How much light (and what kind) do I need?

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NonFiction

Active member
I'm planning a shoot with a 60p high def camera, and I need a shutter speed of 1/1000 or so, at f/5.6-f/8. It's action stuff, and I need to be able to pull frame grabs and have them nice and solid.

I can do a decent job of lighting stills with strobes, but have done almost nothing with hot lights for action in video.

I'm doing a few different action sports--skateboarding, snowboarding, like that. I'm figuring I'll need a generator and a couple of lights with some throw, one on either side of the talent basically.

I expect to be able to get the lights within 15' of the talent. My question then is how much light will I need to be able to overpower daylight by a stop or preferably two?

What kind of lights are going to be my best bet, illuminationwise, and quality-of-lightwise?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Daylight? To get anywhere in the day you're looking at HMI lights, minimum 1200w PAR, most likely more. Renting is your only option as HMI lights can run in the tens of thousands each.
 
Thanks for the response. I've never used HMI lights. Will they run off regular generators? Like can I run two 1200w PAR lights off a 2500w generator? I guess I need to get on the phone with my local rental houses.

I'm open to more ideas. I'd like to mimic the look of current skate/snowboard still photography, that's typically strobed pretty strongly from two angles. Obviously for hot lights that's a lot of lumens, and might prove to be out of my budget.

Anyone have any ideas for how to get good, distinctive pictures in (possibly flat) daylight, with high shutter speeds and one or two lights?

Can I get reasonable fill and a bit of edge definition outdoors with a couple of 1k tungsten fresnels?
 
Most likely you won't be able to run 1200w par's off of one 2500w generator. You're 2500w geny would most likely produce about 22-23amps of power and since your par's are running about 12amps each they will max out your geny. I would rent or look into some kinos for even background lighting along with a strong key light like a one of your par's or a HMI. And since you want to go F5.6 to F8, you will need a lot of light. you might be able to open up more to F4 to get more light in and won't need as much light to shoot.
 
1k fresnels are going to be useless unless you can get them within 1-2 ft. If you want to shoot action stuff at 15 ft. away then you're definitely going to need more punch than a 1200w. I just don't see lighting this whole situation as a good idea unless you have a large crew and a large budget. The generator is going to be huge, and it's going to be loud, and the lights and ballasts aren't exactly lightweight either.
 
NonFiction said:
Thanks for the response. I've never used HMI lights. Will they run off regular generators? Like can I run two 1200w PAR lights off a 2500w generator? I guess I need to get on the phone with my local rental houses.

I'm open to more ideas. I'd like to mimic the look of current skate/snowboard still photography, that's typically strobed pretty strongly from two angles. Obviously for hot lights that's a lot of lumens, and might prove to be out of my budget.

Anyone have any ideas for how to get good, distinctive pictures in (possibly flat) daylight, with high shutter speeds and one or two lights?

Can I get reasonable fill and a bit of edge definition outdoors with a couple of 1k tungsten fresnels?
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I'd recommend some big HMi's. You'll probably find shooting around 5.6 that a couple of 1.2 HMi's won't be enough at the distance you've stated.

Make sure you order the right ballast as well as you may well get the light flickering in your motion.
 
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