Question about lighting

You can do anything you like, it's just a question of how good it'll look ;). I've used a pair of lights just like that I got from Home Depot for years. They are extremely bright but cast very harsh shadows, so do whatever you can to diffuse the light. I bought some plastic material to mount on the front but they burned pretty quickly so I took them off.

One of the best things you can do with these types of lights is shoot them off a white ceiling. You get a very soft, very good white light everywhere that looks great. Sure, you don't get to artistically choose where shadows should go, but that's what $50 gets you and it's way better than shooting with no lights at all.
 
...If I had to start with just one light, I would buy this:

Lowel Tota-light One-Light Kit : $180

- Super bright ( 750 watts )
- Can be used direct to light a wall or a ceiling
- Has horizontal barn-doors so it gives you a fair bit of control of the light spread
- Can be used with an umbrella, either shoot-through white, or a normal bounce umbrella
- Can be used with a video soft-box, for bright and beautiful portrait light
- Can easily be adapted for daylight balance
- Is industry standard equipment, so you can rent it just about anywhere
- It's easy to get parts if something goes missing or breaks
- Runs all day without any problems
- Very light weight and compact to travel with

*** DO NOT BUY JUNK ***

Start with something good, that you can eventually build into a full light kit.
 
Unless you are shooting a band, outside, in the dark, with an old camera, you don't want that kind of work light. You want controllable light. I hate Totas which are barely controllable and get extremely hot, but they can mostly light up a room with a few people when bounced off the side wall. Two or three lower lumen lights from the front, side or back are much better than one brighter light bounced. Light bounced off a ceiling gives you a boring commercial building look, like in an office or store, which if fine if that is your setting. Buy several sheets of real (fireproof!) diffusion and a couple sheets of 3x4 white foam core at OfficeMax to help bounce and block light as needed. Look for and use as much naturally available light as you can - windows, lamps, streetlights, whatever. It will make your scene look more real and less lit.
 
BVX said:
I hate Totas which are barely controllable and get extremely hot, but they can mostly light up a room with a few people when bounced off the side wall.
Click to expand...

Totas are completely controllable, it really depends on how you use them. You can pop them into a video soft-box and then add an egg-crate if you want a narrow beam of soft and very flattering light. Makes for a very beautiful interview light.

Yes, they do get very hot, but so does every other high wattage tungsten light.

Fluorescents run very cool, but they are a lot more bulky and fragile.

LED lights are just way too expensive compared to the alternatives.
 
I love totas :)

I love that Lowel kit with the Soft-box, a tota, and a little "pro" light (like a mini fresnel'd arri.) Great little kit.
 
Well, in a crunch you can use a work light with thick tinfoil to control the light. Shoot it through diffusion or bounce it off ceiling/walls.

You will likely run into problems with fill though unless you have more than one of these.

If you get the florescent work lights you can use parchment (tracing) paper for diffusion as the lights don't get that hot. They are usually 6500K though.
 
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