Light Kit for Travel (Corporate Docu Style Shoot)

H

Heartfelt

Well-known member
Is there a light kit that is useful enough to bring along and light/durable enough for travel?

Type of shots in question are interview style shots (seated), conference room style shots and industrial plant shots. I don't expect to light a shop or light a conference room, per se, I am hoping to make use of existing lighting (yuck) and augment as needed, although I hope to set up three point shots for the interviews.

Any ideas?
 
First thing is to make a budget.

When you say travel, you don't specify if by air, car, camel, etc. Flos are the go-to light for interviews if you don't need too much throw, but air travel and flo bulbs installed in a fixture may not be a good match. Although I don't travel much for video, I have been setting up a few travel kits for trade shows and have begun to think that if I were traveling for video, I would ship my gear to myself at the destination using ups or fedx. Airlines are just too shaky for checked baggage, and not kind if they lose something valuable.

Back to topic: if you shipped the flo tubes in their original shipping box, you would probably be fine. Before I bought some flos, I put together a tungsten kit in a Petrol case which holds 3 lights, 2 soft boxes, extension cords, scrims, 3 light stands, 3 empty ballast bags, a few gels, speed-rings, etc. Arri makes some decent kits with case, but you can probably piece this together yourself and do a bit better price wise. And I'm no fan of the Arri cases.

As long as you don't mind the power needs and heat of tungstens, they are more versatile than flos, except they don't play well with daylight. You can get flo bulbs in either 3200k or 5600k which is good.

LED is a third option, but unless I was severely limited to the minimum possible light options, I'd go with tungsten or flos. Decisions.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/746599-REG/Petrol_PL2003_PL2003_Deca_Light_Case.html

They make four light versions also.

Grant
 
You can get those 312 led lights for a lot cheaper on eBay and Amazon. I have one of the color adjustable ones that I'm using as a hair light. ikan just rebranded them and doubled the price. They also sell a single color but dimable version that's quite a bit brighter since all 312 led's are daylight colored. Overall, they're not that bright and kind of cheap but decent for the price. I always worry about the plastic mount when booming it.
 
I think its worth considering Dedo DL4s - and the proper correction filters

You would need some sort of diffusion of the key light - maybe a lastolight shootthrough or a brolly or as per the FresDV kit those road rags/minigrip look like a nice combo

I have my Dedos in a much smaller bag and the light stands travel with my sticks..

maybe cut it to two lightstands and rely on clamping a third light using a PonyClamp or suchlike

S
 
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nothing said:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._3NT_S120_Interview_Select_3_Fluorescent.html

The 2 foot kit is easier to travel with, but the 4 foot kit will obviously put out more light. Get 3200 and 5500 tubes. Add stands and sandbags of your choice.
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Well, the temptation is to cheap out with LED's. But, I think I will have enough challenges without worrying about green tint or other color issues. I am going to go with flos from Cool Lights. They seem to have a good rep here. I will just need to find a case for travel which shouldn't be too hard.

Regarding 3200/5500, I understand that if you have some natural sunlight in the shot, use the 5500's and if you are in a place with only fluorescent light, use the 3200's. Do you ever shoot where there is a mix of indoor and sunlight and if so, what is your approach to lighting it.


Thanks to ALL for the replies!
 
the thing about traveling with light / grip gear is you need to be VERY aware of WEIGHT. its going to be smarter to build 3, 20lb cases rather than one 60lb one. more cases to keep track of. but its going to be a matter of $25 per case bag fee vs $400 for one big one.

as far as whether to go with flos or LEDs regarding breakage. i wouldnt travel (especially fly) without hard cases for either. so i wouldnt really let that make my decision for me...

I understand that if you have some natural sunlight in the shot, use the 5500's and if you are in a place with only fluorescent light, use the 3200's.
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no, thats not entirely accurate. in theory yes, but reality and theory arent always on the same team... in all but the most ergonomically-aware offices, you may likely encounter rooms with a variety of overhead fluorescent temps. but you'll be able to tell by simply looking. and you can half-gel, fold, flag, whatever to mix temps as your tastes dictate. my method is to start with daylight bulbs and color from there.

ive used everything from all the traditional hot lights, flos and LEDs, and you can make do with about anything. it depends on what YOU (and your clients) consider acceptable. from my experience, as long as your primary lights all suffer equally, you can work with it. the big problem comes when you have a set of cheapo lights all suffering from different red, green tint. and that can happen even with the same make and model.
 
