I think Imran and Will have pretty well answered the interview lighting question for Lisa, so let me talk about the chroma key situation. Lisa, the most important item for pulling a good key is to have the background lighting as flat as possible. Now, I have never used the JTL lights for key purposes, but I have used other soft lights, and they can work very well in keys.

Depending on the area you need to cover with your green screen, you could use one or two of the JTL lights. If you are doing a reasonably tight head shot, try to get about eight feet of separation between the subject and the background. The best location for the background light would be hidden behind the subject, if possible. Point it straight at the background and you are good to go. Light your subject using one other JTL for the key light, at about a forty-five degree angle from your subject. Then use the third JTL for a kicker. Place it behind the subject, off to the side opposite the key light. This will give you a nice partial backlight, and a bit of warmth on the off key side. You can adjust this light to taste. You might want to add a bounce board on the opposite side of the subject.

If you need a wider shot of the subject than above, you can use 2 JTL lights on either side of the subject, pointed at the screen. Try to get the light effects to overlap slightly, and create a flat effect on the background as best you can. This will leave you only one JTL for a key light, so you may need to invest in another light for a backlight or kicker. I suggest the LTM Pepper 400 as a fine investment for the future. It will run around $300-400.00 depending on how many accessories you purchase with it. You will also need a stand for it, or a "boom" if you want to hang it directly behind the subject. That's the basic way to get the backlight effect, but I find it kind of boring.

That Pepper makes a nice addition to the JTL Everlight Kit. You can take one of the JTL lights out of the kit and replace it with the Pepper, and you have a really good kit all in one container. Use the third JTL stand with the Pepper.

BTW, keying is a real art, and you are always well advised to shoot some test footage before doing anything important.

Have fun
Wayne

I have had the kit for 2 or 3 months.

I love the kit. It works great. I only wish I could keep the bulps in the heads or had a good holder for them. I keep them in the origional boxes they came in.

The bag it all fits into is well made and Im impressed I was able to fit 4 bounces into it (2 large, 2 small collapseable photoflex) and a powerstrip. It's a bit heavy but oh well.

As for the pole slippage. I had the same problem and noticed that the socket that came with my Bogen tripod fits PERFECT! I tightened it all up and it works better than what it did new.

Sorry about the bad spelling - been up all night at the hospita.

- AR

Thanks Aaron, for your comments. I am always looking for user feedback on the JTL Everlight Kit, and so far the input has been overwhelmingly positive.

Keep those comments coming.

Wayne Orr, SOC

Any chance of seeing some behind-the-scene setups? That always sells me more than catalogue pix or diagrams. I like to see them in action.

I have the jtl softbox light kit and think they're an excellent buy.

I use these extensively with chroma keying and they work great with the package I use (Ultra from Serious Magic). With chroma keying you need to be careful you don't have too much light or you will encounter spill which ruins the shot. Using Ultra I find I only need minimal lighting of the background and use the jtl softboxes to bounce light off the walls and ceiling to light the talent evenly. Other software packages require very even lighting on the chroma backdrop.

Great, I'll be sure to pick up a set of these thanks for all the responses.

John Locke, I don't have any "behind the scenes" photos, but I did pull some stills from a simple project I used the lights on, and included notes about what I did, that may help you out. And I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
http://www.digitalprods.com/LSmontage

Wayne

Wayne,
That "spoof" project looks like it was hilarious! Just looking at those still (that looked excellent, btw) make me laugh, given the general description of the project.

I'm posting this in response to a previous poster's phone call to me regarding the JTL TL 1500 3 light softbox kit for video lighting. We are JTL dealers and right down the street from JTL USA headquarters and sell lot's of these kits for digital video lighting.

The JTL Everlight bodies best use the stock 500 watt bulbs. Although you might be able to use higher wattage bulbs, the heat from higher wattage bulbs (above 500) is too much for the soft box and could shrink it and cause light overheating.

The everlight's sister light, the fan-cooled superlight can use higher watt bulbs. With JTL's lineup you need a fan cooled light to go above 500 watts. Although fairly quiet, fan cooled lights do make some noise which may or may not be heard by your video.

So, if 500 watts per light will suffice, the JTL TL 1500 is a good choice for the money $459.95 for a soft boxes video lighting set up. Hope this helps.

I just noticed that Wayne recommended a boom light and I just realized that we package a JTL TL 1500 set up that includes a boom light soft box with 2 additional softboxes. Here's the link to the picture of that set up, if that's ok.

http://www.photography-lighting.com/JTL-Everlights-Lighting.html

Just bought that very setup from you guys last week, Eric. Very nice, and very affordable.

As for the boom, it's the only light equipped with a fan. Any recommendations on reducing the noise? I wondered about possibly making a cone out of that styrofoam egg crate material that would wrap just behind the speed ring and face backward thus absorbing some noise and deflecting the rest backward (making sure to leave ample breathing room for the light). The trick would be rigging it so that it doesn't touch the unit itself.

I bought the boom primarily for use in still photography...but it's such a nice light, I'm scheming how to block out the fan noise so that I can use it for video, too.