Need advice on what lighting to buy, PLEASE!

S

StillAppalled

New member
I'm a 17 year old filmmaker/musician. I have a Canon Rebel T2i. I've been studying the filmmaking process, and directing videos with friends for about 2 years. I usually film outside using the natural light, and get some incredible looks with the right color grading.

I also have cheap clamp lights that I use to film indoors, but even then I usually have to go over 200 ISO and the image gets grainy. So, I try to avoid shooting inside.

BUT, soon I'm going to be finished with my album. I want to shoot music videos and make them as professional as possible. My camera captures great images with the right lighting. I decided it's finally time to get a lighting kit.

Plus, I'm looking to do some green screen work for the music videos (or just videos in general), and without the right lighting, green screen is a complete failure.

I have $900 right now. These are a few options I've been looking into:

http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-760/3-EZ-Softbox-Kit/Detail

http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-753/3-EZ-Softbox-Kit/Detail


OR, buy two of these:

http://www.flolight.com/led-lighting/microbeam-512-high-powered-led-video-light.html


Obviously, 2 Microbeam's would be around $1,200, so I'd have to wait to save up the money. The HUGE plus about the FloLight's is that they don't get hot. The heat is very annoying when doing green screen work. On the other hand, I'm not sure how long it will take me to raise $400 more, and the album will be done real soon.

Thanks for the help! Glad I found this place. I've needed help with this question for a while, but I didn't know where to ask.
 
I totally agree re LED lighting, at least for close-up work (I mostly do animation) - the lack of heat is a huge bonus. I use cheapy Nan Guang Lighting CN-600HS ones - probably not as good as the Flolights, but they've worked great for my greenscreen work.
 
Brings back memories, I did the same thing at your age!

Here's the bad thing about starting with flolights, or any type of LED or flourescent light: You are stuck with a soft light and a fixture that doesn't punch as much. I know for starters it may be a good route to go, but you want to play around with lighting. I'd pick up a 3 tungsten light kit and diffusion (soft box for example). This way not only do you have the flexibility to have a soft source, but also a hard one or anything in between. I'm not saying flolights aren't a good investment, I'm saying its not a light I'd like to be stuck with by itself

And honestly if an actor starts whinning about a hot light, they aren't pretty experienced heh heh. But seriously, most of the times you aren't placing the light right infront of people's faces. If you are... god help what you're doing. In most cases it may get a bit warm, but its nothing to cry about. I remember reading a shirt someone was wearing on set:

"Pain is temporary, film is forever."


Your best bet is to start with the tubetape package, but I'm sure there are other deals out there, maybe used to save you some cash and allow you to get more toys.
And you'll start dealing with real world/set problems... finding circuits, running stingers..... burning yourself :)
 
Used tungsten. You could build a pretty decent basic kit with $900. Led and Flo are all the rage, but they are crap. Expensive ones are marginal, cheap ones are garbage. It's the type of lighting you use when there is no choice.
 
RickyC said:
Brings back memories, I did the same thing at your age!

Here's the bad thing about starting with flolights, or any type of LED or flourescent light: You are stuck with a soft light and a fixture that doesn't punch as much. I know for starters it may be a good route to go, but you want to play around with lighting. I'd pick up a 3 tungsten light kit and diffusion (soft box for example). This way not only do you have the flexibility to have a soft source, but also a hard one or anything in between. I'm not saying flolights aren't a good investment, I'm saying its not a light I'd like to be stuck with by itself

And honestly if an actor starts whinning about a hot light, they aren't pretty experienced heh heh. But seriously, most of the times you aren't placing the light right infront of people's faces. If you are... god help what you're doing. In most cases it may get a bit warm, but its nothing to cry about. I remember reading a shirt someone was wearing on set:

"Pain is temporary, film is forever."


Your best bet is to start with the tubetape package, but I'm sure there are other deals out there, maybe used to save you some cash and allow you to get more toys.
And you'll start dealing with real world/set problems... finding circuits, running stingers..... burning yourself :)
Click to expand...

+1 .

Ricky makes some good points. You can soften a hard light...you cant get a floro to be hard.
 
I'll add, Flo and LED have their place. There are a few situations where they are the right tool, but as you day to day kit (especially for narrative, music video, etc...) they leave a LOT to be desired.
 
