Inexpensive Newbie Lighting Kit

January 3, 2005

Hi all,

I've never even made a film yet, but I'm gathering all of my gear and doing my research. My father is a photographer, but not for film. I originally thought that I would be able to use his lighting equipment, but all of his stuff is for flash photography. So, now I'm back at square one. I've seen some Lowell kits on my other message board I post to for my camera, but I would like to ask the pros of lighting here first for some recommendations before making my purchase.

I will be using the Sony HDR-FX1 camera for my films and editing on Avid Xpress Pro HD. I will be filming everything in the HDV format, but I won't be able to edit my footage natively in Avid until mid 2005 which I'm aware of.

I'm not looking for anything fancy at all!! I just need a simple lighting kit with (I'm hoping) a nice set of tools and options.

Any recommendations?

Filip Plesha · January 3, 2005

Hi all,

I've never even made a film yet, but I'm gathering all of my gear and doing my research. My father is a photographer, but not for film. I originally thought that I would be able to use his lighting equipment, but all of his stuff is for flash photography. So, now I'm back at square one. I've seen some Lowell kits on my other message board I post to for my camera, but I would like to ask the pros of lighting here first for some recommendations before making my purchase.

I will be using the Sony HDR-FX1 camera for my films and editing on Avid Xpress Pro HD. I will be filming everything in the HDV format, but I won't be able to edit my footage natively in Avid until mid 2005 which I'm aware of.

I'm not looking for anything fancy at all!! I just need a simple lighting kit with (I'm hoping) a nice set of tools and options.

Any recommendations?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You could start with continuous lighting for still photography and video. You should get some nice tungsten units with all the accessories you need at reasonable prices. I'd recommend you what I am using for photography, but you are in US, and you have differnet electricity and my equipment is german, so I'll just shut up

Edited January 3, 2005 by Filip Plesha

January 3, 2005

You could start with continuous lighting for still photography and video. You should get some nice tungsten units with all the accessories you need at reasonable prices. I'd recommend you what I am using for photography, but you are in US, and you have differnet electricity and my equipment is german, so I'll just shut up

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thank you for your response Filip.

Filip Plesha · January 3, 2005

thank you for your response Filip.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well I didn't really say anything usefull

January 3, 2005

You could always do what I do. Go looking around for second hand stuff, not specifically designed for film but they work.

You could try eBay for some continuous lights, but make sure they are powerful and you can still get light bulbs for them.

Or you could try floodlights, they're pretty inexpensive and work great as a fill or key light.

I mean I haven't even got lighting designed for film or photography, but I can get still get good results.

It's the guerilla way!

Edited January 3, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Phil Rhodes · January 4, 2005

Hi,

Home Depot/B&Q/insert local store name. There are certain types of light, but after a certain point, light is just a stream of photons and you will find lots of photon cannon at your friendly neighbourhood DIY centre.

What makes more difference is the ability to control, diffuse, flag, aim, reflect the light, most of which can also be fudged up with bits and pieces from DIY land.

Phil

January 4, 2005

Wow! So I can actually use flood lights and normal (but strong) lighting from Home Depot and such?!

Excellent! What do you think about Gels and stuff like that though? One thing I was reading is that in order to keep the lighting consistent that you need to place orange gels on your windows if there is sun light coming through them to keep the sun light similar to the tungsten orange light. Is that really necessary?

DavidSloan · January 4, 2005

Wow! So I can actually use flood lights and normal (but strong) lighting from Home Depot and such?!

Excellent! What do you think about Gels and stuff like that though? One thing I was reading is that in order to keep the lighting consistent that you need to place orange gels on your windows if there is sun light coming through them to keep the sun light similar to the tungsten orange light. Is that really necessary?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you're using tungsten film, or have your dv camera balanced for tungsten, then you need to CTO the windows in order to "correct" the color temperature which is streaming from the outside, i.e., daylight. Daylight and tungsten lights are different temperatures on the kelvin scale: T=3200K, D=5600K. This is extremely basic information though, I think you had better read a basic cinematography book. Kris Malkiewitz's Cinematography, is a good start, for you.

Tim Tyler · January 4, 2005

Wow! So I can actually use flood lights and normal (but strong) lighting from Home Depot and such?!

Don't do Home Depot lights unless you have absolutely no money to spend.

