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DIY Lights


Alvin Pingol

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I know some of you here have built your own lights, but if I recall correctly, these were all fixtures designed to be low power consumption, lightweight, portable, or all of the above.

 

Because of my no-budget lifestyle, when the "big guys" consider a 1K a baby, these would be more like my 18K ;) . Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find one of those 1000 watt halogen worklamps in my area (online I can buy one, but was a little expensive), so I want to try to build one myself.

 

I can pick up a 500w quartz halogen (https://www.1000bulbs.com/product.php?product=840) for just over a buck over at the local shop. I figure if I can somehow get two of these together, without causing an overheat, and build a fairly directional reflective housing, I'll have a great, cheap, 1K for all my shooting needs.

 

Anyone have any tips on how I could achieve something like this?

 

EDIT: Actually, something very directional would be even better.

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Rather than attempting to rig your own, why not just build or buy a Parcan light? It's basically a car headlight in the bottom of a paint can. You can buy them very cheaply and they are quite directional with a VN (very narrow) bulb. These are used in theater and concert work all the time because they are so cheap, powerful and rugged. They're plentiful on the used market. Or you could buy a Par bulb (again, very powerful headlight) add some rubber gaskets mounting bits, wire and a big paint can to stick it all in, and you've got a light. You can probably find something used for around $50, which is likely to be what it would cost to build.

 

If you want something small that you can afford and deal with yourself, you can get a smaller version of a parcan that holds an MR-16 light instead. These little bulbs are available cheaply everywhere and really blast out the light. Again, cheap and easy lights. I've seen Ikea rigs for these units with built-in transformers so you can use the more desireable 12v bulbs for as little as $20.

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...car headlight... paint can...

Hmm... sounds interesting. ;) Anyway, I have 2 PAR38 cans (150w). Nice little guys. I've been meaning to buy a PAR64 (1000w max) for a while now. It seems I have been looking in the wrong place...

 

http://www.theaterlighting.net/parcans3.html#2

 

Sells PAR64 cans (with socket) for $50. Much better than the 64's selling for hundreds of dollars elsewhere. I think I'll probably just pick this up.

 

Thanks...

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Hi,

 

I've often considered getting four of the 500W floods and making up a chimera to go on the front for a 2K softlight.

 

However, I'm beginning to realise that the clients I am getting now are not likely to be too forgiving this kind of thing (although of course they bitch about the lighting budget.) Those fluorescent packs have sat on the shelves since long before Christmas - people keep renting me Kinos!

 

Did build a nice foot-square cold-cathode panel, though, which I'm sure will be handy, although it's as you said - a small thing.

 

Phil

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However, I'm beginning to realise that the clients I am getting now are not likely to be too forgiving this kind of thing (although of course they bitch about the lighting budget.) Those fluorescent packs have sat on the shelves since long before Christmas - people keep renting me Kinos!

Yes, I try to keep my personal lights to some tiny little kit and some interesting homebrew units for specialty use. I only provide gear for the tiny jobs like talking head interviews, and even then we sometimes supplement with rental gear. As you graduate to real clients they expect you to use real gear, even if they complain about rental costs (they wouldn't be a real client if they didn't!).

 

It's an interesting quandry--the bigger you are the less you need to provide on your own. David proudly owns nothing more than a couple of lightmeters. I've got a closet full of gear.

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Hard light sources are best for me since you can easily make them soft by bouncing or shining them off of or through something as simple as a bedsheet. Impossible to convert a softsource, though...

 

Anyway, I'm really diggin a PAR64 with a VNSP bulb, but those darn things are around 30-40 dollars a pop. Sure, I'll probably bust maybe only 1 or 2 bulbs total (I don't shoot often, but when I do, I like it to look its best), but it's hard spending the money on a 1000w bulb when I could pick up 2 of those 500w "tube" halogen bulbs for around 2 dollars.

 

Yeah, I know, I'm a total cheapass, but when you shoot as rarely as I do, it doesn't seem worth it to buy all these lights when you'll only use them every now and then (hence why I like to build stuff).

 

If I need to do anything that involves very proper lighting and some high-end clients (which would't be likely), I would no doubt rent a kit, but since I mainly shoot my own little shorts with people I know, owning all of my gear is something I should definitely be doing.

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Hi,

 

Well, just get a couple of thse 500W sunfloods, then. You can bolt a spigot into the bottom of them easily enough, but remember to pick up some heavy gloves at the same DIY store - they get wickedly hot, far too hot to adjust by hand.

 

Phil

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I bought some PAR 64 lights here for $30 each.

