DIY Lighting
 

I just picked up a set of lights and am about to go about modifing them for video use. The light set cost me just under JP\10 000, about USD$80, and consists of 3 8"x6" 500w halogens on adjustable 6' stands and one 6"x4" 150w. I have a couple of questions, hopefully someone will have an answer for.

1. Anyone know of an inline dimmer that will handle 500w? I found a 150w one here in Japan but need 3 500w ones. I though about building a control box but it would end up to bulky and heavy and I really need the set to be extremely portable.

2. I'm going to add some barn-doors and want to know if I should build in some kind of gel holder.

As shooting with artificial light is something I don't have a lot of experience with any ideas or tips would be helpful.

David Riddle has small inline dimmers. I haven't used his, but I've used some of his video cases. They are well made.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?iewItem&item=1372991754

His website:
http://www.davidriddle.com/

If you put on barn doors, you don't really have to build anything special for gels. Use clothes pins ("C47s") to hold the gel to the barn doors. Just make sure they are far enough out from the lamp so as not to melt. The only thing you might want to factor in to the barn door holder is a slot to hold standard diffusion screens.

WS

Justin,

Those dimmers look great but they are somewhat of an overkill for what I want. Just one costs more that the lights themselves. I'm looking for a more consumer lighting type of thing. Like 29.95 from Home Depot or the like.

adrian,
if you can't find the dimmers in Akihabara, check out http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com/

look in the materials links page, they list a bunch of online stores that sell all kinds of supplies.

ichi-man for the lights+stands is a great deal, where did you get them at?

Hey Adrian,

Just by coincidence, I got this link in my e-mail junk box. Read it and build thy own.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/dimmer-switch.htm

Rik,

I picked them up at good ole DOit. I don't know if you have it your way but any big chain DIY store will probably have them.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Hey Adrian,

Got another link for ya...http://www.lowel.com/...download the full Lowel catalog. They have some dimmers available.

I had the same problem trying to find a simple dimmer switch. I found several "Pro" panpots and dimmers, for several hundred or several thousand, depending on the particular unit. I went to Home Depot and other places, but didn't find any plug-in dimmers that seemed industrial enough.

So, I made my own for about $20 USD, and found everything in the local WalMart. I bought two independant wall dimmer switches, and a double wall outlet. Add a short heavy duty extension cord, some wire nuts and electrical tape, and a small box to house it in, and you have a dimmer for two lights.
Keith

Keith,

John Locke and I spoke about making a box as we wandered around a Japanese version of Home Depot. We decided for Japan, and the fact everything needs to be as small as possible inline plugin dimmers on each light would be the go.

Adrian, how are your lights going? Had a chance to try them yet? Trying to get an idea as to the quality of the home made lighting kits. Before I get my camera, I've been thinking that I should look into some lights and start playing around with lighting and my current 1ccd camera to see if I can get my shots looking better ;)

I haven't shot anything with them yet Aaron, but I've set me up in my lounge room and they work a treat. I'm still working on a control and diffusion system for them and I'll let you know how I go.

I am working on my own lights also, for diffusion I am going to add a common photo stand clamp and a white umbrella. for my lights I am using a standard single gang outlet box which screws right onto the light. The dimmers were about 4 bucks and fit right into the outlet box like a switch would. Also you can try changing the standard bulbs for 500w T3 GE lamps which provide 3200 kelvin light. An interesting article I just posted to the open DV discussion talks about lighting and even talks about the color temperature of TV's in Japan. Hope some of this might have helped.

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp028.htm

That's an interesting article, CentralFla. I didn't know that about US and Japanese TVs.

Thanks for the info.

Aaron,

In trying to come up with some sort of diffusion for my lights, I used the old trick of oven proof baking paper. I put two layers of this paper over the protective grill and switched the puppies on. Beautiful light and soft shadows. They've been running for about 30mins now and no sigh of the paper scorching.

My wife just came into the room and commented on how different the room looks. She said it looks warm and sexy.

Not bad for an $80 light rig.

Adrian, that's good to hear. I'm going out this weekend to see what sorts of lights and stands I can find in the stores in my city. Do you white balance to those lights, or do you use corrective gels? And an associated question, how do I measure the colour temperature of lights?

Aaron, you could try phoning the manufacturer of the lamps used in the lights, they usually have this information on hand. otherwise you'll need a Colour Temperature Meter, which works kind of like a light meter, i think Sekonic and Minolta make one...but they can be very expensive.

Casey, yeah I think I'll have to do something like that.

