Work Lights

Hot. Very. Hot to touch and hot on the actors.

Although I wouldn't hesitate much to bounce them off a wall or ceiling to bring up the overall ambience of a room. Or use them to throw a decent amount of light a long way.
 
Good, high temp gels might be ok...especially if you can get them well in front of the lights.

Fiberglas diffusers should be ok. They dont get hot eough to melt glass. :)

I've melted other things with them before, though. Best to test. My original thick plastic barndoors drooped after about 10 minutes.
 
I've used umbrellas and other diffusion material (pro stuff, not DIY, cause it was cheap enough) in front of them with no problems. Still, they are nice and hot, so I'm looking at flos.

Fox
 
I used a 500w worklight from Wal-Mart on a shoot over this past summer, it was incredibly hard to control the light, and I ended up just using it as a bounce. Burnt my hand on it very easiy. Now I use it as a space heater (joking)
 
I think dimming them changes the color temp, but I might be making that up. Someone here knows for sure.
 
JasonFox said:
I think dimming them changes the color temp, but I might be making that up. Someone here knows for sure.
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Yep. Dimming them will make them go even warmer than they normally are, but you can just do a manual white balance.
 
You can also use blackwrap (or aluminum foil if you are on a budget) to shape the light.
 
Work lights, in my experience, work well for the broad strokes of lighting- if a room is too dark to shoot in and isn't supposed to be dark then using work lights might work real well.
We used two worklights to light a smaller window when we were shooting night for day in a bedroom. And it worked real well.

I believe so much of lighting consists of little nuances, and needing ways to control the light. So, while work lights might not be the final answer for lighting- they can work really well for lots of purposes on set.
 
well it depends what your shooting and if its indoor/outdoor/far away/ up close/ above/ below/ behind something.

i shoot alot of skateboarding and work lights are an awesome option when you have 50 bucks in your pocket and need to light something up. as you can see in the clip below i used 500w work lights ranging from 2-4 individual lights. shot on vx2100 shutterspeed 1/60th, f6-9db, manual whitebalance.

http://homepage.mac.com/skatetpc/Media_StockHold/iMovieTheater16.html
 
If they start going orange when you dim them, correct them with 1/8 or 1/4 CTB (Color Temperature Blue) Gel. Try using the stock grill after clipping with dykes the center grill rods, and when using gels, bow them out a few inches in the center to allow venting. Blackwrap works well for barndoors, again allowing for venting at the top. May as well drill a few holes in the yellow part of the housing while you're at it. Remember, they make a 250 watt globe for those lights that can come in handy, and with a little ingenuity and some foamcore with 216 White Diffusion Gel you can make a single use softbox. (have your extinguisher handy on that one though.) Augment your kit with a pair of $5.00 clamp lights with 8-10" aluminum reflectors and experiment with different globes ( 120 watt floods and 75 watt spots are winners) Also, make a dimmer from parts available at home depot. Also the 50 watt spots can come in handy, they're tiny, and you can use them without the reflector - they don't get red hot. I have a couple sockets mounted to #2 clamps with the 50 watt spots that I use for eye-lights, and am particularly fond of them.
 
Whiteside Production said:
what do you think about putting diffusers in front of them or gels? melting?
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place a separate boom infront of the lights and clip the gels to the separate boom. It should work for what you need
 
hello, I also use work lights and I diffuse these hot lights with Parchment(sp?) paper which looks similar to wax paper but can be put in the oven to bake cookies on. Maybe at your local grocery store near the aluminum foil and wax paper. I think it is also similar to what Subway (sandwich shoppes) use to toast their sandwiches on in their toaster ovens. clip on with wood clothespins. (c34s) Light looks beautiful thru parchment paper.
 
Were you using an on-camera light for the night time skateboard shots? What did you use? Im looking for a cheap portable light to use at night... I may just buy a flashlight!
 
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