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Lighting a car interior: Kino(Mini)flos or LEDs?

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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Hi all. . .

I'm trying to get set up for a car interior shot at night. I'm going to have to buy some more lights for this set-up and wonder if you'd recommend I go with 12" or 15" kinoflos or some Rosco light pads or something else entirely?

Thanks much.

Stephen
 
Hey Stephen,

you can't go wrong with the MIni-Flo, I have use them and they are great little suckers, I'm only aware of the 9" and 12", never used or seen the 15", you might want to get at list two extra extension cables, as they are 12' each and some time the way you rig your car, you want the ballast as far as possible, so extra extensions are a must, I think you can put two or three for sure, I know in one of the set ups I did, we had about 30' long cable coming from the back of the towing vehicle, so I know you will be safe there.

LEDs I also used and they are also great sources, but in order to get some serious light off them you have to use a light that has a stronger out put then the Mini-Flo because you will have to soften the light from the LED and loose additional stops.


ciao


 
I think the Lite Pads are the way to go. They're design is naturally diffused and they're so thin & flat they can be mounted almost anywhere -- including taped to the sun visor for the front seats which can be very useful on car interiors. It's always a struggle not to have people lit from underneath when shooting in cars because the natural place to stash lights is on the dashboard. Tape a Lite Pad anywhere including the side window depending on your camera angle and you can really wrap the light the way you like.
 
Mitch Gross said:
I think the Lite Pads are the way to go. They're design is naturally diffused and they're so thin & flat they can be mounted almost anywhere -- including taped to the sun visor for the front seats which can be very useful on car interiors. It's always a struggle not to have people lit from underneath when shooting in cars because the natural place to stash lights is on the dashboard. Tape a Lite Pad anywhere including the side window depending on your camera angle and you can really wrap the light the way you like.
Click to expand...

Mitch,
Thanks for the opinion on the Lite Pads. And thanks for all the great insight that you add to this forum (I'm tired of seeing people give you crap because you're employed by Abel Cine - a great company by the way). What advantage do you see for the Lite Pads over the Kinos?
 
Thanks for the kind words. Lite Pads will only weaken in brightness as power drops -- kinos will flicker. Lite Pads are only 1/4" thick. Lite Pads are naturally diffused light. Lite Pads flected in shiny surfaces are whatever shape they're made in (square, rectangle circle) or whatever shape you tape a piece of paper over them. Kinos are sticks.

I have nothing against the Kinos and they're very useful tools -- but for something like a night time car int. there's nothing like a Lite Pad in my book.
 
MALCOLM MILLS said:
Take a look at LEDZ for car interior lighting solutions. The Brute9 will run off of a 12v cigarette lighter socket, and will produce an incredible punch!

www.led-z.com
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Yes incredible punch is an understatment Malcom, when we used the Brute( and even the Brute 16 for testing with the Battery Pack inside my Denali, we had to soften them up so much, cause the light was blasting out in to the street :) definitely worthed to take a look Sthepen, as I said in post #2 with LED's you must get a light source that can trow a serious punch.


ciao


 
Stephen

A low budget solution to car Night Interiors is to employ multiple strings of clear mini christmas lights. Buy numerous packages and tape them up with paper tape off camera: on the dashboard, on the ceiling, on the floor, wherever. Set them up on dimmers and bring them up or down to taste. The result can be a very believable naturalistic look.

And you are likely to find them on sale right now!

Rob Sweeney
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. But here's another question: Why are the Litepads SOOOO much less expensive than the Litepanels? I mean, we're talking about three times as much. . . maybe five! Is there that much of a difference?

Stephen
 
I used to use the Christmas tree lights solution as my standard system all the time. But it can be a real pain reseting all the strings between setups and you have to watch out for tons of little relections in the windows. Forget it if your talent wears glasses.

But I do agree that the light can be beautiful. I shot a scene once in a gazebo illuminated by nothing but many, many strings of lights (I think it was some insane number like 400 strings, and the Art Department couldn't understand why they couldn't just plug them into one another!). Everyone always commented on how lovely the light was and it was true -- all I did what dance some flags for negative fill on closeups. I called it my Thousand Points of Light scene.
 