Adrian, inspired by your recent aquisition I decided to follow in your footesteps and see if I could find some cheap lights myself. Give me something to play around with before I get my camera. Found some single light 500w lamps and stands that I got 2 of and also bought a double unit - stand with a bar holding 2 500's. Dunno if that was a smart thing to be honest though, but I thought there might be a need for that much brightness on one stand at some point ;) Might take it back to the store and exchange for 2 more single stand ones. All up it cost me NZ$120 which is about US$56 so I'm happy.

Now to try and make some barn doors! Adrian, do you know where I can find out how to make some? Are there any good sites out there which tell you the sorts of things you need on 'em?

Cheers
Aaron

One of the people here had a great post on lighting physics, a good read.

If you want to try you hand at fluorescent lights try this link at Studio 1

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/FL-Lights.htm

I was also thinking of using a few 500watt type work lights on stands and replacing the bulbs with higher colour temp. bulbs.

I understand about colour tempature but something confuses me.
Why can't I just use the lower colour temp bulb that comes with a work light and do a white balance? Will a white balance with higher CT bulbs look better than a lower CT bulb? Why pay the extra money? Also won't dimmers just lower your CT anyway?

Dimmers won't lower your colour temperature as far as I know.
I believe you can use work lights and just white balace manualy and it will work fine. It's better to do it the proper way with the right bulbs, though you should still white balance every time you shoot no matter what lights you use.
Having the proper colour temperature will also come in handy when you are trying to deal with multiple light sources, like in an office setting, so things don't come out as odd colours when they are exposed to different light in different parts of the scene.

The real benefit of pro lights over work lights is their adjustability. Focusing and barn doors are infaluable when properly lighting a scene.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : Dimmers won't lower your colour temperature as far as I know...
... It's better to do it the proper way with the right bulbs...



I would think the colour temp would go down when you dim??
Maybe someone knows?
If doing the the "proper way" only helps if you're using outside light and/or have a kit with all the fancy barn doors, switches etc, then I think I will make my own. The article on this site "Build your own light kit from Home depot" is pretty good!

http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/lighting/hdlightkit1.php

I have all the parts already including high quality dimmers with remotes. The quartz bulbs I can get for free but the higer CT bulbs may cost me about $15 each. Unless some professional lighting person out there can give me a good reason why I should only use "higher CT bulbs and lights" then I'll have to try the less expensive alternative. :)
I even tried some low voltage lighting (MR16..EXN) on tracks! Worked well and the image was great. But too much work to create stands for them and other attatchments.
No enough light throw at greater distances either.

The fluorescents I just tried and they looked great (using C50 bulbs) but they are too big and heavy to lug around. 3 simple lights on stands would be better and easier.

Thanks for the input...

I'm not saying go buy a kit by any means, just that the main differences in a pro kit is the extra tools that help control and direct the light. Believe me, I'm the LAST guy here who will tell you that you need to go buy pro stuff to make something look good! :)

I plan on making two or three light banks out of compact flourescents. I think they are a very good choice if you want to build your own lighting from scratch. I'll buy pro stands though.

Ya, no problem Dylan! :)

I'm interested in some responses though from some pro- lighting people out there as well. Where are you old vetern lighting people! :)

I tried a compact flourescent and it looked great but not alot of throw. You would need alot of them. I have one that is equal to a 100watt bulb and has a CT of 5000. I put it in a holder with a reflector and clamp. The throw is pretty week. My experimenting continues....

I'm looking at a bank of four of the 18"-ish compact flourescents. are they 55w each? Do you know what other CT's they are avaiable in?

If you decrease the voltage the color temperature will change (lower temp.). This happens in everyday use because the voltage rises and falls as the power company changes the line voltage to meet demand etc. Color temperature will also change as the bulb ages. Color temperature changes with daylight all the time. White balance to your light source and you'll be fine. Troubles come in when you want to apply filters. The change in color temp. may produce unexpected results. There are meters to measure color temperature, but they are fairly expensive. http://www.minoltausa.com/eprise/main/MinoltaUSA/MUSAContent/CPG/CPGProducts?cname=exp&fname=exp_exp&Mname=Color_Meter_IIIf


Jeff

I just watch the movie, Blade2!
The technical section of the DVD is excellent!
It's actuallly longer than the movie!
Lots of notation on lighting, camera angles, etc!
They talk about and show alot of different lights used, colour temp, etc. It also makes me want to get a steady cam!
Not too bad of a movie as well.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper : I'm looking at a bank of four of the 18"-ish compact flourescents. are they 55w each? Do you know what other CT's they are avaiable in? -->>>


