If you want to change your life (rather than just spray light around)consider investing in an Arri kit- not the cheapest thing out there but you will be AMAZED at how good your shots will look, I kid you not. I've used a ton of different lights over the years and these Arri D-series kits RULE!

I bought this kit (Softbank D2) a few months back and I could not give it higher marks: http://store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/arsod2ki57.html.

Great fixtures, primo stands, Chimera, scrims, barndoors...this is pro gear of the highest quality. Plus you get a nifty little book with some great 3-light setups based on the kit's components. The book itself can be downloaded here: http://www.power-of-lighting.com/lighting_handbook.pdf

Question: what camera are you using?

The reason I ask is that I've found that using a PD-150 (good low-light capability), I can get by with much lower wattage lights. This has a lot of advantages, including letting me open up the iris a bit to decrease depth of field, making my subjects more comfortable, and less risk of tripping a circuit breaker if I'm shooting on location.

I have a Lowell VIP kit which I've supplemented with a second DP light. I almost never use the two 500-watt V-lights that came with the kit. I replaced the 500-watt standard bulbs in the DPs with 250-watt bulbs. I use one DP behind a diffusion screen as the key, the second DP with the barn doors closed to tiny vertical slit as the back light, and a silver/white reflector disk as the fill.

If Lowell has a kit with two DP lights, I'd go for that. If you go that route, spring the extra $60 or so to get the swing-away dichroic (daylight) filters for each. This saves a lot of headaches if you're trying to do a 3-point setup in a room with windows.

Worked in a rental house through half the 80's.
Worked as an electrician, grip, occassional Gaffer throughout the 90s.

I have to get behind the Arri kit because you can use wire scrims. These allow you to reduce the light output from the light as needed without changing the color temperature. The Arri setup is just like any other standard light in that the scrims can be dropped into a slot. In contrast, the lowel scrims usually require you to take everythng apart. You'll never use the lowel scrims.

A proper scrim set for fresnels and open face lights consists of:
2 doubles
1 single
1 half double
1 half single

Each light should have a set
each set should have a bag
each bag should immediately be hung from the light
If your sets are in bags and standardized you'll always be able to keep track of them.

The down side of Arri kits is that they're heavier and the open face lights often won't support the weight of a Chimera until you move the yoke knob over to the left hand side. But they don't rust and the light output is good.

The Lowels are light, they don't rust, and they poop out a lot of light. Poop is the operant word here.

Rob Mack

Hi Larry,

The Lowell kits are good, especially if you're on a budget. But Lowell makes a TON of kits, so you might want to take a look their catalog before making a final desicion. Three resources that you may find useful:

Lighting for Digital Video & Television by John Jackman

Matters of Light and Depth by Ross Lowell

DV Magazine's lighting forum moderated by John Jackman

Finally, the others have all made good points: ARRI instruments ROCK and Photoflex products are also very good (especially their soft boxes). Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Shawn

As a follow up to BStanding's post: the camera is very important in your decision. We use PD-150s, a camera that is extremely light sensitive. We have a Lowell kit -- Omnis and Tota lights, with umbrellas, flags, etc., which we rarely use unless we're lighting a large background, a cyc or something comparable. These instruments just put out too much light. To use an Omni as a key light we had to bounce it off an umbrella and move the stand back about 20 feet from the speaker, throwing unwanted light all over the room.

Our solution has been to use our NRG Varilights -- on-camera lights -- on stands when we're doing interviews, talking heads, etc. The lights are dimmable from about 20 watts to 100 watts, put out a very smooth light, especially when a diffusion medium is used, and aren't very hot.

For soft light we often use flourescent lights, the tubes for which can be purchased in many different kelvin ratings -- 3200, 5000, etc. The new ballasts don't hum, and there's no flicker. Several companies make color correction and diffusion sleeves that fit around flourescent tubes, making these a very inexpensive and highly effective soft light source.

A Chinese lantern on a boom pole is another excellent soft light source. George Odell's article (http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/lighting/clantern1.php) on constructing a fire-safe
Chinese lantern is excellent.

Photo floods in scoops are another soft light solution, although they tend to spill a great deal and are difficult to flag. They work well for lighting broad areas smoothly, however.

