Poor man's Lighting questions

S

Sudafed

Member
Well, first off, I should say that I was a moron when I used all my budget on cameras and stabilizers. With that out of the way, I've seen tons of DIY lighting setups that you can do, but I have some questions about the power output and powering aspects of it.

The setup is easy enough, but will it really look good on HD? I mean, photography is one thing, but HD video requires a finesse, y'know? Also, will it offer enough power to get a decent shot? Most of the DIY I have seen speak about flood lights on a tripod.

Also, no doubt the light that they put off is the incorrect color temperature. Is there a good neutral color temperature I should buy?

Also, is there a battery system I could use that doesn't emit too much sound that I can use for the lights?

If you have any good DIY lighting setup sites, send em my way. I'd love the communities input.
 
It would help tremendously if you told us:

1. What DIY setup you were talking about. A 23w CFL is going to be regarded very differently from a set of 1200w Worklights.

2. What your scene's look like. Are you shooting products for advertising? Are you trying to light a gymnasium or a ballroom? Are you trying to light a football field? Give us some scope of what you are trying to do.

3. Color temperature isn't necessarily a problem if you aren't trying to match other lighting sources. In a room with no windows, the only light is what you're bringing. And the color temperature won't matter (much) to the camera at all.

4. Battery power for what size lights? You can power a 500w incandescent for a while. But powering 5Kw of tungstens isn't going to cut it.
 
Well, I was looking at purchasing some halogen work lights. Probably getting 2 150's and a 300w. Replace the standard bulb with a white halogen and diffuse it, and possibly put some gels in front.

http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/diy/

This was a heavy source. Look it over. If you have anything better, throw it at me.
 
Using daylight balanced CFLs like THESE in a clip on lamp is a cheap and versatile option. But, you get very little control. I have used these with diffusion paper over them in a pinch. Having some blackwrap and foamcore always helps

Worklights can be a good option for tungsten if you are on a really low budget. I built some barndoors for mine out of sheet metal and painted them with high-temp black paint, balanced bulbs, and put THESE on them to fit on to regular lightstands. They work as well as any comparable open-faced kightwith barndoors, but they get VERY hot, very fast. Much hotter than my other tungsten lights.

Either method can serve you well. But, if I had to do it all over again, I would have found a way to get some "real" lights sooner. Companies like Britek can give you a 300 Watt light with barndoors and softbox for less than $150 (if memory serves) I have also picked up some good deals on Craigslist (Once getting 2 1K and 2 600W Smith Victors, 2 w/barndoors and cheapie stands) for a total of 60 Bucks. There's nothng wrong with home-made (all of my flos are homemade), but having one or two good lights, with a couple of homemade ones to supplement them is bettr than having a dozen makeshift ones.
 
Alright... now what about powering these? any particular battery source or anything I should look at? And as far as diffusion goes, should I just purchase a diffusion screen or some cloth and mount it on a frame?
 
Well most of the CFL's Brennan mentioned above would fit any Edison style light source... IE a house lamp or whatever... for diffusion, the easiest cost effective way is to get a thin white sheet or the like and do what you can with it... best of luck!
 
the best budget solution to great lighting is Britek's halogen lights and their softboxes. Don't get the "fancy" lights from them as it's a cheap company. what you want are those simple halogen square lights and softboxes.

One 1k and one 500w will go a long way.
 
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