Creating barn doors on a work light. Any advice on improvements? at DVinfo.net

Mark Apsolon · February 12th, 2009, 11:04 AM

Hi guys! I just finished up two different versions of barn doors that fit on work lights. One is not that difficult to do but the other is much harder. Can you guys take a look at the photos and tell me if you see any room for improvement. I will post the links to the photos below:

version 01
http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00258SM.jpg
http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00259SM.jpg

version 02
http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00321A.jpg
http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00323A.jpg

The first version is before I used high heat paint so just keep that in mind. I am going to be doing video tutorials on both barn doors within the next few weeks

Corey Williams · February 12th, 2009, 11:12 AM

I think i like version one. it looks easier to make.

Ken Hull · February 12th, 2009, 02:42 PM

Mark,
It looks as if version 2 would be leaking light around where the hinge attaches to the barn door. I'm not sure what the advantage of version 2 is.
Ken

Ken Campbell · February 18th, 2009, 01:34 PM

I started out with these worklights and quickly learned why barndoors are so useful. In this forum I found a post where someone just bought barndoors and drilled 4 holes and that was it. So I did exactly that. Very cheap solution as well.

That being said, although these worklights are very economical, they soon become a limitation. Their shape produced odd double shadows. The stands are not very sturdy and not that tall and have limited tilt adjustments. Its hard to adapt them to be used with normal light stands. The light is not 3200K (more like 2800K) so they don't mix well with pro lights and always require a custom light balance. The light thrown is not distributed evenly. And there is some work to do to get barndoors on them!

My point of this response is to help my fellow DVI'ers to not to fall in love with these worklights and keep in mind that they have some limitations. I quickly learned that the quality of lighting had a major impact on the quality of my video, and as I got better with the videocamera I eventually outgrew the worklights and had to take the plunge for better lights.

Oh by the way, I started getting much better results after I learned to put 216 diffusion gels over these lights.

Waldemar Winkler · February 20th, 2009, 07:50 PM

Version one is very similar to what I did a couple of years ago. My differences were: 1) I used small piano hinges so the entire length of the barn door was attached to the fixture. 2) Before attaching the barn doors to the fixture I first made a filter slot from aluminium channel then attached the barn doors to it.
Lastly, I wadded up a sheet of aluminum foil. When pressed out flat again the foil contained a lot of wrinkles. When I fitted the foil to the reflector pan of the work light I not only got a more even spread of light, but picked almost one more stop of output.

February 12th, 2009, 11:04 AM	#1
Mark Apsolon Tourist Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: philly, PA Posts: 2	Creating barn doors on a work light. Any advice on improvements? Hi guys! I just finished up two different versions of barn doors that fit on work lights. One is not that difficult to do but the other is much harder. Can you guys take a look at the photos and tell me if you see any room for improvement. I will post the links to the photos below: version 01 http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00258SM.jpg http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00259SM.jpg version 02 http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00321A.jpg http://markapsolon.com/videophotopics/DSC00323A.jpg The first version is before I used high heat paint so just keep that in mind. I am going to be doing video tutorials on both barn doors within the next few weeks

February 20th, 2009, 07:50 PM	#5
Waldemar Winkler Major Player Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Durango, Colorado, USA Posts: 711	Version one is very similar to what I did a couple of years ago. My differences were: 1) I used small piano hinges so the entire length of the barn door was attached to the fixture. 2) Before attaching the barn doors to the fixture I first made a filter slot from aluminium channel then attached the barn doors to it. Lastly, I wadded up a sheet of aluminum foil. When pressed out flat again the foil contained a lot of wrinkles. When I fitted the foil to the reflector pan of the work light I not only got a more even spread of light, but picked almost one more stop of output. __________________ Waldemar

February 12th, 2009, 11:12 AM	#2
Corey Williams Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: McKinney,TX/New Orleans, LA Posts: 104	I think i like version one. it looks easier to make.

February 12th, 2009, 02:42 PM	#3
Ken Hull Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 240	Mark, It looks as if version 2 would be leaking light around where the hinge attaches to the barn door. I'm not sure what the advantage of version 2 is. Ken

February 18th, 2009, 01:34 PM	#4
Ken Campbell Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Milan, Italy Posts: 140	I started out with these worklights and quickly learned why barndoors are so useful. In this forum I found a post where someone just bought barndoors and drilled 4 holes and that was it. So I did exactly that. Very cheap solution as well. That being said, although these worklights are very economical, they soon become a limitation. Their shape produced odd double shadows. The stands are not very sturdy and not that tall and have limited tilt adjustments. Its hard to adapt them to be used with normal light stands. The light is not 3200K (more like 2800K) so they don't mix well with pro lights and always require a custom light balance. The light thrown is not distributed evenly. And there is some work to do to get barndoors on them! My point of this response is to help my fellow DVI'ers to not to fall in love with these worklights and keep in mind that they have some limitations. I quickly learned that the quality of lighting had a major impact on the quality of my video, and as I got better with the videocamera I eventually outgrew the worklights and had to take the plunge for better lights. Oh by the way, I started getting much better results after I learned to put 216 diffusion gels over these lights.