Need advice on standard, basic lighting

[Bill Pryor]

That's interesting. The ones I've used in the U.S. were always 1K, and on their site they show them as 1K ( http://www.ianirodirect.com/Default1.aspx ). Most people find that 800 watts is adequate, however. I use 750 watt lamps in Lowel 1K lights most all the time. I don't know why we can't get the real thing in the U.S. anymore. I think they're the best open face lights made. Lots of TV stations used them back in the '80s, and I had access to a set when I first moved from film to video production.

[Jared Gardner]

Originally Posted by Guy Cochran

If you're trying to do this on the super low budget and lighting people, I'd get a couple of Lowel fluorescent bulbs that screw into standard household sockets. These are color accurate - make that highly color accurate bulbs that go for around $30 ea. The model is the Lowel X1-65
Use one for your Key light, and one for your Fill light. Get a desklamp that can be tungsten and provide a warmer look, use that one as your backlight.
Google for some cinefoil aka blackwrap and you can block the light if its going everywhere and you want it to go in one direction. Here's a video or that might help understanding what and where to place the key, fill and backlights:

YouTube - 3 point lighting technique
Lighting Infinite White on Vimeo

The Infinite white video shows lighting white, however the same could apply to green, but you'll need to get your talent back.

One more resource is the Lowel Edu website. These is a cool Flash movie that allows you to turn the lights on and off and see their effect. Lowel EDU - a Lighting Resource Center

Here is an example video I just shot that is lit using those same Lowel X1-65 bulbs. I've got a few of them on standard track lighting from home depot and a set in a Rifa 66 YouTube - Our new HD Studio - how we do it.

Hope this helps,

I know that this is an old thread but I seemed to have fallen off the Earth for a bit. I wanted to ask about using the Lowel X1-65 65 Watt/120 Volt bulbs. These screw into standard household sockets correct? If so I'm not sure which kind of lamps you were thinking that I should use. I want to do this as cheaply as possible and if I can get by with a few standard desk lamps then sure, I'd do that. I also wouldn't mind getting a few cheap worklights from Home Depot and using those to light up the key.

What I'm trying to do is really simple and nothing special. Just light up the key and light the person decently :) If there's any more advice anyone has please let me know. I'll get right on getting whatever would work best for me.

[Paul R Johnson]

Lots of people have these worklights, I've got some too, but they are not much good for even light. The safety grills cast nasty shadows, and running them with the grills off is bad practice. They are bright, but just difficult to work with.

[Guy Cochran]

Originally Posted by Jared Gardner

I know that this is an old thread but I seemed to have fallen off the Earth for a bit. I wanted to ask about using the Lowel X1-65 65 Watt/120 Volt bulbs. These screw into standard household sockets correct? If so I'm not sure which kind of lamps you were thinking that I should use. I want to do this as cheaply as possible and if I can get by with a few standard desk lamps then sure, I'd do that.

The Lowel X1-65 fluorescents screw right into a standard household lamp socket. Just make sure the light fixture can handle 65 watts. I use these in our studio along with some track lighting.

Lowel should be coming out with an 85w version soon. They would be out by now, but the recent shipment didn't meet the specs. The 65watt version has a CRI of over 91 and is color accurate - no weird green, magenta, or blue tinge.

Get some cinefoil (aka blackwrap), it's like a black aluminum foil if you're not familiar with it, and you can build your own barn doors and flags so you can shape and block the light.

Lowel lamps - DVcreator Kit Bulbs at DVcreators.net

Hope this helps,

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Here in the UK, Redheads have always been 800W

Ianiro has two bulb sizes that fit into otherwise identical redheads - if memory serves, the 800/600w fixtures are one size and the 1000/650w lamps share another size. I USED to have a set of 8 of them, half lamped at 650 and the other half at 1000. Now I own four completely different Ianiros that are lamped at 600w.

[Jared Gardner]

Hm... I think the thing I'm worried about most is getting a good light for lighting up the green screen, which would probably take at least a couple of lights. I'm thinking of going the worklight from Home Depot route. As for lighting the person, I don't think that'd be much of a problem at all, especially if I get some of the bulbs that Guy recommended.

Do you think I could do this decently with a couple worklights for the green screen light and a few of the Lowel X1-65 fluorescents for lighting the person?

[Jared Gardner]

Any answer to my question would be appreciated. I'll head right out and get this stuff if that's all it will take.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Jared Gardner

Do you think I could do this decently with a couple worklights for the green screen light and a few of the Lowel X1-65 fluorescents for lighting the person?

You wanted ANY answer, I'll give you one you don't want to hear:
After using pro instruments, having to point worklights at anything is a frustrating affair. I worked on an indy film once where I appeared with camera kit but not my light kit and used worklights taped to stuff and clip lights with 5 different colour temps of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. BAH! My small light kit came out next time and I was FAR more productive.

Tripods, audio and lights will outlast any camera purchase you make. If you can't afford to buy even cheap pro instruments, you're better off renting UNLESS you plain old just don't see a difference (in which case you'd better hope your clients don't either - if they see stuff you don't, perhaps not a good field to be in).

Disclaimer: yeah, I'm a bit of a low budget pro lighting snob, so take my above comment with a grain of salt but I do work with broadcast clients and if I EVER showed up with a worklight duct taped to something, I'd never get another call. Lowels and Ianiros comprise my two light kits. If I need more, I rent.

Hope this helps.

[Garrett Low]

Hi Jared,

From my limited experience with green screen work I'd say you should should follow Shaun's advice and rent if you cannot afford to purchase quality lights now. If you plan on sticking with this field you'll discover that you need to have at least a small light kit you can take with you "just in case". So, you might as well not waste money on the "Home Depot" lights as I did.

For keying one of the most important things is to get good even light on the green screen and avoid shadows. That means work lights are not a good option. I've done two green shoots. The first was in a studio specifically set up for green screen. Their light grid was made up of about 20 various types of studio lights. All daylight balanced mix of HMI's, Flo's, and PAR's. We were lucky enough to have an experienced gaffer and lighting expert. The shoot turned out great and keying in post was a snap.

The second shoot was much different. We started out trying to use work lights to just evenly light the screen. We used some Fresnels for lighting the talent. Good thing we did some test shots before shooting the actual scenes because it turned out horrible. Keying would have been a nightmare. Two things became apparent. One, the work lights were not giving an even enough coverage of the green screen to get really clean keying in post. Second, we just couldn't control the lighting enough with the crude lighting instruments. We would have had to have so many flags to control spill it would have been insane. Also, the light coming from the work lights weren't even enough. We ended up postponing the shoot for a week in order to rent some lights. That worked out much better.

For the cost of buying some Home Depot work lights you can easily rent a good light kit for a couple of days and save yourself a lot of frustration in post.

Just my experience and 2 cents.

Garrett

[Richard Andrewski]

I think you should do it the other way. If you have to use worklights, use them on the talent and use fluorescents on the screen. The green will like to be lit much more by daylight and most cameras will respond better to daylight than a 2800K light like a worklight. Plus fluorescent will be more flat and even which is also necessary.