Every nice people with excellent service.

http://hytechgear.com/catalog.asp?cg=40

 

PAR 64 bulbs from $25 to $40 here.

Also very good service and nice people to deal with.

http://www.bulbconnection.com/ViewSearch.c...PAR64&x=22&y=12

 

I also use the PAR16s using the MR16 blubs.

They work great for close-ups and when you needed just that little bit of extra light.

 

For inexpensive lights they work quite well

Hope this aids you in your quest.

 

Mr. Bill

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Thanks for the links. Those PAR64's are a great price, and most likely it'll be a long while before I go through one bulb, so I should be all set.

 

Anyway, to Phil, I am still somewhat curious on how you figure one would go about building a housing for the two floods. Sounds like a fun project. ;)

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You might consider trying to find some used Lowel video lights. Open face fixtures such as Omni's (650W) and Lowel D's (1K's) are relatively cheap but still look professional enough for paying clients. You can also find Tota lights pretty cheap; they're nothing more than a 1K halogen bulb in a minimal housing. The great thing about Lowel lights is there are already tons of accessories out there for them such as gel holders, umbrellas, barn door sets, and Chimera speed rings.

 

Sometimes you can get a good deal on a used kit that might include a case, stands, cables, and a few accessories.

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I think I've told you about this earlier. One of the gaffers I work with made

a mini-jumbo or micro-Dinolight by placing 20 MR16 50W PAR narrow spots in

a frame. They're all 12V, so they were connected in serial like a christmas

light (for the US, 10 would be the maximum). Had a massive punch and reach! I kid you not, very powerful light. I don't know about the US, but here these MR16 halogen PAR's are rather cheap. He never could get them certified due to the serial wiring, though. Or otherwise I think he would have started to manufacture them, being so good. Was called the Lind-o-light after his last name, Lindblad.

 

Now you can get MR16 pars with a regular screw in socket and for 240V, which makes it possible to make this light the correct "safe" way with paralell wiring. Unfortunately, these MR16's with sockets cost 10 times more a piece....

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Adam--

 

I know a bunch of people who have built their own versions of this type of light, and there is a product called the DecaLight that does the same thing, using 10 12v MR-16 bulbs in series. They look light huge nine-light rigs, only using tiny globes. Here in NYC, Xeno Lights on Worth SAt. (a rental house) made their own unit which is five columns of ten bulbs each. Each column can rotate like a nine-light, all inside a big frame. Or each column can be removed and used on its own--fits great in small spaces. Each column is wired with a standard plug so you can run them to separate circuits in you're not tied-in to main power, or they have a special box that you can plug all five into and then run that to mains power. It's a ton of light and all the little shadows disappear with just mild diffusion.

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Because of my no-budget lifestyle, when the "big guys" consider a 1K a baby, these would be more like my 18K ;) .

I remember some years ago (like 20) saving an article from Popular Photography that described a home made lighting kit. As I recall, they were suggesting a ~6' piece of electrical conduit anchored in a paint can filled with cement. They had hardware store clamp-lights attached at the top. :lol:

 

Most commercially available photography lighting is a pretty good value, even the inexpensive Lowel's that Michael Nash recommended. They're made to be portable, reliable, controllable, and adaptable to use with other industry tools.

 

A $200 light could last you 20+ years, and will probably have some resell value at the end of that period too.

 

But most important, I think, is that the light they create looks good or better. The fixture's designers thought about light dispersion, intensity, color temperature, and other stuff that a photographer cares about. The company that makes a 1000w construction site lamp probably wasn't concerned about how attractive the illuminated person/object will be.

 

If you don't mind the bulk, then theater lights (PARs and fresnels) make some pretty nice light, and if you find them used they can be a much better value than just about anything homemade. Plus you can buy lamps with accurate color temperature for them.

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TIM SPEAKS!!!

 

So nice to have Tim contributing as well as hosting the forums. You used to participate more many years ago--in fact I remember you asking what was up with this phantom Ultra-16 format years back. :D :D

 

And I fully agree that professional film & video lights are so much the smart way to go for any type of investment. I have a number of lights that are more than a decade old and still work great.

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The company that makes a 1000w construction site lamp probably wasn't concerned about how attractive the illuminated person/object will be.

Yes, but 1000w of hard, quartz-halogen light is going to look the same from a worklamp as it does from some expensive fresnel, or even a PAR can. The only difference is in the light's spot/flood characteristics.

 

Anyway, thanks everyone for the tips. I've decided that since I do shoot so little, I'd might as well shell out the cash on professional (well, at least good looking) lights so I'll not only feel good about my kit, but myself, as well.