Corporate clients think it's very cool to see lots of high end lights. But from the videographer's view point, with the low light capabilities of today's cameras it's often a good idea to start out with no light -- that is, to see how things look with nothing but available light -- and then add as little as possible to make the picture on the monitor look good.

You may conclude that the Arri or Lowell kit is what you need, but the possibilities for guerilla lighting that's inexpensive and very effective given today's cameras are such that you might want to reconsider spending all that money. I suggest trying some of the guerilla solutions to see if you can achieve the look you're after, then decide.

Hey Jack,
I'd classify myself on the grease monkey end of the lighting spectrum. I imagine there's a huge increase in quality from doing anything on the lighting side vs just point and shoot with presets. The real professionals can get an even greater improvement over that by dropping loads of cash.

I really dig $30 hardware store solutions like your Chinese lantern. Can you point me to other books, videos, online resources that can teach me and get me into the guerilla world of lighting? So far, I've never even used a flashlight...
Thanks!
Jeff

I'm on board with the arri band as well. Though I'd love a couple cheeper lighting setups, I love my arris. Next time I have about $2500.00, I'm probably going to buy the arri softbank iv. As I recall, that includes two 150s, one 300, one 600 and one 1000 with a chimera. Great starter kit. And, for me, it's a great looking second kit.
There's another kit that looks great at
http://www.meansst.com/gyoury/
But I've never used it before. Just looks mighty cool (literally) and low profile.

I am using a VX2000, so my light requirements would be identical to yours. I am getting the feeling from your reply and others that the DV Creator kit is not the "all around" kit that I had hoped. I would go cheap, but figured the Lowell would be a good compromise, plus I need to get the kit together quickly and didn't want to spend a lot of time assembling a piecemeal kit from Home Depot and the Chinese market.

The main setup for the film I am shooting will be an apartment with windows, so your tip regarding the dichroic filters is much appreciated. Am I right to assume that this would be an required accessory for any tungsten lighting kit?

The D2 does look like a wonderful kit, and I am aware of Arri's reputation, but that is more than doube the budget I am looking at. What qualities of the Arri's are superior to Lowell? I thought the Arri fresnel and Lowell Omni were similar devices with different names and the Tota looked like a poor man's lightbox (with diffusion in front). Does the D2 NOT have anything you might need for 100% interior shoot?

Spot,

I generally buy from B&H, as I have had great experiences there and they don't offer any Photoflex kits that match your description. Do you know of any reputable dealers that would carry the kit you referred to?

Shawn,

Thanks for the response. I bought Lighting for Digital Video & Television and love it. I can't wait to try out some of what I've learned with some real lights. I hadn't seen the forum, so thanks a lot for posting that.

Okay, just took a look at it.

This is an all fresnel kit. Fresnel means lenses on the light. They'll focus nicely and are a little easier to cut and shape. You can use clothespins to clip difusion and color to the doors. They are a lot less likely to burn holes on your gels. On the down side, fresnels are more expensive, a little heavier, and don't have quite as much output as an open face light. But the quality of light is much nicer. Also, I'm less inclined to use chimeras on a Fresnel. A Chimera is able to turn a butt-ugly light like a Tota into something nice. On a Fresnel it's overkill and a waste of a nice sharp light.

I think that the Arri kit is what you would buy if you had your own opinions and more experience. The Lowel kit, on the other hand, is cheaper, perfectly serviceable, and lighter. For a first kit it's good.

If it was me I'd want the arri kit. Id swap the chimera for a plus bank chimera with removable panels and I'd be sure to get a soft egg crate for it. And more double scrims. And scrim bags.

And remember, three lights is enough to light a person. Then you have to light the background. The Arri kit can be a second kit.

Rob Mack

The dichroics are good if you can't buy gels. They're fiddly and slow you down when used on most lowel lights but they don't burn up. If you have no way of getting gels easily then they're the ticket.

I don't want to discourage you too much about the lowel kit. Lowel is at the bottom of the usable proffesional instrument range but they're lightyears better than anything you can get at the hardware store.

Get the Lowel kit. You'll be overjoyed for years.

Rob Mack

Guerilla solutions are fine but slow. That is, if you've got any skill and experience, you can work much faster with professional lights.

