which coollights for interviews
 

hi, going the coollights route, what do you guys think would be a solid solution for one person interviews captured in hdv, mostly during the day in offices with windows?
I'm thinking about getting one cl655pmd, one cl455pmd and a cl255pmd, 5600k. i'd really appreciate any suggestions since I don't want to bother Richard Andrewski with anymore questions (guess he is quite busy these days).

thanks, Christoph

Depends on how sensitive your camera is, and how much grain you're willing to tolerate. Most people seem to use the 2-tube units for interviews. That should be sufficient for interviews, because you can move the lights very close to your subjects if you're not satisfied with the brightness. (I would use a 6 light unit - because that's what I have - and a reflector). Hope that helps.

*deleted* sorry, I didn't read well enough before I posted

Thank you Seun. I've read your review on the 655, those look quite impressing!

the more light you have, the more you can darken the view out those windows ( unless you use ND film on the windows )

if you can afford the 6 bank lights, then stock up on them.... plus, being all the same physical size allows them to be stored/cased easier ( my opinion )

you can always dim, defuse, back up, or select tubes on/off down to 4 or 2.

also... a great kit is; one 6 bank and 2 HMI 150 fresnels.

I have been eyeballing those lights myself. The little softbox setup (http://www.coollights.biz/clsft1-coo...ture-p-33.html) looks like it might be handy for simple location interviews too. I'm used to a 32'' box, but I think 24'' would work nicely - especially since you can pull the cool-light version so much closer to the talent.

Hi Christopher,

No bother at all. You'll find that fluorescents (and tungsten behind diffusion too) are all softlights and thus don't have a long throw. They're most useful when you can keep them up closer to your subjects. You'll probably find that the fluorescent unit(s) will only be one component in your kit and you'll need a fresnel or some other instrument like that which falls into the spotlight class of lighting to give that hard and well-defined "edge" when you need it.

What Christopher Wizke said is really true. A great kit would contain a CL-655PMD and 2 CL-MF0150 fresnels. Really versatile and could cover a lot of different needs. Probably the most common kit we have configured so far is a CL-255P, CL-455P and 2 CL-MF0150 fresnels, stands and a carrying case.

Thank you Richard, this was very helpful.

Remember in interviews that your lights aren't just hitting the talent, they will also hit whatever is nearby, especially softlights. So, if your interviewee is sitting at a desk near a wall, the wall can get lit as well. That can be ok. but it's often very handy to have independent control of the lighting levels of your foreground and background elements. That's where a balance of softlights that wrap around faces so nicely, and fresnels, which can be controlled in such a way as to limit spill, can come in handy.

So getting some fresnels, or even open faced lights with barndoors, is a good idea.

Eggcrates can help a bunch with some of that spill, they act better than barndoors or flags which have to be huge on a softlight to really be effective.