low budget lighting

[Dileep Madhu]

hi everyone,

i am in an tight budget and can't really afford studio lights. I am hoping that i will be able to produce more or less same lighting effects with much cheaper light sources. Which light sources should i buy? i would appreciate some help on this topic. (creative lighting techniques using halogen, tungsten lights etc are also appreciated)

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Why not Rent? For the price of renting a full kit of lights you could buy perhaps 2 heads...

[Dileep Madhu]

thanks but do you think we can replicate the three point studio lighting structure with common or much cheaper light sources to good effect?

[Stuart Brereton]

Open face lamps (up to a certain wattage) can be reasonably imitated by security/work type fixtures available easily and cheaply at places like Home Depot (in the US) or B&Q (in the UK). If you are putting the light through diffusion, it really doesn't matter too much if it's coming from a $20 work lamp or a $300 movie light

 

Fluorescent lamps are pretty easy to improvise, as long as you use a High Frequency ballast, and high CRI tubes

 

Other than that, for any lamp with a lens, like a Fresnel, a Profile spot, a Source 4 or a narrow PAR, you are going to have to use the real thing.

[verlon allen]

China lanterns are cheep, and can be controlled to some extent with the aid of a blackwrap. Too, you can pick up some scoop style work lights for a harder light.. I would find units that have porcelain sockets and are rated for up to 660 watts, then you could outfit them with 500 watt photoflood bulbs (tungsten or daylight balanced)....Again I would suggest you have some blackwrap on hand to shape the light.

 

Think about mirrors too. You can pick up small 1x1 tiles or larger mirrors to steal a little of that free sunlight. If you do decide on mirrors, I would suggest you gaff tape the edges as they can become very expensive once you include the cost of stitches.

 

Good luck

V

 

ps the down side to using mirrors is that you are always chasing the light as the sun goes about it's business.

Edited November 5, 2010 by verlon allen

[Phil Rhodes]

Other than that, for any lamp with a lens, like a Fresnel, a Profile spot, a Source 4 or a narrow PAR, you are going to have to use the real thing.

Absolutely.

Of course, you can just go and buy a parcan from a theatrical lighting supplier, and put any PAR unit you want in it.

Also there are far cheaper things than source 4s that do more or less the same thing.

P

[Brian Drysdale]

Lots of lights you can use, I've just been doing some clearing out at my mother's house and we found my first lights - B&Q work lights would be really up market compared to these.