Wedding Lights - Steve Kaeser
 

Tired of using our On camera lighting for weddings, so we are thinking of purchasing some Steve Kaeser DV continuous lighting kit with stands and soft boxes..anyone tried this product ? your input is appreciated

I have a set and while they are great lights IMO they would be overkill for a wedding reception.
I can't say how it is in your area but around here the lights get turned down and that's how the B&G want it. Ambience you know ;-) Dark is what it is and sometimes dangeous. People can't see and trip on things, their own feet for instance. Add some liquor to the mix and it gets real scary sometimes. Point is if the lights are down and you've got 2 or 3 500 watt lights running the B&G might want them off. You know, killing the ambience.
Anyway maybe you can rig the onboard light to be off the camera slightly.
Oh yeah, liability. If someone WERE to trip over or knock over one of the lights, well, I would hope you have a good liability policy.
Just my opinion, YMMV.

I'm looking at these, however don't know if I should order.
800W Continuous Red Head Halogen Light (220V)

Used one of my VL-1000's with softbox today for an interview. The ability to turn down the brightness is awesome and the overall light was very even and soft. For the price I'm very happy. The only negative was the fan is a bit noisy for my taste but bringing the vid back to my studio to listen, the noise wasn't an issue through the lav mic. $450 for three 1k lights with softboxes is a pretty good deal and I plan to add a few other types of fixtures of his in the near future!

Steve Kaeser Backgrounds & Accessories

Hi Kren,

The light kit you linked to may be a good solution for in studio lighting, but I don't see it as a good solution for adding lights at a wedding reception. We use lights on stands at the wedding reception, but they are battery operated and are only 75 watts. They add just enough light for the cameras, but not so much light that it ruins the atmosphere.

I am actually getting ready to do the next Von Real episode for EventDV-TV about the off camera lighting we use, but until that episode comes out, you can see the lights here.
The Wireless Wedding Reception Video Light - HOME

I would love to see some screen grabs. I'm considering his kit just for interviewing lighting alone! How loud would you say the fans are? It'd be a shame to have the audio spoiled due to the fans.

Thanks

Do ya one better...go to my website www.yipdogstudios.com and click the "client area" tab. It's the 3rd video down.
Just a short clip 1st part as from the camera, 2nd a small color tweak in FCP, and 3rd a bit of dead space so you can hear the noise from the fan. As mentioned, I'm pretty happy with the whole thing. Also, this was shot on my HMC 150 1080 60i. Mic is a Sennheiser ME2 on a EW100 G2 wireless.
This is one light with the softbox about 8' from talent and 6' high.
Hope this helps!

Arri 650 with barn doors.

We use dedolights 150 watt dimmable DL4H Tungsten head, fully zoomable/ focusable with DBD8 8 leaf barn doors.
Don't keep it on all through reception obviously don't want to take away from "the atmosphere" We mainly use it for speeches, first dance, cutting of the cake etc...

Highly recommend it takes your reception footage to another level.

Hi Robert,

Looks great! A bit too loud for my taste though :/. I'll probably look for a softbox solution for my Arri 650s.

Appreciate the video :).

-Randy

no problem!
I'm going to look into some smaller non-fan lights for interviews but the 1k's will fit in a lot of situations where the sound doesn't matter. And this interview was designed to have music behind it anyway so noise was moot!

pair of 650watt tungstens with barndoors and cheapo $15 dimmers from harbor
freight tools on 12ft stands. they have saved my arse on some shoots this season.

Love these! Set up in no time at all, are stable and portable and the photographers love what they add to their images too. They are high enough not to be obtrusive and the light has a focused, specular look to it that I like. The best part is that when they go from off to on its not a huge change in the ambiance of the room. I know that you, Mark and Trisha, use a dimmer on your AC lights. I'd love that option for the wireless DC lights. It would make the transition even more unnoticeable.

Take a look at Cool Lights.

They have a 256watt LED light that can run for 3 hours on a Sony camcorder battery.

They are ultra portable and come in 3200k or 5600k.

Could be taken outside for shadow fill very easily.

Tim this is what we are using now in place of the 75w Receptionlights that we used to use.
They work great. Easily powerful enough to use and are dimmable as well.

You can power them any way you like AC/DC. We are using them with the Sony NP970 batteries. But if you still wanted to use the Receptionlight remote control you could use external XLR power (we have used large Bescor battery belts) and then you can turn on/off the lights when ever you like.

We generally run the lights (Two, LED256 5600k with 3200k filter) all reception long and only power off during dinner, do the remote control feature isn't a huge deal for use, as we power the lights on before the start of the reception, and manually turn the lights off during dinner and back on after dinner.

CL-LED256 256 LED Spot - Cool Lights USA

A great thing about an off camera light is that you can move it anywhere at a moments notice. We'll use one of the lights for the cake cutting (or filming of cake) as well as move them for the bouquet toss and such (aim one light at bride/groom, and one light at the guests receiving the toss).

The only thing that I would love to see in the LED256 is being able to have remote control ability while using the built in self power of a battery. I talked to Richard (the developer) a few weeks back and he mentioned that is something that this is something that is definitely doable, and might very well develop in the future.

This would rock and I think be a huge seller for event shooters.