Light kit for interviews
- Thread starter dwcwiak
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Jeff Anderson
Custom Title!
One person interviews? Two person? More? I just got a coollights 2x55, and with a reflector and vidled for hairlight its my new travelling super-minimalistic one person (or two really close togther people) lighting kit. I say go for coollights if you can afford too. Talent likes it better, its easier to go on location and not worry as much about power consumption and the flo's can be packed up without cooling off. If you go with a daylight balanced kit too you dont have to worry about any windows that may be in the shot.
Look at coollights 150cdm as well - its a pretty sweet looking light at a good price. Definitely going to be a part of my kit soon.
Look at coollights 150cdm as well - its a pretty sweet looking light at a good price. Definitely going to be a part of my kit soon.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
Doug:
Do you own grip equipment? This will determine if you actually can spend $2,000.00 on the kit or is it $1,000.00 for the lights and $1,000.00 for C-stands, sandbags, flags, etc.
Dan
Matt Gottshalk
Resident Preditor
I'd have to go with Jeff Anderson's comments. I just ordered the 4 bank and 2 bank cool lights for my stow-and-go kit.
Between that and 6 Vidleds I'm pretty confident I can light most interviews.
Between that and 6 Vidleds I'm pretty confident I can light most interviews.
sunporchmedia
Well-known member
What case(s) do you plan to ship your kit in? It's similar to what I just got, and I'm still wrestling with the case issue.
Jeff Anderson
Custom Title!
yeah I'm working on the case thing too - I'll post pics tomorrow Sirocco. My kit will never be in one bag. Just too much stuff that follows me around. I've got it all at the office right now and need to bring it home and do some testing.
As for cases here is what I'm trying to do
- tripod and bogen convertible boom (for hairlight) in a hard golf case from SKB.
- I have a Large pelican on order that will hold my 2x55 (peli 1650 with padded dividers, oversized for airline standards, but apparently southwest exempts media equipment - we'll see how that works), along with monitor, audio bag, vidled and some other things
-A large contico toolbox for random grip stuff like stingers and power strips and sandbags etc. I have two stout bout short stands for a reflector and the 2x55 that also fit in here. Some cheap impact stands that work well for the price. I guess the reflector (5in1 42" from ebay) will go in here too.
-pelican 1510 carry on for HVX and batteries and p2 cards (thats about all that fits in there - will take pics tomorrow.
I'll post some pics of the equipment, and some grabs that demonstate what it can do.
As for cases here is what I'm trying to do
- tripod and bogen convertible boom (for hairlight) in a hard golf case from SKB.
- I have a Large pelican on order that will hold my 2x55 (peli 1650 with padded dividers, oversized for airline standards, but apparently southwest exempts media equipment - we'll see how that works), along with monitor, audio bag, vidled and some other things
-A large contico toolbox for random grip stuff like stingers and power strips and sandbags etc. I have two stout bout short stands for a reflector and the 2x55 that also fit in here. Some cheap impact stands that work well for the price. I guess the reflector (5in1 42" from ebay) will go in here too.
-pelican 1510 carry on for HVX and batteries and p2 cards (thats about all that fits in there - will take pics tomorrow.
I'll post some pics of the equipment, and some grabs that demonstate what it can do.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
Hi Doug:
Right now is an interesting and strange time to be buying lighting, mainly because there are so many choices. Here is my take, I shoot a LOT of interviews. The main thng that I think is of most importance in shooting interviews is flexibility because you never know what you will run into. I shot an interview yesterday in a publicist's office in LA, it had enough room but weird lighting or lack of so I needed to create an entire lighting style quickly in about 30 minutes.
1. Tungsten - for your budget, I think you could get one of the smaller Arri "D" series lighting kits. Arri kits are simply the best, they are better than anything else available as far as kits. Lowels are okay but are open faced, not nearly as flexible or built as well. I own four Lowel lights and they can be useful but as far as kits, not nearly as good as an Arri IMHO. The kit I have, the Softbank IV, is about $2,600.00 but I think you can get the Arri Softbank D1 kit, which has almost everything you need, although it would be nice to have one more 300 or a 650 fresnel. But it's a very versatile kit for the $$$. There are the Altman kits which stretch your dollar a little further, they are basically Arri knock offs.
2. Fluorescents - The Cool Lights are popular here. They seem to be decent for the money. I own two Kino Diva 200s, the Kinos are good lights but expensive for what you get. The thing with fluoros, they work fine are kind of one trick ponies, they are big soft blobs of light. To me, they don't make skin tones look as good. They are light in weight, cool and don't use much current, but they don't have the soft wrap of a Chimera at all.They are more difficult to control than other types of lights. They have a very short throw. The bulbs can be frustrating to travel with as they are fragile and easily broken. They cannot be focused or throw beams or slashes. They are popular but to me, a bit limiting although if you shoot a lot of mixed daylight interiors, they are handy. I use mine but not very often in comparison to my Arri kit.
3. LEDs - simple. They work very nicely, they are very expensive for the output you get and they somewhat share some of the limitations of the fluoros. Short throw, lower ouput than tungsten or fluoros, expensive. Not much ability to throw a beam or slash.
