Stuart Allman

Byron, Look up clamshell lighting on YouTube. That's likely going to give you the most obvious beauty look. A few Cineo Matchbox lights would probably do it in a bedroom - with homemade softboxes, reflectors, and barn doors. They go for pretty cheap on Ebay, are bi-color, have good color rendering. Just don't forget the hair light and background lighting. Stuart

Michael, I realize this all gets confusing, but hopefully this helps.... 18% gray is NOT middle gray. ANSI standard middle gray is 12.5% gray. The instructions with the original Kodak R-27 18% gray cards said to meter the key light off the gray card, THEN open the lens up 1/2 stop more. Camera manufacturers can get creative with what ISO means and still camera lenses don't measure in T-stops. What I recommend is that you take the camera AND lens you are using, point them toward an 18% gray card and open up the lens until you see a 44 IRE on the gray card (assuming rec.709 type look). Record that lens aperture setting on the camera. Then use the meter and take an incident reading at the gray card position with the white dome pointed toward your key light. Record the aperture value the meter is giving you. More than likely there will be a difference. Then set the compensation on the meter so it agrees with your earlier 18% gray card reading from the camera. Now you should have a fully compensated system where you can take incident readings and in theory they should agree with how much light your camera wants for what it considers "proper" exposure. We have some tutorials on this topic on the Video Gear YouTube page - youtube.com/videogear Stuart Allman

Craig, What the C-700 can do is measure the color of your light and suggest a Lee filter gel to get you to a target Kelvin color temperature. I don't have very much experience using this feature, but I think it should be able to specify plus and minus green gels. Stuart Allman youtube.com/videogear @videogearblog

JD, Just about every time I see an HMI in BTS photos there's a 4x4 or larger diffusion frame in front of it. So why not just start with a slightly softer/larger source? A Cineo C80 is probably just as soft without using a diffusion frame. Stuart Allman ----------------------------- youtube.com/videogear @videogearblog

Bryan, I don't know if this is useful to you, but I saw a comparison of the two on the "Meet the Gaffer" channel on YouTube. At NAB it seemed like everyone was gravitating toward the SkyPanel fixtures. Cineo has a C80 that looked wonderful, but a bit big for a Sprinter van. Stuart Allman ------------------------------- youtube.com/videogear @videogearblog

Hive's new color tunable LED fixture can use ellipsoidal optics. I saw it last week at NAB. It's not the same output as a high output source 4, but useful if you need some splash accents or cookie patterns. BBS has a fixture, but you have to order it in tungsten or daylight. Stuart ------------------------------- youtube.com/videogear Instagram: @videogearblog Twitter: @videogearblog

Eric, I was in the shop at Video Gear yesterday and they are selling a series of 2k, 1k, 650, 300, and 150 Fresnels - Arri and DeSisti. So if you want a deal on used Arri tungsten lights (in good shape, mind you) you should call Nikita at the shop. I'm not sure about the import fees to Canada, but it's certainly never been as difficult or expensive as Europe. They are closing the rental shop at the end of the month so time's ticking... Stuart Allman ------------------------------ illuma.blogspot.com youtube.com/videogear

Eric, This is speaking from my personal experience - there is no "jack of all trades" light kit to buy. I would highly suggest that you keep renting until you figure out which lights you pretty much always rent and work for you,then consider buying them. An Arri kit is a good starter kit, but if you need to mix with daylight it's going to be completely worthless...etc. If you've got an itchy Ebay trigger finger, then I would suggest you look at Fiilex and Cineo for LED lighting. Both of them offer "affordable" options, especially used on Ebay. I have a little Matchbox light from Cineo and it's a great accent light that needs a few accessories (softbox, grid, barn doors). I sold a pair of Mavericks for a reasonable price last year just because I wasn't using them - excellent fixtures. I also use Fiilex lights for tutorial videos and they make versatile small lights. I've also heard good things about the Aputure brand of LED lights, but I lack any personal experience with them. If you just want to play with shaping light, get some clamp lights from the hardware store and some diffusion from the fabric store. It will cost you next to nothing and provide the tools to learn. You might be surprised what you can do with a clamp light, foam core, and a Quacker Clamp. At some point you'll want proper c-stands (sorry Freya...). Stuart Allman ------------------------------ illuma.blogspot.com youtube.com/videogear