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another thing to consider with typical LEDs is "multishadow" if you try to flag the beam with a hard edge (or ANY edge really) it will cast an array of stepped shadows (from each of the LED bulbs being interrupted). flos dont suffer from this problem.

flos are softer, leds tend to be punchier. but if you try to diffuse leds, their punch falls off DRAMATICALLY
 
Hey thanks for the posts, wgzn. That confirms my going for the flos and I will wait to have them in hand before looking for cases to beat the weight issues.
 
my main interview go-to lights these days are LEDs. for really just one reason. convenience. they are light weight, usually dimmable and in some cases variable temp. and for most of my uses i can circumvent their downfalls. but if i had to go with a more technically fool-proof kit, id probably go FLOs...

BUT it sounds like you are going to be doing a good bit of traveling and for that. id look more into LED simply for convenience. in travel, every lb counts!
and its not just the plane. its getting from the plane to the hotel and to the location and working IN the location.

the leaner and more nimble your kit is in these situations can really help minimize hassle and fatigue. and that can have as much to do with final product as anything else. especially in one man or small crew situations...

example. i can fly a little 120 LED on the slightest little boom stand around for a hairlight and in most cases dont even need to bag it. so youre saving the weight of beefier stands and sandbags.
 
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Yes, the primary use will be to interview customers in different locations so, travel is primary.

To be honest, my leaning towards flos is fear based. Most of my shooting has been in natural light, existing lighting and on the corporate side, has just been me, so I have the flexibility of trial and error. In this new venture, it is a reach beyond my experience and with the online word being "LED's give a green cast"... I am a bit spooked. Customers will not be so patient so I need to walk in and nail it.

However, being that I am still in proposal phase and am willing to learn and adjust, I will chew on it some more.

Do you mind me asking:
  • What do you do to overcome color issues?
  • What LED's do you use?
  • Do you diffuse your key? If so what do you prefer?

I like the idea of a small 120 for a hair light... talk about easy!
 
My travel kit is:
2x DP light (1k)
2x Omni (500w)
2x Pro (250)
1x Rifa (250)

6x lighstands
2x grip head
2x maffolini
2x clapsable booms

2x 4x4 light greed sheet (handing of the boom)
2x splitter
2x cheater
3x extension cord

1x Arri case with wheels

I do get slapped with overweight fees which productions pay for.
 
"LED's give a green cast"
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that can be absolutely true. but its not a hard fact.

HOWEVER, and not to be mean. but if you have to ask these questions - unless you ever see them side by side, you MAY not ever even notice it.
and id almost PROMISE, your clients wont see it either.

hardcore DPs will argue this and tell me im full of crap. and in their type of work, it would be true. but for what youre doing, i think youre worrying about things that wont significantly matter at the end of YOUR day. as long as your lights all have the same general qualities, nobody will ever notice.

and like i said before. its really only a BIG problem when you mix lights with "different differences". (like if you mixed an ikan, a coollight and some random amazon purchase)

to answer your questions:
- i keep a box of gels with a variety of utility and effect colors
- i primarily use ikans. dimmable 1Ks for key and fill and either their little 120 (or a lowel 250 depending on location) for hairlight
- often, yes. and it depends. i have a variety of diffusion gels ive picked up over the years (all purchased locally here in houston)
 
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Well, I did what I should have done in the beginning. I went to a local vendor who happens to be a sister company to IKAN. Funny how I found out and that it is a company I had previously used for other items.

They had a rig set up with a few different lights and I got to see LED's in action. They pulled out a 500 and a 312 and I played with a 1000 that was mounted as well.

The 312 was enough light at about 4-5 feet, the 500 was enough at 8-10 (my comfort level) and the 1000 would be nice in the case of overcoming other natural light. While playing with these, a guy filming locally for CNN popped in and told me he uses the IKAN 312 x4 kit for interviews in a travel rig. The difference between his setup and mine would be his use of a dark hotel room and my use of an office space. I could face some unknowns.

In any case, as pointed out, I didn't really see the green spike. I know it is there and what to do about it but seeing first hand the subtlety of it set me at ease.
Educational as is this thread (for me).

Thank you all
Rob
 
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