Maxibrutes

[Christian Janss]

I've got a night exterior in the forrest with super 16 500T. Of course, the bulk of the action takes place under medium tree cover. But there is a place slightly up hill, and maybe 60 feet away, that is clear enough for a 9-light Maxibrute and a diffusion frame or bounce.

 

I've read up on the maxibrute postings and the night exterior postings, but what I'm wondering is how much does either bouncing or shining thru grid cloth cut down on the exposure level of the maxibrute?

 

Or should I scrap the maxi because of the trees and just use 5ks and 2ks as like rays of moonlight hidden in and behind trees?

 

Sorry if this question is too broad, I guess I just have to make the call.

 

thx

[Mike Williamson]

You can find the photometrics for a 9 Light Maxi on the Mole-Richardson website.

http://extranet.mole.com/store/images/backpage/5771-L.gif

 

It's not too tough to have a couple diffusion frames standing by the light and just use trial and error to see what's workable. And if you lose too much stop to the lightest diffusion, pull the frame and go hard.

 

I think in situation where you have a lot of objects between you and the light (trees in this case), using a multi-globe unit like a Maxi will be better than using a large unit with a single globe like a 10K. The light will penetrate deeper into the forest because it's coming from a number of lamps in slightly different positions. The downside would be the slightly weird shadow pattern, but that's not as much of an issue if you're using it as a backlight.

 

It's probably a good idea to have more units handy, as it's likely that you'll need something besides the Maxi at some point during the evening.

[timHealy]

Maxibrutes and their cousins (12 light maxis, dinos, super dinos, ruby7's) are all great lights for night exteriors and are used all the time. They are quite variable with all the different bulb types you can put in them including 1200 watt firestarters which are not on the link Mike provided. Stick with the maxi instead of 2k's and 5k's with a mix of medium and spot globes and you should be OK. If in doubt get all narrow par globes and you should have plenty of light where you need it. Actually shooting it threw some trees will add some natural breakup to it.

 

Best

 

Tim

[Andrew Koch]

If you do use the 1200W firestarters and are lighting through the trees, make sure you have enough distance from the leaves or anything else because you will burn them and possibly cause a fire, hence the name. If you already know this than you'll know what to do.

[Christian Janss]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. The shoot was harrowing but ultimately successful. Now that I've seen what those things can do with my own eyes, I'm in love with Maxibrutes.

[Mike Williamson]

Maxibrutes are easy to love, glad they worked out for you. Do you have any stills from the project?

[Bill Totolo]

Any opinions on the daylight globes?