 

Seems the same reasoning I used to discourage myself from buying pro lights has caused me to completely change my argument to the exact opposite. :lol:

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Yes, but 1000w of hard, quartz-halogen light is going to look the same from a worklamp as it does from some expensive fresnel, or even a PAR can. The only difference is in the light's spot/flood characteristics.

Actually no, as the pro light may have a reflector and housing design that is far more efficient as someone likely went to a great deal more effort to design it for maximum effect. Computer aided design means more light can come out of a 1000w pro light than a 1000w industrial fixture.

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Yes, but 1000w of hard, quartz-halogen light is going to look the same from a worklamp as it does from some expensive fresnel, or even a PAR can. The only difference is in the light's spot/flood characteristics.

Actually no, as the pro light may have a reflector and housing design that is far more efficient as someone likely went to a great deal more effort to design it for maximum effect. Computer aided design means more light can come out of a 1000w pro light than a 1000w industrial fixture.

Mmm... good point, never really thought about the efficiency of the reflection design, as I usually associate the reflectors with nothing more than beam control.

 

PS, what's a Source4? Says they're more efficient at 575w than a PAR64 at 1000w... How's that possible?

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One way to improve the "Rock n' Roll" type PAR64 fixtures is to cut the housing down. I cut mine down by 5 1/4"s and used a drill and screws to reattach the gel frame holders. It makes them shorter and I find it helps to spread and smooth the beam out wider, though some of the PAR64 lamps available can have a hot center area that is hard to make look right.

 

You can attach them easily to a grip head with a 7/16th inch bolt, fender washers and a wing nut.

 

For use in interiors you should also consider building one of those fixtures invented by Raoul Coutard. I can't remember what their exact name is but I built one out of 2 lengths of perforated angle iron screwed to two short pieces of 2x4 lumber which are screwed into the two ends of a wall spreader.

 

Attached to this are a number of high temp lamp sockets that accept the various types of photo floods. You just spread it between walls near the ceiling and switch on what lights you need. While it's not totally directional you do get a hard and bright light out of it but multiple shadows can be a problem.

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PS, what's a Source4? Says they're more efficient at 575w than a PAR64 at 1000w... How's that possible?

Because they use a lens system that it separate from the bulb which can aid in greatly controlling the light. To make a more efficient PAR bulb, one would have to make it extrememly deep in order to put the lens further from the rest of the unit. This would be very heavy, very expensive and very fragile, so no one does this. Instead PAR fixtures are made with a design that allows for the addition of controlling lenses to be mounted in front for great light control and efficiency. A Source 4 is a very well designed light with a lens system inside that is extremely efficient and well designed. The light is also much more expensive than the simple Parcan, which is essentially a headlight in a bucket.

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PS, what's a Source4? Says they're more efficient at 575w than a PAR64 at 1000w... How's that possible?

Because they use a lens system that it separate from the bulb which can aid in greatly controlling the light.

 

The light is also much more expensive than the simple Parcan, which is essentially a headlight in a bucket.

It's also worth pointing out that a Source Four has a very limited beam spread -- they typically come in 19 and 26 degree versions. You do the math to figure out the size circle of light you'd get a given distance.

 

Imagine focusing ALL the light from a 575W or 750W bulb into a circle that's only say 24" across. That's some punch.

 

I use the 750W version of the Source Four all the time. They're really made as "pattern projectors" (also called ellipsoidal or Leko lights) that focus the image cutout in a small metal slide (gobo), inserted in the middle of the lamp. Mostly designed for theatrical effects, but they've made their way into television and film. The units also have four adjustable blades that allow you to cut the beam into a square or trapezoid with very sharp edges. Sometimes I use them to create a window light on a wall, adjusting the blades to create parllel edges to counteract the beam spread.

 

Source Fours are also great for bouncing light from a long distance. Sometimes you can run one all the way up to the ceiling and fire it across the room, making a slit of light just above a window, so that it enhances the light coming in through the window (when it's not feasable to put a Kino above the window). A million and one uses.

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One of my favorite tricks with a Source 4 is for getting backlights and rims from spots where there's no way I can rig a light. I'll put the Source 4 up somewhere out of the way and project it to the spot where I want the light to come from. Then I'll take some bits of silver foil, shiny board or even small plastic mirrors and tape or clip them in place to reflect the light to where I want it to go. Takes a little time but gets light where I need it to go. Sometimes with small practical locations there's just no room or no mounting point to rig a light, but it's always easy to stick a little reflector in there.

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