DSLR DIY lighting gears 101 links

[Bowie Rascal]

guys i know this question already asked before this in the forum. but we still having difficult to find some DIY lights for our movies.

1-please share the cool websites you know to do lighting gears on own.

2-if u can re post the DIY lighting gear question already asked in this forum again here it will be a great help for us sir.

3-share any good article about DIY lighting gears.

our team have the money now in hand to do our own lighting gears. we don't want to waste our money on useless do it yourself lighting gear for our DSLR movie. so please share with us some good lighting gears that we can do our own. we already done alot of things for our camera like steady cam, dolly, crane etc. now we need lighting gears. i really appreciate your time to answer my question. it will be a great help for me sir, thankx in advance.

[Bowie Rascal]

alot of people are viewing because they need help on this, is there anyone out to share some links with us, please.

 

let me be the first person to share a website with you guys.

i find this website have some DIY lighting gears:

http://www.jorenclark.com/whitepapers.html

 

hope u guys will post some links too!

[klas persson]

I have done one, inspired by Roger Deakins's diy rigs, in a bread crate. The one I did have no mounting options for any stands or anything. It is just a box of light that you can stand wherever.

Link!

Just a bread crate with a plywood sheet and then another bread crate as a lid for protection.

I like it a lot and have used it quite a bit. Mostly for fires, candles, lanterns and that sort of things.

[Guy Holt]

I have done one, inspired by Roger Deakins's diy rigs... It is just a box of light that you can stand wherever.Link!

 

DIY is not only for low budget indies. As Klas points out, similar rigs are used all the time on big budget features. The one’s I’ve worked with have had chicken wire arched over the bulbs so that you can had diffusion or gel quickly.

 

… please share with us some good lighting gears that we can do our own. we already done alot of things for our camera like steady cam, dolly, crane etc. now we need lighting gears.

 

When it comes to lighting equipment, you generally get what you pay for. Lighting gear is so specific to the requirements of our industry that it is hard to build your own. Take fluorescent lights. Kinos use high frequency ballasts to eliminate flicker or scrolling. You can get cheap high frequency fluorescent ballasts from a residential lighting supplier but they can have another type of flicker problem called an “eratz ripple.” Even though the ballasts put out a high-frequency cycle, that cycle stacks to create a lower frequency waveform which causes the light to pulsate. In a number of incidents, 24p video cameras and film cameras operating within a flicker-free window have picked up flicker from the “eratz ripple” effect. When making your own fluorescent soft banks it is necessary to shoot tests with the ballast you plan to use to make sure you will not get an “eratz ripple.” 
Kino Flo fixtures, on the other hand, use high frequency electronic ballasts that run at specific high frequencies that eliminate the generation of an “eratz ripple” (most at 25 kHz , the Parabeam Light at greater than 30 kHz) resulting in flicker free operation at any frame rate or shutter setting. Kino Flo ballasts also incorporate advanced electronic circuitry so that they will ignite a lamp instantly, even when cold, requiring no warm up time.

 

To drive their tubes as brightly as possible, Kino Flo ballasts also send a higher output current to the lamps, than standard high frequency electronic fluorescent ballasts. For this reason only Kino Flo True Match lamps should be used in Kino Flo fixtures. The phosphors in Kino Flo True Match Lamps have been reformulated to match the spectral sensitivity curves of film and digital imaging equipment at the higher milliamps at which the ballasts operate. If that weren’t enough to justify the price of Kino fixtures, the newer Kino Flo fixtures that use the biax tubes use ballasts that include Power Factor Correction (PFC) circuitry. As it does in HMI ballasts, this advanced electronics contributes to a more economical use of power than conventional electronic ballasts. For example, a Kino Flo Parabeam 400 draws less than half of the power (2 Amps) of a comparable 4’ – 4 Bank “shop light” (4.6 Amps). While this nearly 3 amp difference is not a major consideration when using house power, it can make a difference when your power is coming from a portable generator because you can use two Parabeam 400s for the same power as a 4’ – 4 Bank “shop light”. With a Power Factor Rating of over .9, the Parabeam 400 fixtures are especially well suited for use on small portable generators.

 

The fourth and final magical ingredient to Kino Flo ballasts pertains to the newer Biax fixtures (Diva, Parabeam, Vistabeam, Barfly) and is probably the most difficult to understand because it has to do with the vagaries associated with the load put on portable generators. If you haven't already, I would suggest you read the article I wrote for our company newsletter on the use of portable generators in motion picture lighting. In it I cover some of the basic electrical engineering principles behind harmonic distortion and how it can adversely effect generators. The article is available on our website.