Eric, Video Gear, the company I do tutorials for, is getting out of the rental business and selling off most of their inventory. www.video-gear.com. You might want to give Nikita a call at their office and see if they have something you could use. Sorry Phil/Freya, they aren't selling the c-stands. Stuart -------------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com youtube.com/videogear

Paul, If you want to work with an outside firm, I recommend Video Studio Design. videostudiodesign.com I've worked with these guy a lot. You can ask for Jeff or Martin. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Phil, Well...I've run into plenty of LED vendors for which that is true. However, there are some folks out there like Cineo who do have custom formulations for their remote phosphor panels. The company's original came out of Intematix, which specializes in remote phosphor. I also know other companies that buy off the shelf since they don't have funding for custom R&D. I produce gear reviews for Video Gear and we try to actually measure the fixture's real performance when we have access to a C-700 spectrometer. Unfortunately we haven't had the funds to invest in one for ourselves yet. I had a borrowed unit two years ago at NAB and it was easy to tell which fixtures were engineered for color and which ones were engineered purely for brightness. I miss that meter - excellent product. Stuart Allman -------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Alexander, Phil, I created a DIY LED light with the Yuji violet based LEDs so I could get better color rendering. Unfortunately I haven't had access to a Sekonic C-700 meter to take CRI measurements yet. The light definitely does not look green, but it's hard to judge how good the light quality is without a proper measurement. Here's a link to my project. http://illuma.blogspot.com/2017/01/diy-led-light-with-high-cri.html I kind of wish I had made the bulbs bi-color, but oh well... Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Matthew, The Cineo Matchbox is deeper than a cell phone, but the remote phosphor panel is about the same size as a cell phone display. I didn't know if you wanted to actually show the character holding the phone or produce a light similar in quality to a cell phone. If you want to show the phone in the shot (i.e. not hidden by a torso) then the Cineo light isn't the right tool. You found the Rosco product I was talking about. Those types of lights seem to work well for lighting up a car's interior at night since they fit just about anywhere. I hadn't seen the Aperture product yet, so that's an interesting find. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

The closest lights I've seen to a phone form factor are the Rosco litepads and Cineo Matchbox. The Rosco product is 0.3mm thick, so it could literally be taped to the front of a phone. I have a Cineo Matchbox and the front panel on that light is about the same size as a smartphone and it's very bright. I know the Matchbox can be battery powered. Rosco sells a AA battery pack for the Litepad. Stuart Allman ---------------------------- illuma.BlogSpot.com

Rick, I don't mean to sound snobbish, but I think you may be asking the wrong question. What you really mean to ask is how many foot-candles you'll need. For that, use the formula fc=25*stop*stop/(ISO*shutter time). This provides an good approximation. Assuming you have a nearly 360 degree shutter angle at 1000fps your requirement equates to =25*4/(640/1000) = 156FC for standard exposure. Double this number if you use a 180-degree shutter angle. Use the photometric charts from the lighting vendors to determine what fixtures you need and at what distance. If you use diffusion then you have to take that into account as well. In this calculation I also assumed you're using a lens measured in T-stops. If you're using a lens measured in f/stops then you need to compensate for optical losses in the lens, which may or may not be significant. I also don't know how accurate the ISO sensitivity is on the Miro since I've never used it. I've had varying degrees of ISO accuracy with different cameras. You should test that ahead of time and apply any necessary compensation. Also, you describe this as "white limbo" which may mean you need to overexpose the background and/or character. You'll have to look at the Miro exposure range in highlights to determine how much is enough for that camera. My guess is that you'll need to overexpose the background a stop or two at the very least. Stuart Allman -------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Thank you all for the info. I have some old Super Takumar lenses that I inherited from my grandpa, so I might try those. I have an M42 to EF mount adapter. The Cokin diffraction filter gives a nice effect too, so I might buy one of those. I'm in an experimental phase with lens filters. I have a set of Zeiss primes, so I might try some of these effects with those lenses as well. When I had Canon zooms they flared really easy, but the Zeiss and Fujifilm lenses are more difficult when it comes to adding "character." Unfortunately the closest I'll ever get to a Panavision lens is driving by their rental facility! Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

