As a newbie planning to buy a lighting kit, I'd like some feedback on the validity of the $100 lighting kit posted on a video podcast here:

http://www.wovenshadows.com/?p=6

Is this really a solution that could yield 'professional' results?

Thank you!

You could get better results than not using any lighting, but it is nothing more than Home Depot clamp ons. You can buy them for $3-4 apiece. It would be ok for lighting a small area or subject, but not much else. If you look again, he is putting together a lighter kit for photography. Video lights are a little more robust, and offer decent features for the extra money.

For a more realistic kit, look at the Britek light kits for a few hundred.

At one of the sessions at NAB it was suggested to use depleted Bounce dryer sheets as diffusers. They're made to tolerate heat and cheap enough to toss in the trash, which is where they were headed anyway.

They smell nice, too.

Very cool idea. (pun intended)

Hmmm. Aromatherapy meets woven diffusion.
What do you mean there's no Relaxing Lavendar Tough Spun on the truck!?!

If you really want to spend less than $100 get a large chinese lantern with photoflood (3200k & 5600) bulbs. Spend the other $70 on a good stand and some foam core reflectors. At least you will have decent soft light for your actors with a large margin for error. You will have to light sets with practicals or sunlight.

Thank you Keith and Bill.

The rest of you please keep your comments in the laundry forum.

I think the video at www.wovenshadows.com/?p=6 makes a solid case for this $100 lighting kit. It might not be the right kit for everyone, but to my eyes he gets 'professional' looking results.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this $100 kit?

Thank you!

Yeah it makes a solid case for shooting stills of statutes against white paper.

Video is a different discipline. You will not be happy with hard lights on real people.

Actually he is using the same bulbs I suggested. But I was pointing you toward soft light.

I also think his safety advice is extremely important to follow.

Walter Graff has some video specific advice in the instruction part of his web site:
http://www.bluesky-web.com/
Your first $100 would be better spent attending one of Walter's workshops. Or buy John Jackman's book. Or both.

It really doesnt matter what you spend your first few hundred on as it will not produce high quality results (due to inexperience and cheap fixtures combined). The more important thing is to start. So get something and start experimenting. Just dont set yourself on fire in the process.

Just dont set yourself on fire in the process.
Or your location... folks seem to frown upon that sort of thing ;)

my kit consists of 4 hlogen work lights from lowe's, which costs $10 each. i also have various bounce cards and some c-stands.

the picture of the man with the lights looks underexposed or just too dark. Did they mean to do this?

www.wovenshadows.com/?p=6

I've moved to GE Soft white flourescent adaptor bulbs...in clamp on scoops (brooder lights). My actors loved me for this change...not only do they look better with the slightly softer light, but they generate almost no heat! I can Clip parchment paper to them to soften even more if I like and you can run 3 of them on a circuit that would have held one incandescent before :)

I started my production with the work lights, but they made the sets unbearably hot, we had to take breaks while we were shooting. I have a bunch of cheap microphne boom stands that I'm using as lighting stands right now, but I'll be switching over to proper (cheap) light stands soon.

My 1st AD actually ended up holding a scoop hidden behind a door frame in one of our last shots because we were out of light stands and needed some back light thrown in. couldn't have done that with the quartz or the incandescents.

I've concluded that nothing beats the convenience of halogen lights. They have far better color rendition than flourescents, higher efficiency and whiter light than tungsten bulbs, great portability because just one lamp throws a lot of light. Nothing beats that combination. <<oops, wrong thread>>