What would you recomend for a low budget lighting kit?

[Benjamin Richardson]

For under $1,000 dollars, what would you recommend in a lighting kit?

[Marcus Marchesseault]

It depends on your purposes. Do you shoot in a wide variety of locations? Do you shoot outdoors or in mixed environments like indoors with sunlight in the scene? How important is portability?

[John DeLuca]

Personally I would piece together a three light Arri kit. Lots of great finds on ebay too.

1 1k, 1 650, and 1 300 or another 650. If you have to mix with daylight then gel the windows, or rent HMI for the day.

[Cole McDonald]

Are you sold on getting a pro style kit...or are you comfy with a DIY Home Depot style kit?

[Mark Bournes]

Check out B&H photo, they have some very good economical kits. I too like the Arri kits, you can also get a good lowel kit for under a $1000.

[Greg Quinn]

(I feel compelled to throw in my 0.02c worth ...)

I'd second the question that Marcus asked - it's relevant whether you need this for location work (I'm guessing yes) or otherwise.

Also, no disrespect to the suggestions from the pros here, but Arri isn't cheap. If you simply need usable lighting, then the same $1k can buy you much more equipment looking on Ebay, etc. e.g. http://www.skaeser.com/servlet/Categ...+LIGHTING+KITS

Three lights will suit many scenes but will stretch others...

[Cole McDonald]

I can get you going for about $100...(spend the rest on stands and sandbags) ACDelco clamp lights, photo balanced bulbs (about $25 total per fixture). Coleman worklights are cheap and tall and bright. Bedsheets (Safely distant from bright lights - I get yelled at whenever I don't get mention common sense things like LIGHTS HOT, FIRE BAD) will make big soft lights when work lights are blasted at it from about 10'. There are patterns out there for barndoors for both. Lighting stands can be had for relatively cheap (I'm using old mic boom stands from my singing days). C-Stands are nice to have too.

The compact flourescent screw in bulbs are pretty good too, just don't forget that they throw out tons of buzz in your audio if you run unbalanced...XLR all the way!

[Richard Andrewski]

Even the skaeser stuff is way overpriced for what it is in my opinion. Go with the worklights or go to home depot and get the worklight "scoops" (aluminum reflector, E26 socket and clamp) for about $3 or $4 and some of the N:Vision 3500K or 5500K bulbs in 30w or 40w sizes. 5500K or daylight is getting to be more popular today so that's probably the best choice. You can have yourself a lighting fixture that runs cooler, doesn't require more diffusion and is even cheaper than the halogen worklights.

[Greg Hartzell]

If you have $1000 budget, I would stay away from home depot. Ebay has some insane deals indead. You could get a good all 'round lowel kit in the $700 range that would be perfect for most interview set-ups and get two arri 650s on ebay for another $300. Shop around and good luck

[Stefan Scherperel]

I too would stay away from the halogen work lights. WHile they might satisfy an immediate need for more light, when you get to the point where you really want to control your lighting your not going to be happy with them. Like others have said, there are some screaming deals out there especially for older high wattage lights. I just picked up 4 B&M 2k Fresnals for about $100 a piece after shipping.

[Jason Strongfield]

Depending on your project, if u shoot your indie film, you can get away with home depot lights. Smack your friends in the head if they laugh at you. Imagine showing up at a paying clients site with your home depot worklights.

If you do lots of on location shooting, the lowel light kits are very lightweight so u can carry it to your client's site, up flights of stairs very easily. However the lowel lightstands are very flimsy and tips easily.

The arri lights are very durable and pretty much the industry standard. It also retains its resale value very nicely.

[John DeLuca]

I think lowel lights will certainly get the job done, no doubt about that, but there is an old saying in the film industry about lowel lights-The first three letters reflect the quality. If you plan on using the lights professionally, then lowel lights may not be the best idea. Checkout Ebay before you buy new lights.

[Paul Jefferies]

Get one or two of these from ikea:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/store...ts=10111*10448 this is their UK site, but I'm sure its available worldwide
Great focusing light with colour filters and gobos, for creating light patterns and colours on the wall or whatever. You have to rig your own stand mount, but for the price you can't complain...

[Benjamin Richardson]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I asked this question mostly to see what everyone's different opinions would be, because theres always different opinions with different points to make so i like to way them out, and of course because i need to expand my own lighting kit.

I would mostly be doing on location work, with most of that being interiors.

I have right now a 3 piece basic lighting kit consisting of 3 500w tungsten fixtures with their 12 inch reflectors, impact stands, and dimmers, and a few reflection cards with a stand and counterweight.

I feel Lighting is of the utmost importance to any production, no matter what the scale or genre, and I would appreciate any added advice, thanks again.

[Glenn Chan]

IMO, you can't go wrong picking up one professional fresnel light like an Arri. A fresnel light is parallel and can cast hard shadows if you need it to (which you can't do with open-face lights, Lowel Pros, etc.). And with a fresnel light, you can get most other types of light. Buy one, play with it.

2- Another good light to have is a soft light with an egg crate to help control the spill.

Check out:
http://www.efplighting.com/

Some of the lighting setups there you simply can't do without a soft light with an egg crate.

3- Beyond that, the different types of lights all have their pluses and minuses.
- Type of light it puts out- hard/soft, is it easy to cut shadows / ability to focus the light, amount of spill
- Power efficiency, heat
- Color temperature (related to power efficiency, since you lose light when you gel them to change color temp); fluorescents can change color temp by changing the bulbs
- Price
- How many different ways can you mount the light. i.e. with a Lowel Pro, you can attach it off a ceiling with different kinds of clamps.
- Is it dimmable
- How much time it takes to setup (here the pro lights tend to be better than DIY solutions)
etc. etc.

But ignoring the practical considerations, in terms of light quality, a fresnel + soft light produces almost every other kind of light possible. So to learn and play around with things, those are good lights to have. Just my opinion... everyone has their own tastes in lights.