Looking to Invest $5000 in lighting.

M

Marloon

Member
Hello Everyone,

My name is Marlon and I am a one man production team for my own channel on YT. Photography and Cinematography is my hobby and whenever I am away from work, I wanna create videos for my YT viewers. BUT I always have some excuse that gets in the way of my production so my return on investment (amount i spend on my gear) is actually never returned (amount earned back from royalty, and related jobs). My excuses are mainly about 1) being too lazy to set my camera and lighting up 2) Creating and remembering a script (such a pain w/o a prompter) and 3) Recording (its such a pain w/o a prompter). I want to invest some money (up to $5000) in making my work easier for me so that I am able to just crunch out more videos in less amount of time.

Of course, before all of this spending is to happen, I am going to rely on this community to help me figure out what I need.

When it came to recording my own videos, I ran into the following problems/restrictions:
1) It was very difficult to remember/stick to the script I created (I hope to remedy this with a prompter)
2) It was difficult and cumbersome to setup my lighting at home
3) The lighting I used to create my videos were the 250W modelling lamps from my photography strobes (Einsteins 640s) - they were tungsten based which made the environment very warm and 250W was definitely not enough light.

What I am trying to achieve:
1) A Minimum 500W 5600K LED system
2) Soft butterfly lighting
3) 3-4 Light Setup

Things I already have:
- Camera and Lenses

Things I need to buy (camera related):
- Pad prompter by onetakeonly
- 15mm rail system for a DSLR system
- Video Head and Tripod for DSLR system

Things I need to buy (light related):
- Collapsable C-stands (I used to have them, Loved them, want them back now)
- 3-4 Light Setup

Any recommendations?
 
Moseph said:
Have you budgeted $5000 just for lighting or for the whole setup?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking 5 Grand would do enough for the entire setup (lights + additional camera accessories).

So far I'm just building my wishlist.

Additions to my camera Setup:
- Fotga DP500 rail system - $64
- OneTakeOnly Pad Prompter - $429

Lighting Grip
- 3 Avenger A2030D - 532.20
- 3 Avenger E650 Baby Pin - 29.97

Now that should leave me with $4000 for a 3-4 light setup. I'm used to dealing with softboxes instead of flags - unfortunately, I understand that a lot of light companies don't offer softboxes for their LED lights. I'm guessing flagging is the only way to fix this.
 
The problem is you are doing it backwards! The ideal is to look at what you want to actually do, then choose equipment to do YOUR thing, then cost it and see if you can afford it. You are picking items, picking a budget without any thought.

A minimum 500W LED 5600K system. If your shooting space is small, this will be far to bright. If your shooting style has the camera further away from the subject then this kit could be nowhere near what you need?

Your prompter - have you considered subject to camera distance? I'm wearing glasses now, and a small mirror system for me means a very close distance - any hope of a feet to head shot mean the camera has to be further away, and I can't read the text!

It seems to me you have a type of production in mind, and a suitable space to do it. If so - the real pain will be constant set up and then strike. Does the space have the facility to hang lights rather than use stands?

As for legs and head - if your production style does not need a cameraman, the the usual support answers on decent head, decent legs may not apply - as it's locked off, so maybe you could, if you want, economise there? I guess you've covered sound?

If it was me - I'd start with the space, and design a minimum fuss system because you've explained that you're a bit lazy - so if it's too complicated, despite spending money, you will use it less and less. I did a design for a college a while back and set up and put away time really cut into their production time - but the space had to be used by others straight away. The design I did used one wall painted matt white. All the lighting was up permanently fixed to a beam running across the room. Some pointed at the white wall, so bouncing towards the subjects - as the fill. Another was pointed at the subjects, as a key, and the wall the other end was green, lit with two flu tubes. This worked pretty well, despite being a compromise. The flu fittings had some amber gel on the side facing away from the green wall which worked as a warmish backlight. The students could be in and recording in five minutes, with one small lighting switch on the wall. At the end, it took even less time to pack the camera, turn the lights off and go.

The results were from a professional viewpoint, a bit flat - but perfectly usable. A compromise, but students are lazy too, and timetabling a one hour slot had always been hopeless before - because you just hadn't got setup/strike time.

Can you tell us what you actually want to do?
 
My thoughts... You picked an expensive hobby!

As noted Paulears is straight up. You might also want to do a forum search as this has been asked many times over.

Good Luck!

Dave
 
It's times like these that I wish I was in Video Retail ;)
Hey! Maybe I can hire myself out as a paid consultant or something.
I count about 20 as the number of times I've tried to answer this same question.
Basically, if a person is asking about a lighting set up, they probably haven't worked a set as an assistant, much less Lighting 1.
Then again, that probably goes for camera questions as well.
The fundamental pattern that I see is summarized in one word O.V.E.R.K.I.L.L.
 
You could spend $100 on one light and the remaining $4900 on grip gear to rig it. A light is no good to you if you can't place it where you need it or control it how you want it. There is no magical $5000 package that will get you what you need. You buy a light and shoot with it...discover you need something else...buy it...shoot with it...rinse and repeat.
 
NextWaveG said:
You could spend $100 on one light and the remaining $4900 on grip gear to rig it. A light is no good to you if you can't place it where you need it or control it how you want it. There is no magical $5000 package that will get you what you need. You buy a light and shoot with it...discover you need something else...buy it...shoot with it...rinse and repeat.
Click to expand...

yes. +1
 
Maybe start with renting a bunch of different lights and grip stuff for a weekend to test everything out and see what you like most/fits your needs best. I believe this would be money spend wisely.
 
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