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Portable Lights for interview

AndreasOberg

AndreasOberg

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www.obergwildlife.com
In a few weeks we are heading out to the deep jungle to film animals and rescue caretakers.

So far our setup is suited for recording outside. We have 1 reflector and will get another big one.
However we have no lighting yet for indoor shots.

What suggestions would you have for lighting setups indoor? Our budgets is darn strained now so I'm will probably have to avoid the "good" solutions and make do with simpler solutions.
I even looked at construction lights 400Watts since they cost so little. Experimented with bouncing them into a wall and got decent results.
Budget is around $500 this time around. Will get proper lights for the future.

Possible alternatives
- some smaller lights around 300-400Watts. Ideas?
- Construction lights? Maybe a simple soft box together with it since the lights are very sharp.
- Maybe some led solutions. However they are not so strong.

Wish I had more budget this time, but feels like its time to be Mc Guyver this time!
/Andreas
 
On the cheap and portable you may be able to get some small waterproof swimming pool lamps which use the 12VDC dichroic halogen reflector globes. There are now LED replacements for these but they have a distinct blue cast which you have to correct with orange gel cut to size and shoved inside the lamp just inside the glass.

You would also need to cut some fine diffuser to deal with hotspot patterns. If you retain the halogen dichroic 50watt bulbs, you would need to dress the glass port disks from the lamphouses with 5 micron aluminium oxide abrasive in water slurry on a sheet of glass. They will cook cut sheet diffusers. The halogens also need some blue gel correction. If the gel is installed on the outer face of the glass, they will endure.

I needed some easy light to carry in a light aircraft for daylight fills on faces. By the time you gel the LEDs or the halogen dichroic globes across to a neutral light, they are probably only worth about 30watts of equivalent incandescent light each. You would need about ten of these things fixed into a ply panel full of hole-sawed holes to achieve the lighting power you are after so the cost plus the value of your labour might not be of any advantage at the end versus a low cost Chinese 500-LED lamp.
 
buy a lowell Rifa light with both Tungsten and flourescent fixtures. the 55ex will be perfect for what you are doing and is not too far over your budget. don't mess with work lights.
 
Tungsten lights are hungry for power. You mentioned going into the jungle. What will you do for power? You won't be able to use tungsten lights on batteries for very long (if at all) so that is a big consideration if you won't have easy access to power outlets or generators.
 
I second the Rifa lights. GREAT for traveling. If you're not familiar, they fold up like an umbrella and can be put in your tripod case if you have some spare room.

Kevin
 
Richard, he will have power for the indoor interviews.

Richard Andrewski said:
Tungsten lights are hungry for power. You mentioned going into the jungle. What will you do for power? You won't be able to use tungsten lights on batteries for very long (if at all) so that is a big consideration if you won't have easy access to power outlets or generators.
Click to expand...
 
For cheap and light you can't beat the price on tungsten lights. Especially used. Having a tota light and a soft box is going to pack small and it has serious punch. Also, a couple of the small pro-lights with umbrellas are great fill and hair lights too. Well under 500 bucks. Bring some gel, a reflector, some small stands, extension cord, and some black wrap.... done. The Rifa is also a good choice instead of the Tota/chimera.

 
Thanks a lot for the links guys. Very informative reading. Will read more about them!
In general the tungsten lights are there easy way to "dim" the lights? (sorry if I'm sounding like a total newbie). We will be filming some baby animals, like baby sloth (cutest thing on the planet) and I think they are sensitive to light.

I'm a bit concerned about the size for bringing them on airplanes. Do you have any tips for a fairly compact way of traveling with lighting? We are bringing red primes, sound equipment etc so we are quite burdened already :D Basically what is the "smallest setup" that would give a decent light solution.
Best
/Andreas
 
I used to travel with the Lowel setup that i mentioned very compactly. The lights are so small that I would just throw them into my suitcase wrapped in my clothing. To be safe, you could take the bulbs out and put them in your carry on. Umbrellas and soft boxes, and stands are very compact too.
 
AndreasOberg said:
I'm a bit concerned about the size for bringing them on airplanes. Do you have any tips for a fairly compact way of traveling with lighting? We are bringing red primes, sound equipment etc so we are quite burdened already :D Basically what is the "smallest setup" that would give a decent light solution.
Best
/Andreas
Click to expand...

A Rifa and a couple of reflectors.
 
These little leds comes at a rather high price. But they are very mobile, battery driven and dimmable. And the ones I used come with a quite nice set of diff and color filters. So when you shot in non 5600K light you can hook on the little filters to make them mach or diffuse the light. Jus recently we shot a 2 minute info /POVcam thing with two of them mounted on the camera which works well. The came in a small sized case, not bigger than for a drill or such with batts charger noga arm and the whole kit. Strongly recommend them. Do not knof if thats the kit offerd on the link bellow but it's the same light.


http://www.adorama.com/LPAFA50.html
 

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I did not notice the budget restrains until now... I would probably get some construction lamps on location (if needed) and bounce them of the walls or such. Excess Luggage is pain, Bringing the RPP's will probably be put you in line for oversized / overweight luggage alone. So then bringing lamps is not vice, any cheep ass light bulb on a cable bought on location will do better than huge overweight fees.
 
Hey Bjorn,

The chinese knock offs of those small lite panels out perform them in every possible way and are a hell of a lot cheaper.If you are going to rent them out, go name brand, but if they are just for you, the chinese ones are a far better buy (brighter, better tilt angle with barndoors, cheaper, much better battery life). But I agree conceptually that a small LED kit is the way to go. If you are in rural interiors, there are almost certainly windows for light, and that put's you solidly in daylight territory. The 600 led panels I linked to earlier are brighter than a 575 hmi bounced into beadboard, and will run for quite a long time on batteries, or they hardly draw anything plugged into the wall.

Nick
 
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