David (Mullen), I just read the article in the ASC magazine about the Love Witch where you talk about using a diffraction filter to get a rainbow effect. Which one did you use? I see various types of these on Amazon, but it would be good to get your experience here. Thanks in advance, Stuart Allman ---------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

I saw a few second of a music video and I'd like to recreate the flare. Unfortunately I have a difficult time trying to get my Fujifilm lens to flare! I'm wondering if there are any filters I can add to the front of my lens to get a circular rainbow pattern like at 2:30 and 4:40 in this music video. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Tristan, In all seriousness...rent a few cameras and determine this on your own. Don't believe everything you read in online reviews or slick ads. I've used most of the cameras listed above except the Alexa, and I know what one works for me, my budget, and my workflow. The fan will likely become the least of your concerns once you try a few cameras. You're in L.A. There's so much equipment in your city that's it's practically a free commodity - especially if you make a few friends on the forums here... Don't buy on emotion. Do the math. It's just gear. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Tristan, The 250W Hive Wasp will produce a hard source and is color tunable from 4800K to 15000K, I believe. Their newest ballast seems to take DC input. You'd have to call them to get more details. I haven't used the DC input before. The Fiilex Q500 and Q1000 may also get you where you want to go and both fixtures definitely take battery input. Fiilex had the Q1000 powered off a battery at NAB. You'll get color tune-ability as well. If you're mixing with household tungstens you may find that you want to turn the color temperature down a bit from 5600K, otherwise you'll get 80's blue moonlight. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.BlogSpot.com

Maximilian, In the video you can see a bit of green spill from the lights onto a gray wall. It was green enough to pull a good key. Using a green fabric made it a bit more saturated/better. The real dilemma is trying to get a white wall dark enough to make it appear chroma green instead of pale green. The wall will also easily pick up the talent lighting, which could prove problematic. It's not a slam dunk by far. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Lahiru, Also, Kino-Flo makes chroma green fluorescent bulbs. You can use those to light a white cyc and get a green backdrop. I'm not sure how saturated it will be since I've never tested these. Stuart --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

Lahiru, I produced a tutorial showing the Cineo TruColor HS2 with green remote phosphor panels. This might work to create a saturated green backdrop on a white wall. You just need to keep the key lights off the back wall, which means you need lots of flags or distance. Typically I would make the green backdrop around 40-50 IRE, depending on how much spill you need to handle. It's also possible to use just about any remote phosphor LED light if you take off the phosphor panel and just use the blue LEDs for blue screen chroma key. These type of LED fixtures will create a very saturated blue color. Using tungsten lights for this may create a lot of difficulties. https://vimeo.com/173182075 Stuart --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com

We measured it a few times with both lights configured as a PAR (no lens installed). The Arrisun output more light at the approximate center of the beam as compared with the demo unit Wasp 1k they provided to us. What I don't want to do is get caught up in marketing claims of any vendor. This is why we like to stick to boring, old, quantitative analysis. We measure what the light does and let you decide if it's the right tool for yourself. Keep in mind that you can still plug two of these lights into a wall socket. You can't do that with an Arrisun 1.2k. It also doesn't fry the talent with infrared. So the light has its advantages. If you're interested in getting familiar with this technology I would recommend renting a 250W Bee and seeing how well it works for you. It's been a great go-to light for me. Stuart Allman ------------------------------ illuma.blogspot.com

Since it's not my light and I don't currently have access to it, I'm not sure which brand/model of bulbs were involved. I also have no information about the age of the bulb. The Arri fixture was loaned to the shop for the day, so I normally have no access to one. I only produce videos for Video Gear. I'm not an employee. I just want to clarify that I think the poor performance of the FilmGear HMI fixture we had access to is due to the specific bulb that was installed, ***NOT*** a product reliability or design issue directly related to the ballast or bulb housing. If you would like to provide us with a fresh fixture with your recommended bulb installed we would be glad to review it in depth with color quality measurements. In fact, if you would like to have multiple bulb brands/models tested in the fixture to further the point, that might make an interesting video for our community. You can PM me if interested. Stuart Allman --------------------------- illuma.blogspot.com