Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: The difference in Photofloods & Practicals
Re: The difference in Photofloods & Practicals
[quote author=magicdavek link=board=lighting;num=1078080402;start=0#11 date=03/08/04 at 20:03:52]
Hey Barry, any suggestions? (inexpensive approaches preferred)[/quote]
I'm coming to this discussion late, so let me make sure I'm addressing the right thing: you're looking for "sunlight" solutions, the cheaper the better, right?
Okay, to regress: you asked how the "big boys" do it... they primarily use Kino Flo's (with daylight tubes) for soft light, and HMI's for hard light. Kino Flo's are, of course, fluorescent fixtures with special lamps that are extremely accurate in color rendition, and you can get those lamps in either tungsten or daylight colors.
HMI's are a unique light source, they're basically like a crossbreed between a fluorescent and a tungsten hard light. They have the daylight color of a daylight-fluorescent, and the high power efficiency of a fluorescent, but the kind of light they put out is the same as you'd get from a tungsten: punchy, powerful hard light. So for hard light sources, the big boys use HMI's. HMI's can be VERY powerful, too: small units are 575 watt, but put out as much light as a 2,000 watt tungsten unit would. (Which gets even worse: you'd have to gel the tungsten light with blue if you wanted it to match sunlight, so you'd actually need 8,000 watts of tungsten to get the same punch of blue light that you'd get from a 575w HMI!)
HMI's are, of course expensive!
So are Kino Flo's.
So let's ignore those. You want cheap solutions?
The cheapest solution is to use a mirror and redirect the natural sunlight. Professionals use "mirror boards", which are big glass mirrors mounted in a yoke that can be mounted on a c-stand and directed wherever you need. The problem with using a mirror is that the sun MOVES, and it moves very quickly through the sky, and every inch it moves means you have to reposition the mirror.
"Shiny boards" are another solution, they are basically like a mirror board but instead of being a glass mirror, they're a big silver reflective surface. Still gives a strong hard light, nowhere near as efficient or hard as a mirror board though.
But those probably aren't the solution you're looking for -- they require a direct line-of-sight to the sun, which many times won't be practical. And, they require direct sunlight, which means on an overcast day they're completely useless.
Other ways of getting a "sunlight" look would be to use daylight-balanced photofloods (as has been discussed heretofore) or daylight-balanced fluorescents, or gelling tungsten lights.
Photofloods can be a reasonable choice, for a short while. The bulbs do change temperature and they do have a short life. But they're about the cheapest reasonable way to get a splash of sunlight.
For fluorescents, the great thing about the DVX is that you can tailor in the shutter speed to eliminate any flicker. So you could use some $20 fluorescent fixtures down at Lowe's, and buy some specific daylight tubes. There are tubes made in almost every color, although lots of the daylight tubes are 6500k. That's not the 5600k preset, but it's not really bad, either, they'll just look a little bit bluer on tape. You can always gel 'em down to get closer to 5600, with maybe a sheet of 1/8 CTO.
But for sunlight, you want hard direct light. Sunlight is the hardest, punchiest light source in the known universe. So you'd want a small pinpoint light source, like a photoflood, or you could use the Lowe's worklight with some blue gel.
Perhaps the cheapest practical solution would be a Lowe's worklight, with some blackwrap around it to make "barn doors" or a snoot, and then a sheet of CTB in front of it. You'll need a fairly strong light, because CTB gel costs you about 2 stops, so a 500 watt halogen bulb is only going to deliver about 125 watts worth of "sunlight". So get a 2,000 watt worklight pair, make a homemade blackwrap snoot around it, put a blue CTB gel in front of it, and you'll have 500 watts of "daylight" streaming into your scene, all for $50 or less.
Re: The difference in Photofloods & Practicals
[quote author=magicdavek link=board=lighting;num=1078080402;start=0#11 date=03/08/04 at 20:03:52]
Hey Barry, any suggestions? (inexpensive approaches preferred)[/quote]
I'm coming to this discussion late, so let me make sure I'm addressing the right thing: you're looking for "sunlight" solutions, the cheaper the better, right?
Okay, to regress: you asked how the "big boys" do it... they primarily use Kino Flo's (with daylight tubes) for soft light, and HMI's for hard light. Kino Flo's are, of course, fluorescent fixtures with special lamps that are extremely accurate in color rendition, and you can get those lamps in either tungsten or daylight colors.
HMI's are a unique light source, they're basically like a crossbreed between a fluorescent and a tungsten hard light. They have the daylight color of a daylight-fluorescent, and the high power efficiency of a fluorescent, but the kind of light they put out is the same as you'd get from a tungsten: punchy, powerful hard light. So for hard light sources, the big boys use HMI's. HMI's can be VERY powerful, too: small units are 575 watt, but put out as much light as a 2,000 watt tungsten unit would. (Which gets even worse: you'd have to gel the tungsten light with blue if you wanted it to match sunlight, so you'd actually need 8,000 watts of tungsten to get the same punch of blue light that you'd get from a 575w HMI!)
HMI's are, of course expensive!
So are Kino Flo's.
So let's ignore those. You want cheap solutions?
The cheapest solution is to use a mirror and redirect the natural sunlight. Professionals use "mirror boards", which are big glass mirrors mounted in a yoke that can be mounted on a c-stand and directed wherever you need. The problem with using a mirror is that the sun MOVES, and it moves very quickly through the sky, and every inch it moves means you have to reposition the mirror.
"Shiny boards" are another solution, they are basically like a mirror board but instead of being a glass mirror, they're a big silver reflective surface. Still gives a strong hard light, nowhere near as efficient or hard as a mirror board though.
But those probably aren't the solution you're looking for -- they require a direct line-of-sight to the sun, which many times won't be practical. And, they require direct sunlight, which means on an overcast day they're completely useless.
Other ways of getting a "sunlight" look would be to use daylight-balanced photofloods (as has been discussed heretofore) or daylight-balanced fluorescents, or gelling tungsten lights.
Photofloods can be a reasonable choice, for a short while. The bulbs do change temperature and they do have a short life. But they're about the cheapest reasonable way to get a splash of sunlight.
For fluorescents, the great thing about the DVX is that you can tailor in the shutter speed to eliminate any flicker. So you could use some $20 fluorescent fixtures down at Lowe's, and buy some specific daylight tubes. There are tubes made in almost every color, although lots of the daylight tubes are 6500k. That's not the 5600k preset, but it's not really bad, either, they'll just look a little bit bluer on tape. You can always gel 'em down to get closer to 5600, with maybe a sheet of 1/8 CTO.
But for sunlight, you want hard direct light. Sunlight is the hardest, punchiest light source in the known universe. So you'd want a small pinpoint light source, like a photoflood, or you could use the Lowe's worklight with some blue gel.
Perhaps the cheapest practical solution would be a Lowe's worklight, with some blackwrap around it to make "barn doors" or a snoot, and then a sheet of CTB in front of it. You'll need a fairly strong light, because CTB gel costs you about 2 stops, so a 500 watt halogen bulb is only going to deliver about 125 watts worth of "sunlight". So get a 2,000 watt worklight pair, make a homemade blackwrap snoot around it, put a blue CTB gel in front of it, and you'll have 500 watts of "daylight" streaming into your scene, all for $50 or less.