Then there are the kind of hybrid lights like the CDMs that Richard sells. They seem like a great idea although I have not actually used one. A 150 that puts out daylight and has the output of a 650 for $399.00 sounds cool but this only makes sense if you are going to build an entirely daylight kit.
HTH
Dan
Right now is an interesting and strange time to be buying lighting, mainly because there are so many choices. Here is my take, I shoot a LOT of interviews. The main thng that I think is of most importance in shooting interviews is flexibility because you never know what you will run into. I shot an interview yesterday in a publicist's office in LA, it had enough room but weird lighting or lack of so I needed to create an entire lighting style quickly in about 30 minutes.
1. Tungsten - for your budget, I think you could get one of the smaller Arri "D" series lighting kits. Arri kits are simply the best, they are better than anything else available as far as kits. Lowels are okay but are open faced, not nearly as flexible or built as well. I own four Lowel lights and they can be useful but as far as kits, not nearly as good as an Arri IMHO. The kit I have, the Softbank IV, is about $2,600.00 but I think you can get the Arri Softbank D1 kit, which has almost everything you need, although it would be nice to have one more 300 or a 650 fresnel. But it's a very versatile kit for the $$$. There are the Altman kits which stretch your dollar a little further, they are basically Arri knock offs.
2. Fluorescents - The Cool Lights are popular here. They seem to be decent for the money. I own two Kino Diva 200s, the Kinos are good lights but expensive for what you get. The thing with fluoros, they work fine are kind of one trick ponies, they are big soft blobs of light. To me, they don't make skin tones look as good. They are light in weight, cool and don't use much current, but they don't have the soft wrap of a Chimera at all.They are more difficult to control than other types of lights. They have a very short throw. The bulbs can be frustrating to travel with as they are fragile and easily broken. They cannot be focused or throw beams or slashes. They are popular but to me, a bit limiting although if you shoot a lot of mixed daylight interiors, they are handy. I use mine but not very often in comparison to my Arri kit.
3. LEDs - simple. They work very nicely, they are very expensive for the output you get and they somewhat share some of the limitations of the fluoros. Short throw, lower ouput than tungsten or fluoros, expensive. Not much ability to throw a beam or slash.
Then there are the kind of hybrid lights like the CDMs that Richard sells. They seem like a great idea although I have not actually used one. A 150 that puts out daylight and has the output of a 650 for $399.00 sounds cool but this only makes sense if you are going to build an entirely daylight kit.
HTH
Dan
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
For the most part you're right Dan on the last comment but we do give the choice between a 3000K and a 5400K bulb when you buy the fresnel so it is possible to blend this with any legacy tungsten you have and have a "cool light" version of a fresnel that gives real hard light with no compromises (and hardly any infrared like with tungsten) other than that you have the ballast with the unit which, although it is small and only weighs less than a pound, it is one extra item to carry around. While most people choose the fresnel with daylight, there are a few that get extra 3000K bulbs, just in case they ever need them.
I've seen your comments about preferring tungsten to fluorescent for how it makes faces look before and I would really be interested to hear what you think about the daylight or tungsten CDM 150 unit on "faces". To my eye, its tough to distinguish the 3000K CDM bulb from a tungsten unit.
puredrifting
Major Contributor
Hi Richard:
Thanks for the education on CDM. I am not familiar with them although I have used HMIs a lot. I was not even aware that you had tungsten balanced bulbs for them, that is great. It makes the instrument much easier to integrate into an existing tungsten workflow. I am sure at some point I will buy one from you to try it out, but I have to worry about acquiring an expensive location monitor first. With the strike still going and the economy over here slipping into recession, I am slowing down spending quite a bit too, things seem very unstable right now in production.
Hope all is well and that you are enjoying your RED!
Dan
Jeff Anderson
Custom Title!
Ok here's a screengrab of what you can do with my minimal setup - be curious to here what others think - I don't have alot of experience in doing this and just kinda go with what looks good. I'd change the framing a bit, but I was shooting myself (yes talking to nobody and looking like a fool).
Here are some pics of the actual setup:
and a pic of the 1510 that the hvx is going to live in.
Here are some pics of the actual setup:
and a pic of the 1510 that the hvx is going to live in.
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Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Looks great. Did you add something for a hair light or did you luck out somehow there. Only other thing I would say is it turns out a bit flat so trying to get one side a bit brighter is a very good way of approximating a 3d look in a 2d medium. Of course, a common configuration for this would be your 255P on one side and a reflector on the other. I see daylight coming in through the background and that was equalized pretty well overall.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Yes, its a somewhat worrisome situation right now but it helps to remember these things always go in cycles and do end. I personally think some great things are going to come out of the writer's strike for indy production people if the the situation continues for some time. Where else will Hollywood turn to for programming? This will be their chance to prove whether they can turn out some interesting and quality content that is compelling enough for people to watch.
I just returned to China with the RED and am going to be doing some things with it soon but haven't had so much time yet to play with it.