Even if you have a few bucks you can get cheap video lights from Britek (google it) or the slightly more expensive Lowel Lights.

Search this forum's lighting category for similar threads too.

I've heard good things about this place: http://www.rostronics.com/products.asp?cat=27 or BHPhotoVideo.com has a wide selection of Lowel stuff.

Edited January 4, 2005 by TimTyler

Ed Nyankori · January 4, 2005

Well if you've got the scratch for a Sony HDV & Avid then put some money in your lighting gear as well. I think the most popular light kit for dv is the Arri Kit w/ 2 650W, 1 300W and a 1k broad, stands and accesories in a rolling case. Altman Lights makes a couple kits I think are very versatile (all of these are available at bhphoto.com link below). Altman fresnels have a larger lens size than arri&mole which, I think, gives you more versatility with a

limited number of fixtures.

I own a Lowel DP4 which are all open faced 1ks, which has its own set of issues, but Im learning to control them and make excellent use of them. Many people, especially dv people, hate them...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...ht+kit&ci=1&ac=

Phil Rhodes · January 4, 2005

Hi,

> normal (but strong)

It's often not about amount. The thing I hate most of all is to have a location person say "Look, there's lots of huge windows, there's lots of light." Great, wonderful, huge amounts of light I have to control with no resources.

Phil

January 4, 2005

I think you had better read a basic cinematography book. Kris Malkiewitz's Cinematography, is a good start, for you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have picked up two books on the subject actually. I bought "Painting with Light" by John Alton and "The 5 C's of Cinematography". I'm about halfway through the "Painting with Light" book. that book is pretty neat because it was published in 1949 and John Alton says stuff like "with the new advancement of color film" :lol:

I just talked to my dad, and he recommended that i watch the movie "girl with the pearl earring". He said that it was one of the most beatifully filmed movies he's seen in a long time. He said the movie itself was a tad slow, but the filming was astounding.

Edited January 4, 2005 by Adam Rench

Bill Totolo · January 4, 2005

In going to Home Depot and purchasing flood lights all you are going to acheive is a weak broad source of light that will be difficult to shape and make your midtones muddy.

If you go the route of buying an ARRI 1K and a couple of 650's this really amounts to a portable ENG kit, which isn't bad, but you'll quickly want to supplement with rentals along the way. It's a good package because you get fresnel lenses, barn doors and scrims which give you flexibilty in controlling light but they're small, low wattage sources which will suffer from the inverse square law as soon as your characters begin moving in the frame. BTW, arri lights are pretty durable.

You'll eventually want to rent sources like Mickey moles, KinoFlows, Dedos, zip lights, source fours etc...

I think you'll be happier with the tools you can rent than the ones you may be able to afford. In the end you want to be happy with what's on the screen.

Filip Plesha · January 4, 2005

If you want accessories then you can't use anything, you have to get something

professional.

Pro lighting has tested and accuratly "calibrated" bulbs that will give you

exact color temperature it says on the box, and usually they have a specified number of working hours. So they are more predictable in every way.

But don't expect bulbs to cost like your ordinary household bulbs.

For example, I pay about 40 dollars for a 1250W 75 hour tungsten bulb. And I'm guessing that cinema bulbs are more expenive than that. And HMI bulbs are

WAY more epensive on both photo and cinema fields. But they are not so hot and last longer.

Sometimes you can improvise with some of the accessories. For example,

you don't need to buy expensive reflecting equipment if you are saving money, you can use something that will give you satisfactionary results.

Some things can be improvised, some can't. In the end it comes down to what

you want your subjects/scenes to look like.

Sometimes a simple hard light from a cheap backyard halogen light might give you just the look you were after.

On the other hand,sometimes you can spend thousands of dollars on lighting and still not get what you want. And that is why your creativity and skill to materialize your visions and is far more important that fancy lighting (well you have to have something to start from of course).

Dan Salzmann · January 6, 2005

Lowell stuff is pretty good. Your question depends alot on what you want to do on a per project basis. "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" is quite beautiful but the sets were built with the use of highly diffused very large HMI sources in mind.

I believe that it is important to really study what the intentions of the film one is working on are and to balance this with the budget and schedule that the production can afford.

I agree with Phil. DIY land can offer some very effective solutions. That being said you should look at what it costs to rent on a one-time basis as opposed to buying.