It was farss and Mr Graff - article read about 3 weeks back - that "tipped" me an idea to purchasing a £9 - yes a £9GBp 12volt 8watt florrie - am experimenting with this now. I can just plop it down outta shot and illuminate small darkish areas, gives a nice soft "lift". Mr Graff used mains florrie sticks - he said he kept a few in his bag!

farss and Graff? . . .hm . .. .

. .anyways . .If people missed the link to Mr Graff:
http://www.bluesky-web.com/new-page6.html


. .and here's the thread where a LOT of info was being shared:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=397782


Seeyah!

Grazie

See Grazie.....I miss a few days around here and see what happens!!

I did a quick test last night and I'm intrigued by these Graff Lights.....they are not the "be all/end all" or magic solution for all video but I'm surprised at how well they can work on something like a talking head for example.

Hope to do a real test later today. I need more hours in a day Scotty!

We actually did a shoot for a short down in Waikiki w/ mostly florecents and a few high powered flashlights. It came out pretty good, given the limitations. We used marine batteries and an inverter to power the florecent lights (no budget or permit for a genny). I have to agree, that they are not the solution for every situation, but their cost, low energy requirments and improved color rendering makes them a powerful tool for video lighting. I will post some frame grabs if I get a chance.

Gabe

Well I must say I'm a bit impressed with these little lights. Did some test shooting with them today and they work.....In the spirit of complete and utter DIY, I decided I'd try and make light stands for them. I made two light stands that can tilt etc for under $10 (5ft tall and lights can adjust up and down, main light pole can move away or toward subject while base stays put).

I'll try and post some screen grabs when I have time to show how the footage came out.

Keith

Keith, if you can, please also post pics of your home made light stands!

I would also most definately suggest checking out the :"Nano Light 's "that are the brain child of Victor Milt.They are covered in the VASST DVD "Light It Right " DVD, To be honest, I'm not sure if if its decscribed anywhere else. All I can say from experience is .... the cost of the DVD ..... is worth the price of the savings you'll recoup using /building one or two of theses units for use in your shoots.
I have made a couple of variations of these for shooting on yachts in tight quarters, and let me tell you ....(not VIctor,.... cuz he'll give me the old "I told you these baby's are perfect for what you want" Schpeell, ; ).They work superb!... Flourescent and LED are the way of the future. Cool to the touch.. and known color temp's .......
this is the way I have choosen for close qtr's shooting . Pack it all in to a relitively small package/ light kit and you have a lot of flexibility.
Give all these options and good second look if you are looking to add/improve your light kit, as I am always trying to do .

Be carefull, different fluro tubes don't just have different color temperatures they can and do have different color spectrums and that can lead to nightmares in post.
A fluro light uses a plasma of mercury to produce UV light, this in turn causes a mixture of chemical to flouresce (hence the name). Now that mixtue can vary from 2 to 9 different chemicals. Each one emits light at a fairly narrow spread of wavelengths and amplitudes. More phosphors give a better rendition index (how close the light is to white). Commercial tubes have a high ouput in the green part of the spectrum as that's where the eye is most sensitive and adding more phosphors not only increases cost but slightly reduces light output.
It gets trickier, as the phosphors age the light output of each chemical decreases but not at the same rate, hence new commercial tubes after a few hundred hours output less green.

Do you need to worry about all this. Well I've been caught out, ended up with shadows with a different color cast to the rest of the frame and because I had multiple light sources it was impossible to CC perfectly. So if you're rolling your own or even using pro fluro lights try to use all the same brand and type of tube, if you must mix them, use a bounce board to mix the light before it gets to the subject.

One other thing, replace any iron ballasts with HF ballasts, they cost more but get rid of flicker, they're lighter, many of them can be dimmed and they run cooler. The latter can be important, I've had cheap plastic fluro fittings melt.
Fluro tubes are also great for chinese lanterns, a little more work to build but no risk of fire!
Here's another idea for the brave. Make your own balloon lights very cheaply. Buy LARGE white garbage bags (ones that'll fit a Xmas tree) and a tank of helium. Put a few fluro lights together wired to a light weight cord or halogens inside a cage inside the bag, fill with helium, tie off bag around cord and let her go.
Bob.

OK here are a couple of test shots using the small lights.....nothing to fancy....just a quick setup and test. Duvetyne in the background to make it simple.

One

Two


Pics of those fabulous light stands to follow.......

Keith

The highlight looks a little blue to me, maybe add a 1/4 CTO gell.
Also I'd maybe get the fill and key lights a little higher so the face doesn't look too washed out.
But all that's pretty much a matter of taste and how you like to light.
Bob.

Thanks Bob....I noticed the blue as well. I think I know what happened there and it's my fault :-)

Here are the stands I built specifically for these lights. I can tilt them but if a much heavier light was attached you would want to secure the middle joint to avoid a fall. These are 5ft tall and hold a fair amount of weight. I'm going to try a 2ft and 4ft light and see how much they can take (with the middle joint secured). The base is wide enough as is but I may add sand in the bottom tubes for extra base weight.

Anyway, I made these on a whim while in a DIY mode. Less than 10 bucks for materials and took about 20 minutes to make. I drew up a plan for one that has a telescoping center but haven't built it yet.

light stands

edit:[ I modified a clamp that holds the lights and allows them to slide up and down the stand....]

Keith

Thanks for that Keith - very ingenious use of plastic pipes/fittings.

I'll be building a VicMilt Nanolight soon, and I'll try the same principle with maybe up to 2" piping.

You're welcome.....I need to pick up the DVD with Victor's nanolight info. It's been "on my list" for a while now but I haven't checked it off just yet.

Keith