Of course, all HMI/metal halide derivatives have the same issues that fluorescent bulbs have and that is they are all discharge type lighting and all have a correlated color temperature or simulation of a color temperature. This may be what makes you feel that you don't like the look. If you find, that even with a 3200K CCT bulb that you still believe the continuous spectrum nature of tungsten looks better, you may feel the same about the metal halide / ceramic metal halide types as well. Personally I find it to be hard to tell the difference when I'm using a tungsten CCT bulb as opposed to a real tungsten bulb.
Jeff Anderson
Custom Title!
Yeah I think you're right on making it a little less flat. The hairlight is a vidled that you can see in the pics above now. That daylight coming through has a large porch over it so there wasnt much ambient to compete with. The wall that I'm looking towards is a wall of windows with the blinds closed and a little but not much light is coming in. I'm going to go try unflattening it a bit and I'll post back with some results.
less flat?
less flat?
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puredrifting
Major Contributor
Hi Jeff:
I like your lighting in setup #2 better. More modeling on your face, more dimension. Good catchlights. You should raise your key though, see where your nose shadow falls? Would look better if you raised your key a bit and lowered that nose shadow to "the zone" where we like to see it.
What about the BG? You have lit yourself nicely but I would like to see some nice Chiaroscuro pools of light and dark on that BG to complete the picture. Also, if I were interviewing you, I would hold a gun on you and make you change out of the white shirt, but I realize this is just a test setup.
Good work.
Dan
I like your lighting in setup #2 better. More modeling on your face, more dimension. Good catchlights. You should raise your key though, see where your nose shadow falls? Would look better if you raised your key a bit and lowered that nose shadow to "the zone" where we like to see it.
What about the BG? You have lit yourself nicely but I would like to see some nice Chiaroscuro pools of light and dark on that BG to complete the picture. Also, if I were interviewing you, I would hold a gun on you and make you change out of the white shirt, but I realize this is just a test setup.
Good work.
Dan
Jeff Anderson
Custom Title!
Thanks for the tips Richard and Dan. I've always been bringing my key down low to avoid dark eye sockets, but I think to need to find an in between point. I see what you're talking about on the nose shadow and agree. Looking at the two shots I like #2 alot better too, I think I was just a little afraid to make it too dark on the fill side, but it works really well. Tomorrow AM the wife will be around and I'm going to try again with a prettier model and put these thoughts into practice.
Yeah I'd like to see some stuff up on the background too, but I'm out of lights in my little kit
When you say "Chiaroscuro pools" is that just like doing a slash of light or multiple small spots (someone mentioned one light and a cookie with lots of holes in it in another thread for this) on the background so it isnt so darn bland? For corporate stuff I usually put a big slash that ends up behind the talent and helps to draw attention that way. In this case maybe a light on the floor kind of flooding the doorway area in the back maybe? I imagine I could squeeze one more light into my kit. It wouldnt need more than just a floor stand anyways. Maybe that 150 cdm of Richard's? I'm aiming for low power draw and daylight balanced if possible. Seems like that might be a bit of overkill for this... Any thoughts?
oh yeah and the white was an accident - didnt realize til I couldnt figure out why my waveform monitor was peaking into 100... then I noticed my shirt - too lazy to change
Yeah I'd like to see some stuff up on the background too, but I'm out of lights in my little kit
When you say "Chiaroscuro pools" is that just like doing a slash of light or multiple small spots (someone mentioned one light and a cookie with lots of holes in it in another thread for this) on the background so it isnt so darn bland? For corporate stuff I usually put a big slash that ends up behind the talent and helps to draw attention that way. In this case maybe a light on the floor kind of flooding the doorway area in the back maybe? I imagine I could squeeze one more light into my kit. It wouldnt need more than just a floor stand anyways. Maybe that 150 cdm of Richard's? I'm aiming for low power draw and daylight balanced if possible. Seems like that might be a bit of overkill for this... Any thoughts?oh yeah and the white was an accident - didnt realize til I couldnt figure out why my waveform monitor was peaking into 100... then I noticed my shirt - too lazy to change
puredrifting
Major Contributor
This would be carrying your light and dark modeling on the face kind of lighting to the background. You can do multiple slashes or pools of light and dark. The cool way is to add about 4-5 more lights, some with Chimeras, some without. But that takes a lot more money, time and effort. I like to use a cello cucoloris with something like a 650 fresnel, you can get a similar, although much more uniform effect so it doesn't look as cool as separate lights but it's much more practical when you are rigging yourself and time is of the essence.
I really miss when I was at this production company the past few years, I had my own small studio and if I knew I had interviews coming the next day, I could spend 4-5 hours on a setup and do it all myself, buy some cheap Ikea furniture and drapes, put up plants, strip lights, props, etc. I could create an entire living room set in essentially what was a bare box, by myself and make it look killer, tweak everything on dimmers, use 10-20 lights and really make it look awesome.
Lately I have been doing more real life interviews on real locations where I am by myself and only have 30 minutes to create an entire interview setup. I can still make it look decent but I can't "play", which I am realizing I really miss doing. It's always about time and resources and what you can do with what you have.
Dan