I've found Cool Lights CDM (mini HMI) lights to be a good compromise. They look and light similar to Arri tungsten hard lights, but are daylight balanced and cool as fluorescent on the talent. You can fit them with scrims to lower the light level or a soft box, and they have a focus knob. I think two 150's and a 300 would be in the price range you are in. About the only con is the 5 minute restrike waiting period.

As far as the soft box kits you gave the link to, there are many on Ebay that can beat that price and are probably of similar (typical Chinese) quality. Like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JULIUS-STUD...ultDomain_0&hash=item2570db09db#ht_4587wt_935
 
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I bought Cool Lights Fresnel kit (one 650 watt, two 300 watt) and love it. Its a little more money, about $1100 with shipping, but they are well built and even comes with a carrying case. I have messed around with LEDs and stuff and all was a waste of money in my opinion ( I rarely use them now). I still am adding to my light kit but slowly now because those lights are work horses. If I had to buy anything after these lights it would probably be a 1k, then two 4 bank fluorescent from cool lights.
 
Im not anywhere near pro (I mostly futz around and shoot tests in between forcing myself to man up and shoot short movies), so take this with a grain of salt, but I have a 500W Lowel Omni with speedring and photoflex softboxes (small and medium), a lowell 200 w pro-light, and a scoop/photoflood light (cheap!) with umbrella adaptor (I put in a Y edison adaptor and two regular 200watt bulbs to make a 400w softlight for fill). Stands for all three.

The stuff is on the lower/cheaper end of pro lighting but Im happy with what feels like a nearing complete kit that will do me solid for a while. People say the Lowel stuff lasts. I plan on adding a larger softbox, then replacing the scoop light with a Tota, then maybe another 200W pro-light for backgrounds and such.

So one vote for lowel, but then again maybe used small HMIs and fresnels are the same price I dunno.
 
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sonofaresiii said:
lowel is the way to go for a young filmmaker looking to build their experience and keep their credit score reasonable.
Click to expand...
Maybe if for whatever reason buying used fixtures is off the table, since they are cheaper new than other manufacturers, but I don't see the logic in that. I've gotten a Mole 1k with 2 brand new globes for cheaper than a new Omni light. I also got a Colortran kit with a couple 1k broads and a couple 650 open face units, all with barn doors, for less than a new Omni light. And truth be told, I'd expect even the 20+ year old Colortrans to outlast a new Lowel light.
 
I would strongly recommend going with an LED based package to begin with. As a young, independent filmmaker, you will benefit greatly from lighter fixtures that stay cool, can be powered via battery, and are daylight-balanced. Round out the kit with a CDM-150 from coollights, which is a daylight-balanced fresnel (a quasi-HMI if you will).

Two of these: http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Photog...e=UTF8&qid=1346219678&sr=8-3&keywords=led+600

And one of these: http://www.coollights.biz/clmf0150-cool-lights-fresnel-p-63.html

Add some stands and a case and you're set within your budget. You will have most of the versatility of a traditional tungsten kit, except with the following advantages:

Safely and reliably plug all of your lights into the same circuit
Pack up almost immediately after you wrap
Run 2/3 of your light kit on batteries if needed (Hello night exteriors without a generator)
Easily match daylight without gelling your windows or losing output on your fixtures
Easily dimmable/scrimmable
Those LEDs are very durable, without worrying about bulbs
Extremely quick and easy to setup and reset

As you grow, you can add a couple of fluorescent Kino-style fixtures, another CDM-150 or two, and some smaller LED panels. You'll have a very versatile, small and lightweight, cool (temperature-wise), daylight-balanced kit. Definitely enough to cover whatever ground you need on a budget that prevents you from renting more gear.
 
The kit with the green screens both have one disadvantage - 85w LEDs - you'd use one of these in your living room and think it pretty dim compared with the old proper bulbs we now consider 'dangerous to the world'. The LED panels are much brighter. You mentioned the clamp lights not being bright enough - so rest assured the 85W LEDs will be even worse!

The LED panels are brighter. However - for green screen work, you need a bright screen, but what about lighting the people in front of it?

If you have a limited budget, why not consider hiring what you need? If you don't usually work indoors, the money you have could be wasted buying lights that may be useless for your next indoor project? I've got a very large stock of lighting kit, and 90% of it remains in the store at any one time - almost every job requires something different. I've got some of those 85W softlights and I have NEVER used them because they were so dim as to be a waste of time! If you lived in the UK I'd give them to you! The screen and grip gear alwys come in handy - but low wattage CFLs are horrible things! LED light panels are getting better all the time.
 
