yourself a COUPLE of good lighting books. Many ways to skin a cat. You might be able to light it with a Maglite if that is the look you are going for.

Same thing for comparing Amvona or others to Rostronics. A search will give you PLENTY of info and opinions. And just ask Tom for the 5% discount (I forgot about that) when you order by phone.
 
Oh yeah, Walter Graff makes some nice dimmers. Do a search in the lighting forum, I don't have the URL handy. And while you are at Walter's site, sign up for his newsletter to learn a TON about lighting at an easy pace. Walter is a master at the craft.
 
Workshop lights are great if you need to light a very large area. For $100 you can get eight 1000 watt lights with stands, another $80 will get 3200K bulbs for them all.

Little control, but if you're lighting a warehouse, factory, barn, gymnasium, or conference hall there's not much need for control. I made umbrella-reflectors for our worklights, otherwise I usually bounce off a wall or floor to reduce the harshness.

Lighting kits are better for medium shots and interviews. Both can be used together.
 
I agree with pmark23. My kit started out with 2 600 watt lights from Rostronics (both with softboxes) 3 Bogan stacker stands and a 500 watt worklight from Sears with a color corrected bulb in it. I got the worklight because I was about to start working on a low budget feature and I knew I was going to need more than 2 lights. It takes the same kind of bulb as a Lowell Tota or V-lite and if I had either of those I would have probably had an easier time than I did with the work light but I didn't have the extra $100+ to get one of those. Since the work light has only a small tripod (about 3') I even used a bolt to connect it to a big clip that I got at home depot, with the clip I could attach it to the tops of doors and furnature and stuff. Since the lights is very harsh I used it mostly as a bounce light; either off the celing, off a wall or even a reflector.
 
Just picked up a couple of $5 clamp lights with the round reflectors and 32watt screw flows (100watt incandescent equilvalent).

Attach some black wrap around the reflectors to control spill, and some smutz diffusion if you like -- it suprisingly puts out a nice quality of light.
 
Sanchez said:
Just picked up a couple of $5 clamp lights with the round reflectors and 32watt screw flows (100watt incandescent equilvalent).

Attach some black wrap around the reflectors to control spill, and some smutz diffusion if you like -- it suprisingly puts out a nice quality of light.
Click to expand...

I have a lot of these clamp lights in my kit, however, they are a pain in the ass to use for good portraiture, so I use soft boxes and china balls for faces, use fresnels and some bigger open face lights for mid-ground set lighting and use a lot of the clamp lights to bring up selected areas in the back ground. I have used them alot for night exteriors, lighting buildings and trees in the background. They are handy, but get some good lights, (like the Rostronics) for your day to day bread and butter lighting. Nothing wears you out more than constantlly struggling with your tools.
 
UGH! So many options ... it's like trying to figure out which miniDV to spend $3,500+ on again ... thankfully I had landed on the DVX, then found this forum!

So now I've got Britek, Rostronics, and Amvona to try & research the heck out of. However, I'll definitely get some cheaper work lights for background, etc. as others have mentioned.

With regards to the pro stuff, I don't want to get too much (spending more than I need to) power, but REALLY don't want to end up with not enough. For medium sized rooms/medium shots think 600w lights are enough? 1000w lights just seem like they could be overkill, unless of course they're dimmable.

All this, while my wife is wanting to blow the $2K we have in savings on landscaping for the front yard. Yeah it needs it, but I need to make this short! :beer:
 
Rostronics isn't a brand name. They are the company that sells the Briteks. That narrows things down for ya.
 
Don't forget that most household circuits only handle about 2000W of power, so if you want to get fancier than that, you will need to tap from the power board (but you can die if you don't do things right), or rent a genny. (or find a way to balance your load between different circuits...)
 
Ah, good to know, thanks taubkin! I loved the bluntness about "you can die if you don't do things right". By powerboard I assume you mean the breaker box itself. No way am I messing with that.

So Lowell's just a freakin' expensive brand of lights I gather, huh? It's what I was originally wanting to save my money for, but not now that I've seen what else is out there for so much less.
 
Lowel is not inexpensive, but they're not "freakin' expensive" either... Lowel is pretty much a specialty manufacturer. Most of their gear is engineered to be tiny (thus portable). While a Pro-Light 250 with barn doors may cost 3x or 4x as much as a Britek 250 with doors, the pro-light is also about 1/4 the size. So that has to be factored in -- if you need small gear, Lowel leads the way in that.

Some people think Lowel gear is inexpensive, and for the most part it isn't. But it is usually pretty cleverly engineered and quite compact. I love their CaseLites and their Scandles fluorescents, and the Pro-Light is a nice little lighting unit. The Rifa is an instant-setup softlight, and while it may cost 3x as much as a Britek head with a full-fledged softbox, it's not like the two are directly comparable. The Rifa can be set up in a matter of seconds, the Britek takes a lot more work.

Overall I like Britek gear for the price; Britek gear should exterminate the worklight from any videographer's arsenal. And dollar-for-dollar Britek lets you get much more gear for your budget than Lowel does. But Lowel makes very different instruments than other manufacturers, and many of them do have a place in a well-rounded kit.
 
If you want "freaking expensive lights", here you go.

http://www.mole.com/

If you are looking for lighting, get the Mole catalog. It gives specs on all their gear and is a wonderful reference book. I suggest calling them and have them send it to you. Like I said, it is a great reference tool.

As for Lowells, they are good lights, but a tad delicate. The Tota, the Omni and the original Lowell Light, using the R-40 reflector floods were the lighting staples in most of the film classes I have taken. I kinda gotta a nostalgic feeling towards them.

As for cheap lights, I would recommend that you stay away from Smith-Victor lights. However, I bought 3 650 watt open face Smith-Victor lights (they are the tin can type with two flap like barn doors), with stands and genuine wood grained cardboard box "case" in 1988 for about $100. They are uber cheap, yet I have used them on almost every project I have ever worked on ever since. I seem to always find myself in the situation of, "Hey, you know what will work here?..." and throwing up the S-Vs

Get the best gear you can, then learn to use what you've got.

Good luck. :thumbsup:
 
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