24p Low Light

[Noel Lising]

Hi Daniel,

That's a good price considering a Tota light kit would set you back $ 700. Does it have the option of using 500W lamps? Imagine 2-1k Lamps at a reception, that is extremely bright.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Shawn Kessler

Im going to be purchasing a light kit soon and I was wonder how
you guys deal with the fans on some of the light kits out there?
curious to see how you deal with it when making your films.Im
considering the kit below.

Thanks
shawn

We don't.

Professional lights don't need fans. Cheap plastic fixtures do. If you're really going to purchase a lighting kit, step up and do it correctly. Especially if this is for your business. Lowel and CoolLights make decent fixtures. I don't have direct experience with CoolLights, but I do with Lowel. They are rather inexpensive, but they are pro level lights. I understand that not everyone can afford Moles and Arris. That's ok.

A Lowel DP light is $168 at B&H. The 1k bulb is $19. Add some barndoors and you've got yourself a REAL light. It floods and spots a bit, you an get a filter frame for it so you can add color correction, diffusion, or even a pattern. And believe me, a 1k open face will give you quite a bit of light if you're not too far away. And a foam core bounce board, and now you've got a key and fill. Set this up outside the church or whatever in daylight, and now you're using the sun as a key/kicker, the foamcore as fill, and the DP as a nice hairlight or supplemtary fill.

If you're looking to get a "kit" I'd say to start with 3 lights.

1. A Fresnel if you can afford it. 500-700 watts. If not, a 1k open face.
2. A broad. Lowel Tota works fine and it's cheap and very powerful
3. A small focusable like a Lowel Omni or Pro Light. Something in the 250w range.

Those three lights in a kit with barndoors, stands, some diffusion, and color gels will put you in the game and allow you to handle most indoor lighting needs as long as you're not trying to light up a ballroom.

I have started taking photos of some of my setups as I shoot just so people can see what I am doing. This is a link to a VIP shoot I did this week. Two lights (one is a softbox) a piece of black fabric from the sewing place, and piece of foamcore. I also had stands. In place of the softbox, I could have bounced and open face off a piece of foamcore for nearly the same effect. I just would have had to get a bit closer.

DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking - PerroneFord's Album: VIP Interview

Hopefully, the mods will forgive me for linking to another forum site. I'm not sure how to use the gallery here, but I may work on that today.

[Shawn Kessler]

Ethan,
yes the kit has a fan on it I read somewere about
the kit that it wasnt that noisy I could be wrong thow. I guess
ill do somemore research.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Shawn Kessler

Ethan,
yes the kit has a fan on it I read somewere about
the kit that it wasnt that noisy I could be wrong thow. I guess
ill do somemore research.

Not that noisy isn't gonna cut it if you're doing a sit down interview type setup. Any type of fan noise will be a serious problem in a controlled shooting environment. I'd heed the advice given in the previous post and get yourself a Lowel DP with a softbox instead of this nicely priced Ebay model. Now if you don't need good location sound, maybe the Ebay light would work.

[Shawn Kessler]

Ethan point well taken ill take your advice lowell sounds good to me. As i will be shooting interview style at point or another. the fans on the other light are able to disable but im not going to mess around with that.


Thanks
Shawn