Lighting a big (18' wide) white backdrop

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Kubicixfactor

Member
Looking for some advice/suggestions here please! I've got an established client who produce medical equipment (beds, chairs, lifts, so quite large items). I'm doing a lot of shooting with them for product demos and they want everything to be on white - so because of the size of the equipment (and often two demonstrators) the only way I've been able to do this successfully so far is to use two 9' rolls of paper with a carefully taped join in the middle (a pain to setup to say the least).

I'm lighting this with two 1k tungsten lights (in 5' stripboxes) above the background pointing down, one 1k strip on background left and one 1k strip on background right, then a couple of 500w tungstens front left and right, with a couple of extra small Dedolights to fill in any shadows from the equipment that's being demonstrated. It does work ok (they're happy enough with the finished results) but I'm curious as to whether there's any alternatives anyone can suggest to at least make the whole setup easier - I have to shoot at their warehouse and it takes about 2 hours to get everything built up.

I do have a budget for extra lights and I'd like to look at LED alternatives if at all possible - looked at the COB lights but not sure whether they'd have the spread I need to flood the background? Would a couple of Aputure LS300s flagged left and right be enough to allow me to lose the overhead lights and still flood the background? I also thought about picking up a couple of used Kino 4 banks but storing/transporting them may be an issue so I'd rather look at an LED option.
 
Even white soft light really involves multiple soft sources - and focussing sources are probably the worst, as they have hotspots, so when you open them up they change brightness across the full field, so getting one to blend with it's neighbour is tricky. Most of the types used for green screen are the ones to aim for.
 
If it was me, I would be borrowing a friend's half dozen Kino Diva 400s. I recently used half a dozen to light up a large cloth BG area and they worked great
because Kinos are just big blobs of soft light. If you need to buy, nobody wants Kinos anymore so you can hunt and probably pick up several for pretty
little money.
 
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Although not quite as big(12’), I’ve lit white seamless before with Quasar tubes(I actually lit from the side in that set-up). You could have enough to run the width and place them above firing down(at a slight angle) to wash the background. That coupled with nice soft keys spilling from the front and having the people/objects far enough away to not cast shadows should work.
 
Kubicixfactor said:
Would a couple of Aputure LS300s.. I'd rather look at an LED option.
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I think you need to concentrate on watts per $. Godox is cheaper.

For an 18foot cove I think you need 4 off 2/300w lights then a couple more at least to light the subject through an 8.8

Thne a coouple of 60w to do backlight/accents.

Quite big money.

If you are not worried about heat, safety and the like 2k are the cheapest lumens in a blacked out space.
 
Great stuff, thanks everyone! I'll keep an eye out for used kinos, very interested in the Quasar (Q50?) tubes as well which might be a lot more portable - great idea having these pointing down on the backdrop.
 
If this is a long term project with good budget, then setting up a white cyc area lit with space lights would give you the cleanest look,
supplemented by lights on roller stands which could be used to fill when needed, and then rolled back for wide shots.
 
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