Hi TF,

Do a quick search for "DIY Lighting" in these forums and you'll find a thread covering your question.

Yes, check out that link as there are several of us who have recently bought work lights for our video stuff. And one suggestions was not to use dimmers as that changes the colour temperature of the light (Which you might have to adjust for to get matching temperatures) - Just use lower wattage bulbs, or move the lights back.

OK

for the guys who want to follow in the footsteps of major home builders. Who has pictures of their lights they want to share. I have been looking at all the post ans sites and I wonder if I can make some good barn doors.

Whats the easy good looking way?
Anybody with a good sucess story?

I have made a cool light box for some work lights using PVC pipe, velcro and material. It works great for diffusion, and can break down easy with the PVC pipe conections and velcro.

I'll definately post pictures once I get my barn doors on and I'd like to paint mine cuse the light housing is some yukky blue-grey colour :) Are you keen on posting a howto and some pictures of your light box?

Cheers
Aaron

More than willing to post my pics. I am a master in video and editing but I have never posted pictures on the web. Not sure how. I can email you some pics. Maybe someone can share with me how to post pics on the wed. I just never needed to.

Marcus

Cool Lux introduced an AC dimmer for about $50 US, I saw it at a show a few weeks back. It looks like a walkman in size, and is rated at 500W (I think). They do not have a pix on their site...
http://www.cool-lux.com/ecommerce/itm00075_alt.htm

Home depot had dual 500 watt lights for 69 bucks, one tripod and a bracket with two 500 watt heads on it. I told the lighting guy I wanted two, thats a total of two tripods, four 500 watt lamps. The guy says, ya know it's funny, these are $69 but the ones on sale are $59 and they are nicer. The lights he pointed to had the same lime green tripod and two seperate light heads, but each head has a 500 watt lamp and a 250 watt lamp, each lamp with it's own waterproof switch. So I bought two. two tripods, four light heads, each with a 500 watt and a 250 watt lamp inside. Also tried my white translucent photo umbrella's in front of the lights and it was unbelievable, all the harsh shadows and angles from the lamps and reflectors were removed. The light was a pleasing white and when positioned right the camera shot had zero shadows. What a great job the umbrella's did of difusing the light. The umbrella's were very expensive at the local photo shop but I found them for 18 bucks if anyone is intersted. Also found the 3200 kelvin GE lamps at Ace Hardware for $5 each.

Any ideas as to what you're going to do with all that light?

My needs were not the total wattage, my thinking was the 250 watt lamps would give me more options without adding a dimmer.

Reading through this interesting thread a couple of things ocurred to me -- just my 2 cents.

Using household dimmers on large wattages is problematic. If you run these solid-state devices (opposed to resistive dimmers) close to the maximum rating they get hot and the heat will break them over time (you'll note in some installation instructions that you have to reduce the load if you cut the AL heat sink when ganging a number of dimmers in the same space). The unstated assumption is that most household applications don't reach the maximum rating of the dimmer and that there is an allowed overhead -- in most installations of a couple hundred watts under the maximum load (for example the average household chandelier which is a typical application is often well under 500w).

Years ago I was involved with a little theatre that used household dimmers for lighting control. We were replacing them all the time because we were running them at max rating all the time. So what can seem inexpensive at first and be expensive in practice. Theatircal SCR dimmers are expensive because they have to stand up to such abuse.

Dimming also introduces the color temp issue. Video cameras are engineered to produce accurate color reproduction when illuminated with the standard 3,200K, although some cameras can compensate a bit on either side (white balance), and many have a "daylight" setting (5,600K or so). If you want consistent color shot-to shot, you need consistent color temp. And this will work if you are sure the dimmer is set at exactly the same place each time -- but then the low-cost dimmers "drift" as they get hot and as they wear out the settings change. What was 50% last week won't be this week.

In any case, the color temp of the tungsten lamps you'll find at home depot is usually 2,950K (check the manufactuers web sites) or more yellow than the 3,200K standard. There are some 3,200K floursescents sold for retail display use (by GE and others I think).

One other thing. The intensity of the light is really only one aspect of its look and feel. Changing intensity is not going to change the quality of the light as much as one might think in terms of hard vs. softer looks. What you may really be after is the look of an instrument you can focus hard to soft (i.e. a fresnel). Changing intensity is not the same thing as changing focus.

Before using dimmers I'd suggest three other things to experiement with. First, move the lights back or closer to change intensity. The inverse square law is your friend here: doubling the distance halfs the intensity. Second try ND filters on your lens to reduce the effective intensity. Third, mix the first two. I think the results will be more consistent and less expensive in the long run than messing with household dimmers. Unless you need a sudden brightening effect, I don't see a good reason to use them.

