I am shooting some interviews this weekend, and will be using a borrowed light kit consisting of 4 lowel omnis each with a 1000W bulb (they are all the same anyway and I think they're 1K, because that's what it looked like the spare bulbs were). Sometimes there is a metal scrim for the lights, and sometimes not. 8' stands are included - no booms.

I picked up a couple of umbrellas to try to soften the light a bit (from the local camera store - I think they are Elinchrom silver interiors - are they going to work with the Omnis? The store owner thought they would because they are somewhat heavy material. Going even further aside, umbrellas on continuous light sources need to be special heat resistant? I know softboxes would...)

I usually put one as a key light, bounce another one for fill, and then one or two on the background, and if available, use one as a hairlight. I turn off any room lighting at that point.

Any other suggestions for how to arrange things? Budget is less than $200.

thanks

I'd pick up some black foil. You might also get a litepanel or reflector which you can use for bounce / flag / diffuser. I like the 39x72 litepanels because you can buy feet for them so they stand on their own. You could also point the omnis into a litepanel as a diffuser and control the light spill using the black foil.