Low price but good lighting kit recommendations

J

JJ Alexander

Active member
We are going to shoot a film in my apartment in NYC. I have a long narrow apt that is called a 'Railroad Apt". There is natural light in 4 of the 6 rooms. The rooms are in a straight line, one after the other. I'm using my DVX 100 A. I want to buy the best lighting kit I can for less than $300.
If this price is way to low I am open to any suggestions. I know nothing about lighting.
Thanks.
 
For that price I would rent or hire a DP with their own equipment for the day. $300 is just barely enough for a single fixture + stand. It's very difficult to advise you without knowing what mood you're going for or what the condition on set is. Hiring someone is really the best option because they'll already be familiar with the equipments and they'll presumably be more experienced than you with various lighting situations.
 
While I don't disagree with this assessment, trying to hire someone out for $300 is going to be mighty tough.

If done carefully, he could get away with a couple sets of worklamps, clamp lights, black and white foam core and a few gels for $300. The problem is learning to USE them to good effect because it won't be easy.

JJ to help you understand, Most light kits contain 2-4 lights. One might reasonably expect a 3-4 light kit to be between $1500-$2000. Once you have those lights, they will need to be controlled. So they will need tools to keep them from being too bright or from going places you don't want the light to go. This equipment is called "light modifiers", and when fully assembled, a kit for that can cost half as much to just as much as the lights.

Traditional lighting puts 2-3 lights on a person. You may need twice that many to properly light a room depending on what you're going for. Or you may need a single light in a room, depending on look.

My recommendation is this:

1. Use as much natural light as you can

2. Make sure that each room has at least 2 practical lights. Basically lights that look like they SHOULD be there. MAke them as bright as you can (or need to) depending on the look you are going for.

3. If this is not enough, then look to get simple lights to boost the light in areas where you need help.

4. Spend some time reading here and other forums about lighting basics. Spend some time watching movies that have the "look" you want and come back here and ask questions. We can help you more when we know what it is you're after.
 
The $300 goal is ambitious, but it's doable. I'm not a big fan of the Halogen worklights option, it sounds like such a good idea, but in practice tends to be a fairly expensive, power-sucking light that is difficult to tame and will set your "borrowed" locations on fire in no time.

Head to the hardware store and get some blusih-daylight-y CFLs. Doesn't have to be perfect. Then head to ebay and buy photography umbrellas and cheap, cheap stands. Clamp the lights to the stands with the cheapest, lightest thrift store clamp lights you can find. get them at the hardware store if you need to, but even $14.00 is a ripoff for those pie-plate things. Find a garage sale. Try to find some of those Y-splitters for lightbulb sockets, those are handy.

Add in some dollar store foamcore board with tinfoil glued to it for good measure. Have lots of those foamcore boards available, some with crinked tinfoil, some smooth, some just white. And BLACK! Paste black bristol board to some of your foamcore.

Spend all of your extra money on more bulbs. Need more light? Add another bulb behind the umbrella. Need less? take one away, or swap a 23 watt for a 7 watt.

Something like This appears to have a lot of the pieces you need in a nice cheap ships-from hong kong package:

I certianly wouldn't trust those stands with any weight on them, but we're on a budget here.

You'll also need a ton of home depot spring clamps (get the plastic ones, not the metal automotive clamps) and something to make a snoot out of... downspout tin works well.

Spend the rest of your money on Light, Science and Magic. It's a "photogrpahy" book, but physics are physics. Read it three times, and you're good to go. If you can't afford the book, go to strobist.com. Again, a photography website, but it doesn't matter. Look for the "Lighting 101" link at the right. Ignore all the references to strobes (ie, flashes, which are useless for video) but soak up the basic concepts.
 
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