Where did you find translucent photo umbrella's for $18? I'm interested in getting a couple. Thanks!

<<<-- Originally posted by CentralFla : light. The umbrella's were very expensive at the local photo shop but I found them for 18 bucks if anyone is intersted. Also found the 3200 kelvin GE lamps at Ace Hardware for $5 each. -->>>

Just search ebay for 42" translucent umbrella's, the guy has been selling them there for a while. The two that I got were OK, one rod had a slight bit of rust on it but you can't complain for 18 bucks. his email is dreammaker2@att.net his phone is 800-704-0955 before 11 pm

Hope this helped.

Re Umbrellas
B&H has herds of em and most aren't expensive.

Re balancing lighting loads.
Bigger isn't always better. Canada and the US both use 15 amp and sometimes 20 amp appliance circuits. Although the voltage is "110" volts it can vary 10% legally (up or down) 120 is usually the upper limit. At 120 volts 1000 watts draws 8.33 amperes, @ 110 volts 9.1 amps. A circuit that is fused for 15 amps should only be used at 80% of it's capacity (12 amps)

What about the lamps, a computer or the TV they all draw something. The lights aren't always the only load in the circuit.

It would be embarrasing to plug into someones recepticles and clear the fuse or breaker. I seldom use more than about 800-950 watts total.

I spent this morning changing out 15 amp breakers for 20's because some engineer couldn't multiply

Are ther any good tutorials out there on building your own lights?

Great Thread!

We use a simple lowel kit for most our shoots and some photo optic flourescents we built ourselves though they were costly enough in the end it all works great.

More often than not, however, I find ourselves shooting in tight areas. By the time I bring in the lights its a mess and way too hot, often too bright, seems like a big waste to generate more light than I need then diffuse that with barn doors, gells and reflectors and I dont like to relamp for every shot and I dont have a huge budget either.

For shooting aerobic boxing classes I use all my lights bounced off the ceilings and walls and thats fine plenty of space and I can use all the light I can get but I also shoot allot interviews and board meetings that have sort of an artistic flair to them and for this I go small, really small.

My solution (still under development) The Octopus.

A control head with arms of semi-pliable conduit that can be pulled and bent into place. attached to the arms are low voltage halogen lights the transformer is in the head of the Octopus. which can be located vertically or horizontally. The arms stretch out 6 feet from the head in any direction and we diffuse the halogens with my own little soft boxes and other temporary gadgets.

We started with halogens but now we are working our way into light fibers which are hooked up to a central illuminator. What I am finding is that I am able to create some very dramatic shots in a constrained area with very little fuss.

Not much more to say as yet. Anyone else experimenting with light fibers?

cheers
jp

Chris--

I answer to your question in regards to building your own lights, go to the site provided below:

http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/article.cfm?id=9036

I'd like to add couple of things I've learned.

I went to the local art store and purchased artist light bulbs. They are used by animators to insure as accurate representaton of natural light as possible when adding color to their scenes. florescent and halogen won't cut it when doing color check.

usually they use five or six, put them in adjustable lamps and position them around their desk to remove any shadows.

These light bulbs come in wattages from 40 to 350. the one I currently have in my computer room cost me 6.50 and is still working after 2 years.
They run in cost from 6 to 30.00 US.

If you're shooting indoors and need light that has a more natural warmer look (like sundown....) These could be useful. Put them outside a stage window or something...

As an aside, the one I use makes working on my computer a lot easier on the eyes.

Joe

I'm big into experimental light also. We are working on a modified fiber optic system but
we just finished building a mini daylight halogen system (mr-16) which puts out 5500 color. Our system is based on the solux 4700 lamp but we have boosted voltage slightly to get to 5500. The graphical test results are impressive, its just like daylight.

On our unit which we eventually plan to market as a kit, one transformer drives 8 heads. which can be mounted in many ways including goosenecked. We can relamp inexpensively to 3500 or 3200 for about $8 per lamp and we can match to our other lights exactly by adjusting voltage sligtly. Its overkill I know. Downside is lamps at 5500 color temp only last around 150 -200 hours.

These are small 50 watt lamps, 8 total and its very nice and low heat too.

Heres a tip I picked up recently

you know those old cine projector screens? -- metal tube with tripod stand..

they sell on ebay typically $15

get two

one for bouncing light - their high reflectance makes them great for this

the other one -- remove screen and replace with frosted white diffusion and put a 1000w flood behind it (hell put two behind) -- instant 4' x 4' lightbox

the tripods on these usually allow for hang em high operation