 

All fluorescent fixtures are a good choice for operation on small portable generators in the limited sense that they use a quarter of the power of a comparable tungsten soft light. However, the ballasts of conventional “shop lights” (as well as the older style Kino fixtures) that use the T-12 tubes are not Power Factor Corrected (PFC) and return harmonic currents into the power stream. When used in quantity, they can constitute a source of considerable harmonic noise. For this reason, on their website Kino Flo cautions users of their older style fixtures that also use T-12 tubes, that the ballasts “will draw double the current on the neutral from what is being drawn on the two hot legs. On large installations it may be necessary to double your neutral run so as not to exceed your cable capacity.”(FAQ “Why is the neutral drawing more than the hot leg”.) For a detailed explanation for why harmonic currents cause unusually high neutral returns see my article on the use of portable generators in motion picture production available on our website.

 

Put simply, when you plug a single 4’ - 4 tube “shop light” into a wall outlet you need not be concerned about harmonic currents. As is the case with non-PFC HMI ballasts the impedance of the electrical path from the power plant is so low, the distortion of the original voltage waveform so small (1-3%), and the plant capacity so large in comparison to the load of the one light, that the inherently noisy load of the “shop light” will not affect the voltage at the distribution bus.

 

Left: Grid Power w/ no load and a THD of less then 3%. Center: Conventional Generator w/ no load and a THD of 17-19%. Right: Inverter Generator w/ no load and a THD of 2.5%.

 

It is, however, an all together different situation when plugging T-12 “shop light” fixtures into conventional portable generators. As a comparison of the oscilloscope shots above and below indicate, the return of harmonic currents by conventional T-12 ballasts can generate voltage distortion in the power stream. Given the large sub-transient impedance of conventional portable generators, and the fact that the original supply voltage waveform of conventional generators is appreciably distorted (a THD of 17-19%) to begin with , you have a situation where the return of any harmonic currents by a non-PFC electronic ballast (HMI or Kino) will result in significant waveform distortion of the voltage in the distribution system.

 

Left: Grid Power w/ Kino Flo Wall-o-Lite. Center: Conventional AVR Power w/ Kino Flo Wall-o-Lite. Right: Inverter Power w/ Kino Flo Wall-o-Lite.

 

Given the adverse effect of just a few conventional electronic fluorescent ballasts on a 5500W conventional generator, what is the accumulative effect of a typical lighting load made up of only non-PFC HMI & Fluorescent fixtures? To see, I ran a package consisting of two Arri 1200 HMI Par Pluses (with standard Arri non-PFC electronic ballasts) in addition to a 4’ – 10 tube Kino Flo Wall-o-Lite (with T-12 Ballasts) on a Honda EX5500 (a conventional generator). And, for the sake of comparison, I ran a comparable package but with power factor corrected electronic ballasts on our modified EU6500is (an inverter generator.) The difference between the resulting waveforms below is startling.

 

Left: Conventional generator power w/ pkg. of non-PFC Elec. HMI Ballasts & Kino Flo Wall-o-Lite. Right: Inverter generator power w/ Pkg. of PFC Elec. Ballasts & Kino Flo Parabeam 400.

 

The adverse effects of the severe harmonic noise exhibited above left, can take the form of overheating and failing equipment, efficiency losses, circuit breaker trips, excessive current on the neutral return, and instability of the generator’s voltage and frequency. Harmonic noise of this magnitude can also damage HD digital cinema production equipment, create ground loops, and possibly create radio frequency (RF) interference. In other words, saving a few bucks by building your own lights can cost you a considerable amount of money in lost time or damaged equipment. For a detailed explanation for why this is, see my article on the use of portable generators in motion picture production available on our website.

 

- Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting and Grip Equipment Rental and Sales in Boston

[Thomas Leon Henry Ford]

I have done one, inspired by Roger Deakins's diy rigs, in a bread crate. The one I did have no mounting options for any stands or anything. It is just a box of light that you can stand wherever.

Link!

Just a bread crate with a plywood sheet and then another bread crate as a lid for protection.

I like it a lot and have used it quite a bit. Mostly for fires, candles, lanterns and that sort of things.

 

Thank you Klas for sharing. Great results.

 

Not a light, but I often find a circular mirror to be helpful and great for picking out small details.