Cheap Lighting kit for documentary interviews?

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

While I agree with Perrone and Andy that reflectors are a wonderful solution AND provide heatless, free light, if you only get two (or a reversible one) make WHITE one of the colours.

HEED THIS! Great point Shaun. And one I didn't think about since I use foamcore and not true reflectors. White foamcore is your FRIEND. The quality of light it gives off is luscious. It can take a hard open faced light and make it look like Fluo. Love the stuff. And I am about to get some real foam. An 8ft x 4ft sheet for a 2 person front light. Gonna bounce the 2k off of it, or two 1ks for soft front fill. Gotta wash those wrinkles away on the talent! :)

[Kareem Dimashkie]

I feel like I have received a crash course education in good interview lighting. Thank you all for your help.

So I'm going with the Rifa EX 55 and the 3-lamp module. I will order some foam core along with it. Is BH the best place to get it from? Any other suggestions as to where to purchase from?

Thank you all once again. Seriously, you guys saved my ass.

[Perrone Ford]

Get foamcore from staples or where ever. B&H has always treated me well. I've bought $20k in gear from them in the past couple years and never an issue.

[Kareem Dimashkie]

Great. Also, are there any compact florescent bulbs you would recommend to buy from BH?

Finally, this may sound like a very lame question, but in terms of energy requirements, is the Rifa okay to plug into a standard house outlet? I know its Edison, but I'm just double-checking.

Thanks again.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Kareem Dimashkie

Great. Also, are there any compact florescent bulbs you would recommend to buy from BH?

I get my bulbs from Home Depot or Lowes. Just bought 4 more on Friday.

Originally Posted by Kareem Dimashkie

Finally, this may sound like a very lame question, but in terms of energy requirements, is the Rifa okay to plug into a standard house outlet? I know its Edison, but I'm just double-checking.

Volts * amps = watts.

Home voltage = 120
Home outlets are generally either 15 or 20 amps
So you can plug in 120*15 to 120*20. But you better know what else is on that circuit, and how much it's drawing first!

And learn to tell a 20amp circuit from a 15. The outlet looks different.

I use fluorescent so I don't have to worry about this stuff! :)

-P

[Kareem Dimashkie]

Excellent. Thank you again.

[Chris Swanberg]

An excellent course in interview lighting (available on DVD) is "How to Setup, Light and Shoot Great Looking Interviews" from Vortex Media. I highly recommend it.

I have had good luck following his recipe, which is much like Shaun's except he skips the 2nd Prolight that Shaun uses for fill in lieu of a reflector.

I use a Flo softbox from Richard Andrewski's outfit ( Coollights), and a reflector for fill and a prolight with a snoot as a hairlight... works great. (Remember this is mainly a headshot interview. Closeups.)

I highly recommend the DVD as a tool to learn with... There are lot of ways to skin the cat, but the one used here seemed to work easily for me.

Chris

btw, I "duplicated" the $1500 kit for just over half that.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

Volts * amps = watts.

Home voltage = 120
Home outlets are generally either 15 or 20 amps
So you can plug in 120*15 to 120*20. But you better know what else is on that circuit, and how much it's drawing first!

As well, actual line voltage changes from location to location. Line voltage is typically NOMINAL 120V AC. You will routinely see line as low as 115V and as high as 120V. In addition, the "tolerance" is built into the breaker (or God forbid, FUSE!). Brand new breakers may be a little more tolerant and allow 16 amps through for hours before popping while older, "worn" breakers may pop at 14 amps, below their rating.

I ASSUME that all household outlets are capable of 1650 watts (110VAC x 15 amps) just to be sure. I HAVE managed to keep 3 of my 600w Redheads going on one circuit for an hour.

The key here is: can you afford to trip a breaker? On a live-to-air interview, NO! On the same circuit as a computer server? NO! (I've taken down TWO servers this way...) In your own house with your family? Ya spins the wheel, ya takes your chances.

[Cliff Etzel]

Reading this thread with great interest - Photoflex has come out with their CoolStar 150CFL which is said to fit in any E39 light fixture and is said to pump out the equivalent of a 400 tungsten bulb.

I did find what appears to be the exact same bulb here for 1/3 the cost - it appears Photoflex is rebranding this bulb and marking up the price quite a bit.

I'm a n00b on the light fixture nomenclature - is an E39 fixture a standard household light fixture? If so, I already have the softboxes and diffusion panels that this would work with - the price is kinda spendy for a light bulb, but I couldn't find another source for a bulb like this so far.

Any input on what DIY mods would need to be done or is it a matter of the appropriate speed ring to attach a socket to.

Any thoughts?

[Chris Swanberg]

E-39 is what is referred to more commonly as a mogul socket. Looks like a regular light bulb socket on steroids.

I have the coollights softbox that uses this bulb and I really like it. The wattage is such that you are going to be using the softbox relatively close to the subject, and a reflector fill works pretty well. The version of the softbox Coollights sells comes with a grid... something others charge an arm and a leg for and a pretty important piece of a softbox if you ask me.

[Cliff Etzel]

Well, based upon what I've researched in the past hour, Photoflex is charging a huge markup for the bulb and carrying case in relation to what can be had out in the wild.

I'm looking at replacing my Lowel Totalite and i-Lite with CF equivalents due to the issue of heat when shooting with my Softboxes (The are video ones, not photo).

Just need to figure out the mount for my existing speedrings - the bulbs are the easy part.

[Christopher Witz]

that bulb has a mogul socket .... works well with their starlight lamp head. your right that its pricey through them. i think coollights.biz light is a better buy and 25% more watts as well. i do like that case that comes with it though... although these 8u bulbs are pretty fragile... i trust the box from coollights and if that case does not have fairly ridged walls its useless.

[Benjamin Hill]

I've converted Photoflex Starlite fixtures to fluorescent with the 8U mogul base 200W CFLs.
Like the daylight color temp and low infrared; hate the HUGE, FRAGILE bulbs. I don't recommend this solution for that reason.

The CDM150 lights by Coollights.biz are a more durable and flexible solution for non-fiction video production work, in my experience.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

The key here is: can you afford to trip a breaker? On a live-to-air interview, NO! On the same circuit as a computer server? NO! (I've taken down TWO servers this way...) In your own house with your family? Ya spins the wheel, ya takes your chances.

I've already tripped my house once while lighting for a product shoot. Turns out two ~400W computers, 3 LCD monitors, and 4 home depot 500W work lights probably should not be on the same circuit all at once. Fortunately for me, my render systems were chugging away on a 6+ hour render AND they were both on UPS units! Ahhhh. What a relief! But I had to run to the garage real quick to flip the breaker (in the dark because the idiot that wired my house put 3/4 of the rooms & lights on the same ~10amp circuit). I ran an extension cord from a different part of the house on a different breaker for the lighting.

Good reason to run everything at max for a few minutes before shoot time to make sure you're set for stable power.

[Tim Polster]

10 amp circuit, that is limiting.

But you might have still tripped it with an 18 amp circuit.