Safe lighting solution for disabled people

[Neil McClure]

There are a range of issues you have to be aware of when working with people with disabilities. In some cases just turning on a bright camera light can cause trauma for some people. Even walking away from the tripod to take some hand held shots may not be a good idea, as I have found out.

As I'm sure Richard is aware working closely with the carers to understand the issues is important particularly if you are in an open space with lots of people around.

If you do need to light and you don't have total control of the space your in then I think Gary's idea is a good one.

[Gary Nattrass]

LEDS may not be the best lights on the planet but where you need small portable light sources they can be a godsend, we have recently started using them for our premiership soccer presentation situations where space can be tight and we need long battery operation, the 600 LEDs we use are also easy to rig and can fit in very tight spaces with little fear of any burn risk.

OK the colour may not be perfect but in a football stadium with all sorts of lighting sources they are ideal as fills.

[Paul R Johnson]

I've had a reasonable amount of experience of people with disabilities, and I'm pretty surprised by some of the comments here. People with any form of special needs have carers particular to their disability - so if you are engaged to shoot an event where there will be people who may well be less or uncontrolled in the physicality, then you don't use redheads or any other very hot light source on a tall stand, because even with bags at the bottom, it's perfectly possible top bring one down by actually deliberately pulling it.

However, if you are intending to shoot an event like this - and the same thing applies to people who are intoxicated or drugged up - you should consider your lighting very carefully. Even a cold light source up in the air can hurt if it hits somebody.

If your subjects cannot be controlled by their carers or by distance, then don't do it, because you will get the blame. Makes insurance seem good value, doesn't it.

On a TV OB from a shopping centre, all the tall stands were safetied to hard points on the walls, and protected at the base by fencing. All cables went up, and along. Nobody could get to them to pull them down. That is for members of the public, not people with disabilities.

My own experience is that getting the necessary permissions to shoot disabled people is far more difficult than making lighting safe!

[Cole McDonald]

I'll ask the missing question: what's the location? If it's officey, you can get scissor clamps to put led or small fluo fixtures on the ceiling avoiding stands, but allowing the lights... there are also clamps like vice grips or c-clamps with standard lighting posts in them.

The problem doesn't sound like it's with the lights, but with the stands... get rid of the stands.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Cole McDonald

The problem doesn't sound like it's with the lights, but with the stands... get rid of the stands.

Which takes us right back to the start. In the first reply I said"{LEDs}....... run much cooler and are far less heavy. It also becomes feasible to run them off 12 volt supplies, especially standard V-lock camera batteries. It becomes far easier to clamp them in places where a more conventional lamp would be impractical for reasons of size/weight/heat."

[Cole McDonald]

You're right, I got caught up in the rest of the conversation and completely forgot you'd said that.