Cheapest way to properly light a subject?

[Floris van Eck]

Great advice everyone! The only problem is that I live in The Netherlands and we do not have the same brands as you have in the United States. And it will be difficult to find the same sort of lights. And Amazon.com does not ship this kind of products to Europe, only books and cd's.

[Cole McDonald]

Most of them you should be able to find somewhere that will ship to you using http://www.froogle.com (google's shopping search engine). You should be able to find somewhere that can get the stuff you're looking for.

[Joe Carney]

Good idea about froogle, I put this in 'color corrected fluorescent -lightbox -box' and came up with both 5000 and 3200 lights. Also search for 'full spectrum flourescent'

[Joe Carney]

btw, on this same subject, can anyone recomend which ballasts to use? Especially ones that dont hum and cause flicker?

[Marcus Marchesseault]

"Electronic" ballasts are a must. Steer clear of "magnetic" ballasts which operate at the frequency of the line (60hz in U.S.). Compact fluorescents have their own ballast which should be electronic. Electronic ballasts operate at such a high frequency that there should be no flickering or hum. Some of them will list their operating frequency and it should be listed as KHz (thousands of cycles) instead of 60Hz. It may say 60Hz on the product as the input frequency, but something like "40KHz operating frequency" will be it's output frequency.

I thought of a way to test a fluorescent for flicker. Put your hand in front of your CRT computer monitor and wave it back-and-forth quickly. You will see your hand strobing. You will see several distinct silhouettes of your hand as it moves. A light with a high frequency will not have distinctive strobing and will instead make your hand look blurry.

[Denis Danatzko]

check out the Q-Beam Max-Million II from Brinkmann. Has 2,000,000 candle power and can do both spot and flood with the pull of a trigger. Also has a sliding lock to keep it turned on, but only in the spot mode. (You can use a strap or rubber band to keep it on in flood mode).

As a father's day gift last year, I got a kit of this one that came w/2 batteries, charger, both DC and AC plugs, spre bulb, and 3 lens covers - blue, red, amber. Don't know the price, but I can use it either at home, from the car, or in the field.

[Joe Carney]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

"Electronic" ballasts are a must. Steer clear of "magnetic" ballasts which operate at the frequency of the line (60hz in U.S.). Compact fluorescents have their own ballast which should be electronic. Electronic ballasts operate at such a high frequency that there should be no flickering or hum. Some of them will list their operating frequency and it should be listed as KHz (thousands of cycles) instead of 60Hz. It may say 60Hz on the product as the input frequency, but something like "40KHz operating frequency" will be it's output frequency.

I thought of a way to test a fluorescent for flicker. Put your hand in front of your CRT computer monitor and wave it back-and-forth quickly. You will see your hand strobing. You will see several distinct silhouettes of your hand as it moves. A light with a high frequency will not have distinctive strobing and will instead make your hand look blurry.

Thanks, I've been looking at the lowel scandles and the westcott TD5 spider lights, but hopefully can find something a lot less expensive.

[Rob Gregory-Browne]

If anyone is looking for low cost fluorescent lighting, I highly recommend this DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...v=glance&n=130

The host, Richard Andrewski, shows you how to build a bunch of different light fixtures, from very simple to somewhat complicated. One of the least complicated is gutting those halogen worklights and turning them into fluorescents with barn doors.

I'm not a shill for Andrewski. This DVD is the real deal. Very good. And the lights are not only affordable, they look cool as well. Clients and actors will never know the difference, and they'll love not having to sit under hot lights.

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Floris van Eck

Great advice everyone! The only problem is that I live in The Netherlands and we do not have the same brands as you have in the United States. And it will be difficult to find the same sort of lights. And Amazon.com does not ship this kind of products to Europe, only books and cd's.

Floris - you just need to put in 2 or 3 minutes being inventive on the web and you'll find what you're looking for....

Go to Dutch google site (www.google.nl) and search for it and ...... :

http://www.reikicentrum.nl/buy_reiki...ype=AsinSearch

The same identical light, if it says 'available to buy' on a Dutch site, so it must be purchasable and deliverable to you.
Probably originates fom same USA store, but its shipped to Holland and you can buy it that way.

[Robyne Hunwick]

Hi all, I know this is an old thread however, i thought i would reply to it versus starting my own.

I've heard a great many things about the chinese lamps, just a little confused and was hoping to get some advice on how to handle them. All i want to do with is experiment with the type of lighting effect I can get from them.

One of the posts here referred something to the effect of "y adapters".. not really sure what these are and/or why i need them and what to do with them once purchased.. or really what to ask the store clerk for when going to purchase. As you can tell i am not to swavy in the electrical department. Additionally did a search on them and came up with audio misc, etc.

Another post in this thread referred to getting 2, 150-200 watt bulbs. Isnt this too much wattage when the lamps request bulbs with a 40 watt max? After all they are just paper (which of course is cheaper to purchase than another house.. but who wants the drama) and certain to catch fire with too much wattage. What type of bulbs [fluorescent (will there be a flicker issue), 3 prong, curly bulbs ???] can be purchased for the paper chinese lamps and at what wattage can I safely get away with? Any advice? Much appreciation, Robyne

Additionally is there a specific color; cream, white, green, black, red, etc., I should specifically get/avoid. This is of course to be used as an extra fill light and know little about what to expect. I guess i could get each color??

[Cole McDonald]

A y-adapter would allow you to put 2 bulbs in one socket.

Never put more wattage in a socket than it's rated for, the wire can melt in side and cause a fire. I wouldn't put a bulb that large in a china ball...That being said, the wattage equivalences on compact fluorescent bulbs will say 100 watts, but actually run about 20 watts...look for the 2 numbers on them. The purpose of the china ball is to act as a diffuser, white will take on and pass the color of the light more accurately. A red ball would color the light red (and eat alot of the light in doing so, making it much darker).

Anything you put between the light source and the subject will become the new light source. If you intercept the cone of light that comes off of a bulb with a white bed sheet, the white bed sheet becomes a light source the size of that section of light cone that you intercept. If you move the bedsheet farther away until the light that you see hitting it fills the sheet, you'll have a massive soft light (it'll be dimmer based on the inverse square law which states that any light source moved twice as far away will deliver 1/4 the light).

[Robyne Hunwick]

Thanks Cole... I appreciate your input... very informative!!

[Cole McDonald]

no worries...to figure out how to light cheaply, I studied the physics of light online...very informative.

[Peter Ralph]

If you know what you are doing you can light cheaply as long as you have plenty of time, space and personnel

if you are working on your own with limited time in cramped spaces you will have to pay $$$$. Especially if you lack experience.

[Sean Skube]

I know this is a little late to be of much help, but you could try Aldi, if you have one near you. They occasionally have lights like that one, and cheap.