The thing about Lowel lights being too bright ties into my comments about scrims and color and diffusion and Chimera's. All of these reduce your light. And so does distance. You want to have a little distance between your lights and subject so that they don't gain a stop every time they lean forward.

In a totally closed off room you may not need much light. On the other hand, if you've got window light coming in then you may want to supplement it. For that you need some punch.

Usually, it's better to scrim a light down than to be stuck with a light that only just barely cuts it. Unfortunately, the Lowel lights are so hard to scrim that you'll never do it. This is why I dislike them so much. However, lot's of people get good use out of Lowel kits. Mostly they squeeze the doors tight and then pile on the diffusion.

Totas? There's not much you can do about them. Flouro's? They're really great but not as versatile as a fresnel. You can make a fresnel do what the kino does but you can't make the kino do what a fresnel does.

Rob Mack

The advantage to kinos, of course, is there shallow depth and controllability. The reason I was looking at them a few weeks back was a potential client wanted to shoot a full segment in their kitchen. It would be really tough to light that place with fresnells, but florescent-like lighting would be hide-able and great, soft lighting.
Lots of different lights for lots of different purposes. Wish I knew more about lighting. That is the key to a good production (that and sound - another of my shortcomings.

If you really want lightweight and great lites, look at the Goury Street Lights. Perfect balance, light weight, cool, and small. Pack an entire set's worth in a suitcase and you're done. $$$ though...No softbox needed.

Your absolutlely right about using the kinos in a small space like a kitchen. You can also take them apart and wire up individual tubes under cabinets.

At some point you end up with a huge kino investment. Then it's time to build a special Kino cart.

For those scratching their heads, I'm talking about the Kinoflo brand-not just any old fourescent. These things are pricey but you get a lot of flexibility.

I've not seen the Goury lights except in magiazines but they look very good.

The one thing you can't get around is light to subject distance. Since light decreases exponentially you want your sources back far enough to give the talent some room. I used to wonder why people's foreheads looked brighter than their chins (a Flintstone look). It was just that the light was falling off down their face. Video doesn't really like more than a quarter stop of difference if your trying to get an even look.

BTW, another nice light for tight spaces is the Dedo light. Get 20 or 30 of those going...

Rob

"Also, I'm less inclined to use chimeras on a Fresnel....On a Fresnel it's overkill and a waste of a nice sharp light."

Rob, I'm not sure I follow you here. If diffused light is needed, what does it matter what the source is (fresnel vs open face)? Presuming that you're using more than one light, you can still use other hard light sources (a la more fresnels), and you would'nt be "wasting nice sharp light". ;-) Fresnels do give off a softer light than non focusing instruments, but it's nothing like a softbox.

Also (not meaning to be condescending or confrontational here), for the sake of clarity Chimera is a company that makes lighting controls, not an actual light control (just don't want to confuse anyone).

Thanks,

Shawn

I'm a regular reader of the ACS mag. I highly recommend it if you want to pickup ideas on how the big end of twon does and a lot of how it's done in Hollywood still holds true even in DV.

Anyways one issue was devoted to lighting and one comment there is very applicable to this discussion.
A big light way back is not the same as a little one close up. The difference is the rate of fall off. Even though you cannot see the light itself in the shot you can see the difference in how the light falls off accross the set and as the talent moves towards and away from it.

A suggestion, if you're a bit handy with basic electrical wiring, it ins't hard to make your own fluros, I've made a few myself. Look for Osram Delux L tubes and a ballast to run two tubes. They have to be the matching Osram electronic ballasts, you can get them in dimmable or not.

Buy an ordinary fluro fitting that has a reflector. Rip it apart, replace the tombstones with a sockets for the Osram tubes, fit the Osram ballast in the back where the old one was. Glue Lee Filter 273 silver over the reflector using spray on contact glue. Wire up mains lead.

Maybe add some brackets, conduit saddles will do, so you can slide it over a stand.

Very cheap bit of kit, mightn't look as flash as a Kino but you could build many of these for the price of one equivalent unit.

We use the Dedo's with cookies in them to create wonderful backdrop and background lighting. They are indispensable in some situations. Make a great hairlight too.

And the dedo with lens shutters is good for lighting the inside of a computer chassis.

I also get some use out an ETC leko. Another good backdrop light with a lot more ooomph. And these are actually kind of cheap, unlike the Dedo.

Rob