Practical ligthing bulb power!

jgastelb

jgastelb

Well-known member
I heard that some people replace the practical lights with stronger bulbs to up the lighting in their scene. I have been looking at the sockets in my house to see what I can put in there but most say not to put anything there stronger than 60watts because of fire hazard. Am I really taking too many chances if I add a 150 watts bulb just to up the light in a scene for a few minutes or is this really a big No-No???
Jgastelb
 
Not if you don't like the lamp....LOL
Heat, the cords inabilty to withstand the current....You would need to re-wire the fixture first. Home depot, and I believe Loews has this all set to go in a 660 watt version....probably less than 10 bucks.
.Besides, " a few minutes" on a film set, is 2 hours....
 
Also, keep in mind that Photofloods burn brighter than a typical household bulb. So replacing a 60 watt household bulb with a 60 watt photoflood will give you raised illumination. However, just replacing bulbs in practicals will not do it for you. Most of the time if I'm replacing practicals, it's to lower the wattage because practicals can blow out on screen very easily. Keep in mind that when you see a practical lamp in a movie lighting up a room, it's rarely just that practical that's doing the illuminating.
 
I always carry an assortment of globes for practicals. The ones that I use most frequently are: PH-211, PH-212, PH-213, ECA, ECT and a number of different compact fluorescents. Add to that some black foil a good sized Variac and a lot of different types of diffusion and you can usually get practicals to levels that will work for most shots.
 
A variac (dimmer) definitly help. Another thing I forgot to mention - the power of diffusion inside a lampshade.
 
filmat11 said:
Not if you don't like the lamp....LOL
Heat, the cords inabilty to withstand the current....You would need to re-wire the fixture first. Home depot, and I believe Loews has this all set to go in a 660 watt version....probably less than 10 bucks.
.Besides, " a few minutes" on a film set, is 2 hours....
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Hahaha right on, friend.
 
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