Lights to increase ambient lighting

[Eric Coughlin]

I'm looking for a light or lights to quickly increase ambient lighting in small, medium, and large rooms. Right now I use a Lowel Tota, which generally works well for my purposes, except that it's difficult or impossible to change the color temperature to 5600k when I need it. I have the gel filter attachment piece but it still gets too much tungsten spill I find. For working in a small room (like a bedroom) with quick setup and little or no outdoor light coming in, the Tota works good. I'll probably buy a second Tota soon.

I have an Arri 650, but after going through diffusion the output and broadness are not quite as much as I often would like, plus, with the diffusion, it takes more time to setup as well as taking up more space making it difficult to put in cramped places.

One example of what I need is I have a congregation in a church, and I need to raise the ambient lighting on them. For that, the Lowel Tota bounced off of the ceiling was not as bright as I would have liked. I could have gone through an umbrella directly on them, but I wasn't sure if that would be too harsh as I didn't want the lights to be shining too noticeably on them to the point of distraction. Other common uses I have are raising the ambient light in regular household rooms, offices, etc.

So far what I've found is the Mole-Richardson 1500 Watt Molequartz Super-Broad Tungsten Light (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=273725&Q=&is=REG&A=details), which looks pretty good. 1500 watts means I can still plug it into normal outlets which is necessary, and it looks like it takes at least a 1000 watt bulb for when I need a lower output. The accessories it has offered include a Daylight Conversion Filter, and a Daylight Dichroic Conversion Filter, which are $177 and $227 respectively. What is the difference between the Dichroic one, the non-Dichroic one, and using a regular cheap gel (would that just melt?)?

Does the Mole Richardson Super-Broad look like a good choice for my purposes or are there better options to use? A couple other options I'm looking at are the Arrilite 2000 Plus and Mole-Richardson Nooklite 2000 Watt, which I'd probably put 1500 watt bulbs in if blowing circuits is a concern at 2000 watts.

 

[Moseph]

I would go with PAR cans or an open face fixture with a chimera to hold the gel. No spill or gel kick will occur.

 

[David W. Jones]

How about a used 1.2K HMI

 

[egproductions]

A few things to consider:

Assuming the same light output efficiency, a 750w tota v.s. a 1.5K is going to be like setting up two totas (which might or might not be enough for you) It's not going to necessarily double the amount of light you have in the room.

I'm not sure of what you are filmimg but if it's weddings or events then bouncing enough constant light in a large venue could really kill the mood for the guests and will look terrible if you get the bounce pattern in your shot. If you need to preserve the mood, I recommend using pro-lights or other small face spotted lights that you can aim directly.

You mentioned that you want to raise the "ambient" light levels. Obviously adding your own lights won't do that, in fact adding too much extra lighting will cause you to underexpose for the ambient levels making chandeliers/house lights look dim or off. You will also wind up with very high contrast footage if you aren't lighting from enough directions. It's for this reason that I usually keep dimmers on my pro lights because I usually have to balance for ambient lighting and fill with my own lights.

If bouncing is what you require then keep in mind that the bigger bounce pattern you make, the less output you will have. You can double your output by simply making the bounce pattern half as big.

 

[eiker_ir]

Could use a Lowel DP, similar to the Tota in output(Up to 1K) but easier to control the spill, add gels, etc.

 

[Eric Coughlin]

Moseph: Can a par can create as broad of a light as a Lowel Tota?

David: A 1.2k HMI looks to be around $3,000; used, maybe $2,000. My budget is probably closer to at the most $1,000, though spending less would be better. I also don't care for the heavy weight and need for a ballast (more weight) as I like to keep my setups quick (sometimes shooting corporate stuff as a one man band). It would certainly be useful for some of the work I do but too expensive at this point.

eiker_ir: A Lowel DP looks like it may be a good option, and it has a Dichroic filter available which is nice. How broad is it able to go compared to a Tota?

egproductions: For weddings (receptions) I use Arri 650s and Lowel Pro lights aimed directly, as you said. By ambient lighting I meant the general brightness of the room, not "house lighting". For weddings I like the house lighting to be low so I can control everything with my own lights. Typically the house practicals aren't in my shots (since they're on the ceiling) so I just use my own lights as the main sources of lights. But that's weddings and this topic is more about corporate type of work. Typically for corporate I'm not looking for the dramatic shadows that a Fresnel creates when aimed straight on.


