Various lighting questions & answers from 2004

[Sunny Dhinsey]

In desperate need of advice!

I live in the UK (Great Britain) and need an AC (Plug in) On board Camera light for my Canon XL1s.

I don't want one that runs on batteries and it HAS to run on 240 Volts and have a power output of about 100-150W.

I haven't seem to come across one and am running out of time!

Does anybody know of where I can get one in the UK??!!!

[Sunny Dhinsey]

As you may know I have another thread about an on-camera light.

Thank you for responses from which I have decided to ditch the idea of an AC on-board camera light and have opted for a battery powered light instead.

So.....the next dilemma.

I want a light that is capable of around 100w output and a battery pack of a reasonable time.

I also would prefer the battery pack to be mountable on the MA200 of my Canon XL1s.

Can someone please advise me of what is a suitable setup. I am familiar with 4 Pin XLR lights and all that, but I'm not that knowledgable regarding on-camera lighting in general so would appreciate positive feedback!

Thanks!

[Rob Lohman]

I believe the general battery brand that everone's using is from
Anton Bauer. There are connectors for almost anything for that
brand including the XL1. I'm not sure which lights would work
with such a system or for how long.

Most professional shoots probably use some form of generator
out in the field to power all the equipment. Smaller ones
(which can happily feed 100W) can be easily rented at hardware
stores and hardware rental facilities here for example.

[Ed Hill]

I used to use a "sun gun" dc light powered by a battery belt years ago when I was shooting TV news. There are different brands. Try Frezzi electronics on the web.

Basically, the on camera light gives a harsh flat unflattering light.
It's ok for shooting interviews with firemen & police at night but not much of anything else. I guess its ok for news and doc work.

Good Luck.

Ed Hill

[Maureen Futtner]

Using my trusty trv-950, need to shoot several paintings on very tall walls (cathedral ceiling with skylights). There are nooks and crannies, too, where the skylights do not reach that have paintings I need to shoot, as well.

What would folks recommend? I figure either I bring a light kit and try to shoot at night, and focus the lights for a large portion of the wall (e.g. - lighting a few paintings at a time)? Or I shoot during the day and get what I get?

Any thoughts would be helpful. Hope this is clear.

THanks so much.

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Maureen,
This is an interesting problem not posted here before (at least in my memory).

Based on your description I'm envisioning frescos at the clerestory and/or vault level of a church or cathedral, perhaps 30 feet or more above the floor with bright light streaming into the clerestory windows during the day?

Yes, you will certainly need some lighting and, if those distances are anywhere near accurate, you'll probably need quite a bit of it. Unless you want to get a good exposure on both the paintings and adjacent windows I'd be inclined to shoot during the day and use as much ambient daylight as possible. Even a little will help augment your own lighting.

But here's the the thought that struck me. Why not shoot high-resolution digital stills with a good digital SLR (ex: Canon EOS 10D, Nikon D1, et.al.) instead of video? If there are no moving subjects up there, there may be some significant advantages in such an approach.

1. You can probably accomplish the photography with two powerful flash guns on separate stands and slaved together. That sure beats shlepping heavy video lighting gear.

2. You will have a good selection of 35mm lenses, perhaps a single good zoom and/or telephotos / wide angles.

3. You can drop the high-res stills into your video sequences and zoom them to introduce motion and visual interest. I envision that you might have a narrative voice-over in the background, perhaps with some background music as well. This technique might actually give you more control over the sequence timing of the footage during post than if you shot it with video.

As long as you're careful with lens selection (i.e. stay away from extreme wide shots that might have barrel distortion) nobody would know that you actually shot that footage with a still camera.

Just a brainstorm.

[Roger Berry]

Hi,

Keene Electronics (www.keene.co.uk) stock the Unomat LX301, which is 300 watts and can be zoomed from flood to spot. It's about 90 quid and is a great little light.

I don't know of anything less powereful than this available here in the UK.

Roger

[Takeshi Fukushima]

Hello
I am planning a production and plan to carry a lighting set (Lowel Omni lihgt x4, Tota light x1) with us. WIll be shooting in Europe, US, and China, due to the Voltage differences, we are considering having different voltage range bulbs, but also considering having a transformer. Does anyone recommend a better solution?
we do no t have the budget to rent lights each place we go.
Thanks for you advice.
Takeshi

[Takeshi Fukushima]

Can anyone confirm on the Omni light being able to shoot with diverse voltages? Just with different watt bulbs? Has anyone tried this out yet? It does say in the back about the color temperature difference when using 120V and 240V.
http://www.lowel.com/omni/omni_b.html#info
T

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Usually I just repostion, swap things out for other lighting options, or diffuse another way, but yesterday, for the first time, I popped in the little scrim on my Pro Light to knock down the hair light on a bald spot. When I packed everything up, I noticed the scrim had a brown/burned-like spot on it. Is that normal? I hadn't clipped the frame in completely as it sits so tightly it's hard to get open, so I'm wondering if it not being seated flush had anything to do with it. But is a burned scrim now useless? Won't that affect the color of the light when it's used next?

[Ken Plotin]

I presume you mean a metal scrim. Don't worry, they all get that way after 1 or 2 passes in front of hot lights...gives them a bit of character. Sometimes scrims have a coating on the metal mesh, sometimes the screen material just heats up and discolors.
The closer the frame is to the light, the faster they go.
This won't change the color of your light, but over time the scrim material can become brittle. This could take years...I have some 30 year old Mickey Mole 1Ks with the original scrims that are still going strong.
Hope this helps.
ken

[Marcia Janine Galles]

It does indeed, Ken. Character... I like that. Kinda like my own dings and knocks. :-)

No worries then. Thanks!
Marcia

[Grant Brennae]

Hey Everyone,

Just ordered up a Super Ambi Kit from Lowel to add to my collection. I figure this should pretty much do the trick for most applications. Anyways, included in the kit is a Lowel Pro light. Does anybody know where to find a stud so I can mount the Pro Light on my XL1s? also, I'm using Anton Bauer Hytron 50 cells to power the camera using the QRXL1c gold mount. Can I power the Pro Light using the Hytron 50?

[Dirk Vanfleet]

I'm curious if there are any lighting books geared specifically to lighting for suspense and/or horror.

Or any recommended books on lighting setups that have a chapter devoted to the subject of horror lighting.

-D.

[Ryan Gohlinghorst]

I would recommend buying John Jackman's Lighting for DV and Television. It's a great book that will teach you a lot about lighting. Once you have the basics down, just watch horror movies to see how they light (it will become more obvious to you after reading the book). That's what I do.