battery powered light- sunlight interviews
 

What is reccomended for lighting a subject outside in a sunny situation? I have a 50 watt frezzi but that does nothing in bright sunlight. Does anyone reccomend one of the prompter people lights? I need something that can be battery powered.
thanks
Bruce Yarock
Yarock Video and Photo

You might take a look at L.A. Color Shop In paticular the Comer 1800 would work, as it has 10 LED's.

I'm no lighting guru, but my first thought would be reflectors.

Jo,
that looks like a nice poece of gear. the interesting thing is that it's set for 5600. When you use the filter to ser color temp for indoors , do you loose light as when using a gel?

Colin,
That's also a good odea. I need to remember to keep my reflector gear with me. But the shoot i was referring to was one man and quick. I think the comer light would have been easier. i also could have mounted my frezzi on a stand, but with the blue gel, there didn't se3em to be enough light, un less i put it real close to the subjects.

Thanks
Bruce Yarock
yarockvideo.com

Quick solo shoot makes a lot of difference! There's enough to do without having to fiddle about with reflectors. But I've had trouble with any of the lighting I've had access to, getting it to balance the sheer strength of the sun (even in Scotland). I've had to move the location of shots to find a natural solution with greater shade and/or reflective surfaces nearby.

We recently purchased a couple of these:http://www.frezzi.com/download/15W_Micro_hmi.pdf

They provide usable fill against even the Australian sun. Extremely bright and not cheap. This really is a light for walk up interviews so if you are contemplating buying one keep in mind for other situations you might want a different light

That micro fill hmi looks realy interesting (although expensive). I did some checking and found that I can get a flip down blue filter for my frezzi mini-fil for around $115. I might also try just the barndoors with my own gell first.
I bought the siftbox with my mini fill, and it comes with insertable filters, but there's not enough power oitdoors with the siftbox.
Bruce yarock

The prompter people LED lights won't do much in direct sunlight. I've used them in shade and they only have a minimal effect. I'm not sure what battery powered light will have enough umph to do much in direct sunlight. The Comer 1800 is probably the best bet. Use the spot attachment and focus it right on their face maybe 2 or 3 feet away. You might get something that way.

Reflectors are really the way to go. Sometimes I get clients to hold them if I'm by myself. I attach one end to a stand to make it easier on them.

The OP didn't really say whether we're talking about direct sunlight or shade. It makes a difference.

Seems that if direct sunlight is available, and you can control the sunlight somehow shining on the subject, a reflector is the inexpensive and simple way to go to fill back in. No one available to hold the reflector? Bring a stand and reflector arm. With direct sunlight, and no reflector, you need something in an HMI, high wattage class to do any good. No low powered LED light will touch direct sunlight or substitute for an HMI in those cases.

If in indirect sunlight / shade, and no direct sun available, there are other possibilities but you still need something with throw to do any good and even then it will still be just a fill. Some hard lights like smaller HMIs and higher power LED lights can do the trick. These kind of lights are absolutely necessary without direct sunlight to power a reflector. Such a daylight fill and its absence are shown in these example photos posted here (taken with 5D mk II). The Before photo shows a subject in between two sets of buildings on a narrow street. Lit only from overhead by just indirect sunlight so its that kind of sickly look that overhead lighting (and absence of other fill) does so well.

The After photo shows using an LED 600 flood as you would a reflector to get a daylight fill. A LED 600 spot would be much more powerful than the flood. Otherwise, its pretty much 200w to 400w Joker class battery powered HMIs to be used for this kind of thing.

I just got a paglight kit and it came with the power arc and an HMI bubble, it was a brand new bargain from pinewood studios at £350 and they still have one left:Pag light lighting kit 9825 Paglight lighting kit 9825 on eBay (end time 04-Oct-09 13:49:54 BST)

The HMI is a daylight balanced 25watt lamp but gives out the equivalent of a 100watt tungsten.

Which is even FURTHER aided by the fact that it is daylight balanced, whereas to get 5600k light out of tungsten equal to the output of the 25 watt HMI, you'd need 400 watts of tungsten with a Full Day colour correction gel (~ 25% transmission factor)

HMI all the way.
 

Having shot many, many movie premiere press line interviews where the actors had full sun on their face, the only solution I have found to be almost 100% effective is an on-camera HMI light.

I use the Anton Bauer UltraDaylight unit. With the diffused glass that comes with it, it puts out 390 FC at 1 meter (by my own measurements). With a clear glass in front, that goes up to 460 FC at 1 meter. Most of the time I have to flip in the gel holder with a full spun in it to balance out the actor and the background.

No LED light system I have ever used even comes close to HMI.

Enzo: thanks for weighing in. Question for you: I've heard mixed reviews about the reliability of the AB UltraDaylight. How has reliability been for you? I've been using AB UltraLights for years and have had just a bit of hesitation around picking up the HMI offering.

Great!
 

Shaun, I have been using the UltraDaylight since they were first introduced. Been all over the world with it, with nary a problem. Extremely well built.

I am still using the original lamp, never had a burnout yet (probably because I have a spare lamp for it :)

It has a power ramp up circuit so the bulb doesn't get hit with full voltage, so it takes about 20 seconds to reach full power. AND, you can't shut it off and turn it right back on again. It has a shut down circuit that takes about a minute to reset when you do that. All to protect the very expensive HMI lamp. Very nice touches.

It also has an adjustment to vary the color temp, so that as the lamp ages, you can recalibrate it (I have never had to do that). You will also need the optional gel holder to both drop the output if needed and change the balance to match tungsten or flours (several pre-cut gels and spun come with the gel holder kit).

I would definitely recommend it.

I'm used to ramp up and no hot restrike from DigiMole HMIs so no biggie there.

Thanks for the input. Perhaps I'll give my dealer a call later this month.