Thanks for all the reply's guys. I completely forgot I had signed up here jaja. Reading them all though.

nycineaste said:
Im not anywhere near pro (I mostly futz around and shoot tests in between forcing myself to man up and shoot short movies), so take this with a grain of salt, but I have a 500W Lowel Omni with speedring and photoflex softboxes (small and medium), a lowell 200 w pro-light, and a scoop/photoflood light (cheap!) with umbrella adaptor (I put in a Y edison adaptor and two regular 200watt bulbs to make a 400w softlight for fill). Stands for all three.

The stuff is on the lower/cheaper end of pro lighting but Im happy with what feels like a nearing complete kit that will do me solid for a while. People say the Lowel stuff lasts. I plan on adding a larger softbox, then replacing the scoop light with a Tota, then maybe another 200W pro-light for backgrounds and such.

So one vote for lowel, but then again maybe used small HMIs and fresnels are the same price I dunno.
Click to expand...

sonofaresiii said:
lowel is the way to go for a young filmmaker looking to build their experience and keep their credit score reasonable.
Click to expand...

I've heard great things about Lowel. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong categories, but I'm on the site, and most of the kits are over $1k. I'll keep looking though.


stefancolson said:
I would strongly recommend going with an LED based package to begin with. As a young, independent filmmaker, you will benefit greatly from lighter fixtures that stay cool, can be powered via battery, and are daylight-balanced. Round out the kit with a CDM-150 from coollights, which is a daylight-balanced fresnel (a quasi-HMI if you will).

Two of these: http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Photog...e=UTF8&qid=1346219678&sr=8-3&keywords=led+600

And one of these: http://www.coollights.biz/clmf0150-cool-lights-fresnel-p-63.html

Add some stands and a case and you're set within your budget. You will have most of the versatility of a traditional tungsten kit, except with the following advantages:

Safely and reliably plug all of your lights into the same circuit
Pack up almost immediately after you wrap
Run 2/3 of your light kit on batteries if needed (Hello night exteriors without a generator)
Easily match daylight without gelling your windows or losing output on your fixtures
Easily dimmable/scrimmable
Those LEDs are very durable, without worrying about bulbs
Extremely quick and easy to setup and reset

As you grow, you can add a couple of fluorescent Kino-style fixtures, another CDM-150 or two, and some smaller LED panels. You'll have a very versatile, small and lightweight, cool (temperature-wise), daylight-balanced kit. Definitely enough to cover whatever ground you need on a budget that prevents you from renting more gear.
Click to expand...

The first one is out of stock. But this look like a really good deal. I'll keep this in mind.

paulears said:
The kit with the green screens both have one disadvantage - 85w LEDs - you'd use one of these in your living room and think it pretty dim compared with the old proper bulbs we now consider 'dangerous to the world'. The LED panels are much brighter. You mentioned the clamp lights not being bright enough - so rest assured the 85W LEDs will be even worse!

The LED panels are brighter. However - for green screen work, you need a bright screen, but what about lighting the people in front of it?

If you have a limited budget, why not consider hiring what you need? If you don't usually work indoors, the money you have could be wasted buying lights that may be useless for your next indoor project? I've got a very large stock of lighting kit, and 90% of it remains in the store at any one time - almost every job requires something different. I've got some of those 85W softlights and I have NEVER used them because they were so dim as to be a waste of time! If you lived in the UK I'd give them to you! The screen and grip gear alwys come in handy - but low wattage CFLs are horrible things! LED light panels are getting better all the time.
Click to expand...


Wow!!!!! Can these really be even worse then my clamp lights? I use 75w bulbs in my clamp lights, I have 3 of them, and they're almost useless, unless you're doing close up shots. The softboxes are... 85w per bulb... 4 bulbs in each one... 12 85w bulbs. Sounds better then my clamp lights, but maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

By the way, have you guys ever seen this guys youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSrpcGf3gc&feature=plcp

I learned a lot of what I know from him (not that I know a lot, but whatever jaja). He says his favorite light from his kit (huuuuge kit :crybaby:) is the FloLight Microbeam 1024.
 
yeah it's fun to watch Ryan Connoly, he makes learning filmmaking fun. But now that I'm more advance, his tutorial just seem boring and redundant.
 
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