I'd just like to mention something on the subject of running stuff from car cigarette lighters.. be wary! Lights , inverters, whatever..

The wiring in vehicles often can't handle the power draw that the cigarette lighter can provide, and the wires can burn out easily (despite fuses). Check the manual first.

I'd always recommend a couple of leisure batteries (wired in parallel) as an alternative, and they can be used in other situations too. Better than rewiring vehicle electrics..
 
Can anyone give a comparison on output to say, a standard tungsten fresnel? I know the light pads are different color temp, softness, etc...

For example, would the 6x6 light pad be about equivalent to maybe... a 300w Arri?
 
I always think a lot of night-time car interiors look fake with this magical light source emanating from goodness knows where...usually from below which makes it look even more fake (I'm talking mainly about tv dramas here where they don't seem to have much time to finesse the light...they're just happy to get an exposure...usually too high!). With the increasing abundance of GPS devices and flashy dashboard displays and even rear-seat DVD screens I suppose we could use these "practicals" as motivation for where this magical light is coming from?
 
KETCH ROSSI said:
Yes incredible punch is an understatment Malcom, when we used the Brute( and even the Brute 16 for testing with the Battery Pack inside my Denali, we had to soften them up so much, cause the light was blasting out in to the street :) definitely worthed to take a look Sthepen, as I said in post #2 with LED's you must get a light source that can trow a serious punch.


ciao


Click to expand...
Thank you Ketch and I hope you are on the road to recovery my friend...

BTW: "HOLLYWOOD RENTALS" are now the Exclusive Distributor for all LEDZ products and with that being said we have an exciting 2009 lined up! with us supplying to "MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT" and their feature line up for '09 including "IRON MAN 2" and "CAPTAIN AMERICA" to name but a few...



Malcolm Mills
Co-Founder
LEDZ, LLC
malcolm@led-z.com
 
I am a huge fan of the litepanels mini's. as well as the 1x1 's for car work.Mounted on hood.
The show I shoot has a bunch of car work and like a previous poster mentioned, using a static interior light is obvious.
I endorse the litepanels because I will hook up the dimmer to them and have a juicer or myself ride in the car and think about a tune that fits the scene and just variac it up and down a bit to give a realistic look.
also, you can add a bit of green or red or whatever fits your mood and go.
I am assuming this is for free driving. on an insert car is a bit of a different lighting scene. Actors like these lights as well cause they are not as brutal while they drive.
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. But here's another question: Why are the Litepads SOOOO much less expensive than the Litepanels? I mean, we're talking about three times as much. . . maybe five! Is there that much of a difference?

Stephen
Click to expand...

Stephen,

I have worked with Litepanels a lot and they are simply great for all types of situations, especially car work. I think the difference in price relates to the type and output of LEDs being used.

If you download both Rosco's and Litepanels' brochures and look at the photometrics you will see that there is a huge difference in maximum illumination.

Rosco 3"X6" HQ Pad at 2 FT puts out 40LUX/3.7 FC Max
Litepanels MiniPlus Flood (2.7" X 7") at 2 FT puts out 1000LUX/97 FC Max
Litepanels MiniPlus Spot (2.7" X 7") at 2 FT puts out 1700LUX/160 FC Max

Litepanels also has a new light. The Micro. It's about $300 and puts out about 1/3 the light of their Mini. The cool thing is that it weighs next to nothing and can run off 4 AA batteries for hours, and it has a built in dimmer at that price.

I chose Litepanels because the have the punch to be mounted outside the car and project in, or, I can bring them in close and simply dim them.

I think you should rent both and see what works best. I keep Litepanels in my bag at all times. They are great problem solvers.

Good Luck,

Rob
 
Steve,

I have the litepanels micro if you want to borrow it to test out, actually seth used it on your movie one day to put a little sparkel in betty's eye's. It has a 25w output.
 
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