Here is one example I mentioned, filming a group of people in a church for reactions shots of a Televised Mass. I bounced a Lowel Tota off of the ceiling which brought my ISO on a 60D from 2500 down to 1250 at f/2.8, shutter 1/50. I'd like to get the ISO closer to, say, 320, while at the same time not shining a distractedly bright light into their eyes. In this particular case, the background is quite bright, so lighting up mainly the students, especially since I do close shots as well, isn't really a problem. I do film at a variety of churches and conditions, though.

Here's a pic of some of the lighting setup.

The lights aimed at the altar are all Fresnals, but I don't want the lights on the congregation to be as noticeable to the congregation, as in, I don't want them to feel they are in a spot light.


Another example is here, where I quickly lit up a dining room dinner, again, by simply bouncing a Lowel Tota off the ceiling.

Here I'm lighting a family room with a Lowel Tota through an umbrella, an Arri 650 through a diffusion, and a Lowel Pro Light. It seems to me though that with the way I'm using the Arri 650 in this case, I could get similar results that is quicker and easier to setup by using a second Lowel Tota instead.

Here is an example where I had the Arri 650 with a CTB, and the Tota with a CTB, and a window with daylight coming in. The problem was the Tota leaked an awful lot of tungsten which caused problems, hence my need for something that sets up fast, adds a lot of light, isn't too large, and can be used properly with a CTB. The Tota for this case fills all of those check marks except the last one. For the church scenario, I either need more power to bounce off the ceiling or a simple diffusion source (like an umbrella) that I can shine on the congregation without causing too much distraction to them.

 

[Michael Carter]

I'd also consider some big china balls. The lanternlocks are just shy of $100, but give you a mogul base that takes the big 500 watt globe. A Pair of those, with globes, would cost less than many fixtures.

With a socket converter, you could use the Alzo bulb & ballast kit (about $140) for 800-ish watts of daylight. I'm really liking the Alzo in a china ball, only pulls 150 watts and isn't very hot. Lotta bang for the buck. A 1/8 minus green is sometimes needed with those. Plus, the Alzo can be used in a dimestore plastic china fixture.

I've pretty much stopped shooting with tungsten unless tungsten practicals are in use. I can get way more light with a smaller kit and less heat & amps. Using some alzo and chinese biax units, (Kino knockoffs) and 40 - 80 watt spirals. If I need a true fresnel, I'll 1/2 CTB a tungsten (for a warm splash), full CTB a 1k, or I have an alzo-converted 6" fresnel. I just made a big space light using a 400 watt 6500k mogul and ballast. It pumps a lot of soft light.

Whether it's a CTB gel or a dichro, you're cutting a tungsten light in half when you need true 5200kish light.

 

[BrownCowVideo]

+1 Michael's China Ball suggestions.

These are great BTS shots, Eric. Reminds me that I need to do a lot more of those for my setups. LOVE the kid on the jib. I'll bet he works for cheap!

 

[Eric Coughlin]

I just bought a kit on Ebay consisting of two Lowel Totas, a Lowel DP light, and a bunch of accessories for the lights for $350 after shipping. I may pick up a second DP light later if I like the first.


Michael Carter: I'm not so sure China Balls would look good in a corporate or church setting. They also look to be rather fragile and not necessarily best for quick setups and breakdowns. If I did films more I may consider them more.

I like tungsten for several reasons. LED and florescents either don't have enough power, have bad CRI, or are very expensive. HMI is too expensive and bulky. Tungsten gives me a lot of light with great CRI at relatively cheap prices.

From what I've read a full CTB will cut around two stops of light (which is about what my experience is too) while a dichroic filter cuts one stop of light.


BrownCowVideo: Thanks. Plenty more BTS where those came from: https://www.facebook.com/TwoSenseFilms/photos_albums

I typically have my 60D on hand while shooting video with the C100, so can grab some good non-iPhone behind-the-scenes with it, and sometimes give it to a PA or people I'm interviewing to attempt to get myself in some pics.

 

[RyanT]

Honestly, playing around with all this tungsten for daylight interiors feels like a waste of time in my opinion. You lose so much stop going through full blue, not to mention how much power you need to get something that will even begin to match your exterior levels. If you really wanted to, you could get a bunch of 1k par cans with diachroic filters, but I would go fluorescent in these situations if I could. You won't always have a lot of power to play with.

A couple 4' 4bank fluorescent fixtures would probably give you more output, less power consumption, and better light quality. I'm not sure what the CRI is on these cheaper products, like cool lights are, but I imagine they'd have to be far within the range of acceptability these days. It just might be a good thing to look into and compare.