Sensible lighting kit for beginners ... with not much money

[Dave Watterson]

There is a lot of advice around about lighting ... not least fascinating articles in Film & Video Maker ... but those of us without lots of cash to spend, what lighting kit is sensible, useful and not too pricey?

[Albert Noble]

Here's a challenge....... Make a film using only the light from the Sun. The shadows cast can be imaginatively used when Sun is low in the sky and it's a cheap form of lighting!
Or the moon......." Moonlight becomes you." (old song)

The match competition.......films made entirely by match light
Or "Candle power."

[Dave Watterson]

All good ideas, Albert. But winter is coming with less sunlight and more cloud-covered moon ...

[Albert Noble]

That's true Dave, but I can imagine a film made where, say, a man and a woman are talking, close to each other, just by the light of a single flickering candle which is always in sight. Then a third person is seen just hovering near them. The candle light only just revealing a very dim face.
The candle flickers more. Then suddenly.....................!

"The film is called, "Candle Power." It wins many awards !

6 candles had to be burnt, one after the other, to shoot the film, so
the lighting kit was cheap and it was shot during the winter.

[James Mitchell]

‘Le sujet n'est rien, la lumière est tout’ (‘The subject is nothing, light is everything’). Leonard Missone 1870-1948.

Although made with regard to still photography, the above holds good for any form of photography.

My experience with stills photography is that you need as much artificial light as you can get and then some more. And a bit more just to be on the safe side. (And a fast lens....)

This is more so with moving pictures as you don't have the luxury of long time exposures or flash guns.

I've bought most of my lighting gear off E-bay, and while it might not be as robust as it could be it's never let me down. (Top tip; don't move lights while they're still warm as they're more susceptible to damage than when cold.)

There is also the DIY option although you have to be sure of what you're doing with electrics and keep away from halogen / security lights which, although cheap, run far too hot to be used in a domestic environment or around people.

Finally, of course, there is the option of club members pooling their resources to buy lighting kit.

[Dave Watterson]

Thanks, James. Sensible points ... though I admit to having used "industrial" lights now and then for basic budgetary reasons.

Which kind of light do you recommend for beginners?

[ned c]

https://vimeo.com/37972095
This link will connect you with a film I photographed (and edited) some years ago. It was shot with two completely different sets of lighting. The the interview set was lit with conventional quartz lighting up to 08:17 where there is a complete change to interiors in a farm house lit with off the shelf curly LED lights; cool version 5200 K. The farmhouse is in a very remote location and its power derived from solar panels and a very small hydro, stored in a huge bank of batteries. In the four days before our shoot there had been no sunshine and the hydro was down. We were told that we must not compromise the power as the farm refrigerators were essential a quick calculation ruled out quartz lighting. I did some tests and committed to the cheap LEDs. I had always meant there to be a contrast in the lighting between the interviews and the farm. The problem with cheap LED is that they have part of the spectrum missing (low Color Render Index CRI) but I think we got away with it. The images are grainy (noise) which accepted. The bottom line is that off the shelf LEDs work with a very low power draw. Happy to try and answer any questions.

[James Mitchell]

Thanks, James. Sensible points ... though I admit to having used "industrial" lights now and then for basic budgetary reasons.

Which kind of light do you recommend for beginners?

I'd recommend the two 135w (675w tungsten equivalent) CFL lights in 50x75cm soft boxes I have. They don't dim, but as your main problem will be lack of light this is not a worry as they can always be dimmed by moving them further away, etc. At around £35 a pair (today on Ebay) with stands, they're certainly cheap enough and while they're mains powered, they don't imperceptibly dim as battery powered lights can such that you don't immediately notice it. As the name implies they run cold so are pretty good in that respect. Replacement bulbs are around £12 or thereabouts.

(Note that you may need to use more than two lights, depending on your requirements.)

A lot of DIYers modify CFL lights into their own mounts to make different light patterns, etc. which is something I'd have a go at if I had an opportunity to do more filming.

I also have two 160 LED panel lights which aren't really bright enough and eat through batteries while stubbornly refusing to work off a mains adaptor, even one with enough of a current rating. They cost around £65 new, which I'm sure is relatively more expensive than when I bought them some years ago, especially as the CFLs above don't seem to have increased in price over a similar period. They also seem to put out a lot of blue light which irritates my eyes, although I have a problem in this respect.

As Dave implies, industrial / inspection / security lighting (Halogens) is probably as cheap as anything, but they do get hot and the people that I've asked who sell and use them (for their intended purposes) tell me not to use them indoors.

[Dave Watterson]

Don't you find CFL lamps create electrical interference on the soundtrack?

[James Mitchell]

Don't you find CFL lamps create electrical interference on the soundtrack?

I haven't done, but I perhaps should have another listen as the first eco lightbulb thing used in the house created interference (similar to mains hum) on my hard disk recorder.

Thanks for reminding me about this; I'll check again.

[James Mitchell]

Don't you find CFL lamps create electrical interference on the soundtrack?

I've checked again for interference from a CFL both with the sound on my DSLR and Zoom H1n recorder and have found no problems with either even when moving close to the light.

[Dave Watterson]

Maybe I was unlucky, or had a poor batch of lamps. It was in the early days of those.

In response to Albert's suggestion of candles ... I remember the shock of Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" with a scene lit only by candles. But he could have his cameras virtually built to order. In Edinburgh he visited the cinema showing its first run and replaced the projector gates!

The huge issue with candles - whether used for practical lighting or as set-dressing is continuity. Some professionals had a crew member burning sets of off-camera candles to different degrees so that they could match the ones in vision if the makers went back to shoot another angle or just to a new take.

[James Mitchell]

Maybe I was unlucky, or had a poor batch of lamps. It was in the early days of those.

Or maybe I'm lucky.

As I said, the problem I had occurred 20-odd years ago with a first generation eco bulb.

The problem from CFLs and LEDs is the circuitry that is used to drive the light which can give out RFI (radio frequency Interference) with the situation getting worse as more LEDs are used in domestic lighting and in street lamps, etc. There does not appear to be a database of "good" and "bad" bulbs in this respect, although one might expect that bulbs in kit advertised for video use (as mine are) would be OK.

To get back to the plot, as it were, does anyone else know of any cheap lighting solutions?

[Albert Noble]

The huge issue with candles - whether used for practical lighting or as set-dressing is continuity. Some professionals had a crew member burning sets of off-camera candles to different degrees so that they could match the ones in vision if the makers went back to shoot another angle or just to a new take.

Ah, but in my scenario the two actors are puzzled by why the candle
keeps burning down and then mysteriously back up again !
It's a time travelling candle maybe?
Hence the film's title, "Candle Power."

The very problem of continuity with a burning candle becomes part of the plot........
In film making, one has to cut your film according to your cloth.

[James Mitchell]

See this re. the "Kubrick" lens;

https://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm

Some have claimed that they did use artificial light along with the candles in Barry Lyndon, although this might have been an artefact of the metal reflectors placed above the candelabra, initially to protect the ceilings.

I've also read that Walter Lassally shot a scene in a black and white film by candlelight in the 1960s but can't now find a reference to which film. A Taste of Honey, perhaps?