I sell alot of those bulbs at work. I'll check the CT.
Maybe your looking for something like a FLUO-TEC 850 SOFTLITE 8x55w (DIMMABLE) ?
They're alot of money to buy! I'm looking to make one myself after seeing how easy it would be and I have access to all the parts. I would mount the ballasts on the stand as well.
We have alot of Lithonia & GE products at work so instead of working all day, I'm looking at the products and trying to figure out ways to create lighting for video! :)

Just a question. I've heard that not all lights are dimmable, i.e. You can't put dimmers on all lights. This sounds wrong to me and I was wondering if someone could clear this up. I thought you'd be able to put dimmers on anything. The reason I ask, is that I've bought some work lights and I want to stick dimmers on them (And get some CT lights if they'll fit the sockets ;) )

Cheers
Aaron

Jeff, is right. Putting a dimmer from Home Depot on a light--any light--and turning it down will alter the color temperature. This is why photographic lights with dimmers are so expensive. They have the capability of lowering the output without effecting the color temperature.

The best advice on dimming lights, is to arrange them in banks and switch the banks on or off to get the intensity you desire.

Nathan, are you saying then to forget dimmers? i.e. Just use some certain wattage and use more lights if you need it brighter?
Also my understanding of wattage and all that is nil, so if I stick a 200w bulb in my 500w worklights will that work, or will I need to do something to the lights to be able to use a 200w bulb in it? (Assuming there is no physical problem putting a 200w bulb in)

You'll have no problem putting a 200 watt bulb in a 500 watt socket. Just like household bulbs. You can put a 50 watt bulb in a lamp that had a 100 watt bulb in it. The other way to reduce light is to move it further from your subject.

If your lens aperature is at F8 and the lights are 5 feet from the subject and you move the lights to 10 feet, your aperature will be F4. You lose 2 stops of light.

Jeff

Thanks for that Jeff (re-reading that I notice how stupid it sounds). Now to source some known colour temperature bulbs for my work lights.

Cheers
Aaron

I picked up a few 500watt type flood lights. They're made by "The Designers Edge" (L-27 white) (Home Depot). They are your standard outdoor 500 watt type fixture you would mount in your driveway but they are a nice white finish with a "eybrow" style hinged face, pebbled decorative tempered glass. The light projected from it is excellent! Very soft and bright with absolutely no evidence of the filiment of reflective backing. Just perfect flood light! (10,500 lumens @ 500 watts!). The tempered, pebbled glass that comes with it is an excellent diffusion!You could use any type of bulb wattage at whatever CT you want I'm sure. I mounted the 3 I have to some light stands and now I'm set for 3 point lighting! Pretty cool and very inexpensive! I'm going to get some hinges and metal and make barn doors for 2 of them (key & back light), the fill light I'll leave as is. Once I get my Graffic Eye 3 zone remote dimmer switch I will be very happy!

"Putting a dimmer from Home Depot on a light--any light--and turning it down will alter the color temperature. This is why photographic lights with dimmers are so expensive. They have the capability of lowering the output without effecting the color
temperature."

All dimmers will change the colour temp, they may also cause a (singing) noise.

Colour temp may also be different depending on the manufacturer and the wattage of the bulbs. I've seen references showing the work light halogens to vary from 2800 to 3100 K. The lower temp lamps also seem to have a lot longer life.

Maybe I'll just use lower wattage bulbs instead of a dimmer.
But even if I dim the lights and then do a white balance should I not be ok? (as long as there is no other light source of course!

Adam, I would think that doing a white balance would work fine. My only question would be: What is the intention of using the dimmer? The very few times I've been on shoots where a dimmer was employed was *during* the take to achieve an effect.

You could also use a scrim(s) to lower the intensity. The pro scrims I've seen come in 1/2 and full stop increments. I use the scrims to fine tune my lighting ratio, especially in tight spots where I don't have room to move the light(s) further from the subject.

Just a thought.

Sorry for the back-to-back post . . .

I just went to The Home Depot web site and looked for the lights Adam was talking about--couldn't find them (drat). What I did find was the "industrial twin head" worklights. These are similar to those used by the DOT when working on the roads at night.

At 1000W, through a Tough Spun in front of one or two of these and I'd think you could light quite a large area. At $69 you can't beat the price for the volume of light. The end result would similar to PARs but a whooole lot cheaper!

Now all I need is a situation where I need to light half a city block to put this to the test. Come to think of it, this could be used as simulated sunlight coming through a window, too--where ever you needed a large, single-source light. The possibilities are endless!

I suppose I really don't need a dimmer! Having lower wattage bulbs on hand would be better! From what I've been researching I need my fill light to be less wattage compared with my key & backlights. I've been a wedding videographer for a number of years now but haven't used 3 point lighting as I've mostly used the on-camera light. Now, I must say, it's getting fun!