DIY Studio Lighting

My camcorder only has one CCD so low light performance isn't too good. When I make this DVD I want to use chroma keying so I can have a fancy background. I will need a lot light for this, so I was thinking is there any cheap alternatives to the expensive studio lighting you buy in the shops?

I was perhaps thinking of using one of them security flood lights or somthing. It dosn't have to be very portable.

Does anybody know of any sites that offer suggestions for DIY video stuff?

 

think youd be better to get yerself a couple of redheads and a blonde.
The 500w lamps are ok for a genral uncontrolable flood in a small area,if you need to change the colour tempreture to fit in with existing lighting or control the beam shape you may hit a problem or 2

 

It dosn't really need to be anything fancy, just somthing to stop the grain in low lighting levels. I can do a lot of stuff digitaly all I need is a bit of white space with strong lighting.

The background will then be replaced with another video. I.e the effect you see on some news programs where the news reader looks like they are sat next to a large window looking onto the city.

 

I think themadhippy was suggesting that red heads & blonds would be a little more flexible.

The barndoors fitted to the lamp head make the light a little more controlable. It's also easier to attach gel or spun for interesting lighting effects or just to soften the light so your subject feels less like they're being interrogated :lol:

Pro lighting kits can be hired for £30-£40 per day and often come complete with carrybox, stands, cables, safety chains, spare lamps and a safety certificate.

The alternative is a couple of work lights and a couple of lighting dimmers. The max power rating of these dimmers is around 400W so pick your lights carefully. You'll need some supports too. This is the most expensive part - Maplin T-Bar stands are £30 a piece, though if you Google a bit you might find something cheaper. Oh, you'll need to remember that the work lights will change colour temperature quite a bit as they are dimmed.

Good luck

 

I'm not an expert, but isn't photographic lighting DC rather than AC. Standard security lights are AC and may therefore give you flicker and other odd effects in your movies. Halogen desklamps on the other hand are DC. So are the 50W dichroic spotlights popular for kitchens and bathrooms. You could buy a bunch of these quite cheaply from B&Q and mount them on suitable frames made out of MDF or something. They also come with various focus angles so you could buy a mixture - some spots and some wideangle.

 

AC flicker is more of a problem when shooting on film stock at 24 frames.p.s. They use ballasts to correct for it. With video it's never really been a major problem - they're both running on 50Hz so there isn't a frame rate/frequency difference to worry about.

I'm intrigued by the idea of 50W halogens. Food for thought

 

AT, my local Lidl at Middlewich have got a cracking deal on some 500W flood lights with tripod stands. £12.99 complete.

 

Thanks for the tip, I think there is a store in Whalley Range. I will have a look thanks.

 

Its Netto in Whalley Range, my nearest Lidol is either the council estate in Cheadle or Longsight. They are not shown on the offers on the website though. I may phone up the longsight store.

 

Just checked google it seems the offers were on from the 24th to 27th When did you see this in the store?

 

This morning. They had a pile of about 20 or so. Do you want some?

Regards

 

This is it in its box.

 

It looks pretty good for the price, I could always easily change the bulb to a 150w if I found it too bright or harsh, the tripod looks pretty solid too. I will have a look in the Cheadle or Longsight store tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the tip.

 

I've got one of the Lidl 500w ones - very good value and reasonably solid...
Screwfix.com do one at a good price as well, as do Maplin.co.uk
The only problem with an arc light of this sort is, as MadHippy said, the colour temperature. An arc light may give a greenish cast to everything, though white balancing carefully may minimise this... If it doesn't, your chromakey may well be a much stranger effect than you expect!
However, you may be able to buy a redhead 2nd hand for this sort of money - back of Braodcast magazine will have plenty for sale.. You may even get away with only 1 light as well if you judiciously place a sheet of white polystyrene.

 

I suppose a lot of depends on what I can do on the computer, I will play about with lighting effects on Premiere Elements tonight. Of course there is only so much you can digital edit though.

I guess for the money I can always try it and if its no good I still have a light for when doing DIY stuff. May come in handy if I ever need to work on the lighting main while the ringmain is still in use.

 

get yerself some sheets of gel, lee 200,201 and 203 are tungston to daylight , 205 daylight to tungsten,also maybe some 129 diffusion, there only £3 a sheet.But dont get em to close to the lamp or they'll melt