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Practical lamp question.


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I am trying to solve how to use this practical lamp as a key for a scene. 

The director and I like we're the practical light is placed on the location and how it will light the actor in the scene. 

But two thing we don't like is the hard light spill from the top hitting the walls and when location scouting I put a piece of white paper to see what a heavy diffusion would look like and it was the right amount of diffusion. What's the best method for diffusing the top of a lamp shade? Just get some heavy diffusion gel and cut it to shape and tape it in? 

Second thing is I want it to be brighter and a tungsten color tempature. But the lamp can only handle a 60watt incandescent bulb. I want something around 100-150 watt tungsten equivalent to push through the lamp shade. How can I solve this? Can I rewire the lamp or is there a led bulb that I could use that is strong enough and high cri. 

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Thats one of the age old questions.  It really depends on your preferences and also your camera's highlight DR.  Are you ok with the lamp blowing out on screen?  Some DPs are some DPs aren't. You could re-wire the socket with a higher wattage bulb, but you will have to be careful with the shade as it can be a fire hazard if it wasn't meant to be around heat.  If you do get a brighter bulb, the lamp will probably blow out on screen.  If you don't want it to, your most likely going to have to carry the practical, but adding a source from the same direction off camera to raise the key exposure from the lamp.  This would probably be a small eggcrated fixture like a litemat 1 with snap grid armed into the scene, or something softer if thats your preference.   Its interesting that you guys don't like the spill light upward.  I have no problem with it, but its possible to tape some 216 gel to it, but definitely do not do it in a rush, do it the day before if you can, because its a delicate job to tape the gel but not have it be visible in the lamp shade on camera if you see the lamp. 

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It's not the wattage of the lamp, the socket will handle over 500 watts. It's the heat generated and the inability of the wiring to handle the heat of the bulb without melting. For short duration a 250w photoflood would be fine.

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