I never heard about the state laws -- sounds like some sort of nonsense forced into law by an overzealous union trying to protect its members. Pretty silly law, if true. Worklights do get hot, but so do studio lights. At least worklights have thick protective shields that cover the lamp, unlike those "torch" lamps that were popular five years ago and which started so many dormatory fires.

There was an article about two years ago on how colleges and high schools could save a bunch of money by making their own lighting system. One of the main parts of the recommendation was to use work lights -- especially since Costco often has them for less than $20.

I use work lights all the time. A lot cheaper then regualr film/video lights. I do have have a small profesional light kit that i use for interview lighting. On my bigger shots, i use over 20,000 watts of halogen work lights. Some of the lights i have modified to have barn doors and all of my lights can have gels clipped on in front of them(not directlty to the glass, or they will melt). One of the most important thing to know about work lights is there color temp. I usually shoot with all of my lights having a daylight gel on them either full or 3/4. I also use diffusion gels on all of my lights since halogens are so harsh.Oh yeah be sure to white balance your camera.

check the state laws, regulations, about the lights. You could invalid your insurance coverage or the insurance coverage of the place where you'll be shooting. Should there be an accident, you could be sue and have no coverage, or worst, have criminal charges brought against you.

Taken your replies on board guys. I live "down under" so I'll check if there is legal ramifications of using them here.

I also use halogen work lights on stands. I got the idea from an article in Videomaker magazine. Each stand sets 6' high and has two 500 watt halogens. I also have a 500 watt floor halogen work light. I paid $39 for each with the stands and $19.95 for the floor. Not as portable, but they still fold up and are much beefier than standard portables. Plus about $100 total, instead of $1,000.

I also have two high-watt extension cords (rated +2000 watts, not the normal +1,400 watts) to use different outlets.

By the way, I removed the metal grates surrounding my work lights--they gave off strong shadows. I do have to shut them down for awhile before transporting or they'll burn most anything they touch. It only takes about 5-10 minutes for them to get reasonable, enough time to pack up some of my other items.

For diffusion I have two white photo umbrellas that I put several feet in front of the lights (held by unused cymbal stands).

I also have two "natural" light tungston bulbs that I put in clip on lights (about $6 each) that have aluminum reflectors that I've used for minor close up interviews.

The comment about white balancing is correct. I sent Spot a sample with and without white balancing for a training session--it makes a massive difference.

I think the biggest reason for the difference is that worklights, although they are the same lamp, are built in a variety of flavors, and likely not as well built. Also, *most* hotlights/video lights using the 1K halogens have other protections built in such as metal scrims, no glass, etc. it's also likely that it's related to unions.
Search the web, you'll likely find some discussions of the laws. There was quite an article on this subject a while back, got really heated in the DV.com forums. (no pun intended)

Stef101,
I'm from down under and a fair bit of electrical engineering experience. So ling as the units have supply authority approval (and they cannot be sold if they don't) then I'm not aware of any specific regulations that prevent you from using them. I'd go so far as to say quite the opposite, you wouldn't be allowed to use film lights on a work site. How the hell anyone is allowed to use that rubbish from KinoFlo down here I don't know, that stuff is an accident waiting to happen, none of their wiring meets safety regulations, in fact during the shooting of the last Matrix feature the US crew were shocked (yes an intended pun) to learn all their lighting gear had to have earth leakage protection, these guys were mixing millions of litres of water, lighting and live talent, would you walk onto such a set that didn't have earth leakage protection?
All that said, fluro or HMI lights are a btter bet than halogen, both give more light for the same power and heat but there nothing wrong with cheap work lights. Use extension cords with built in ELP, costs under $100 and you're pretty safe. Use shotbags on all tripods and watch the obvious fire hazards. DON'T move halogens for at least one minute after you turn them off and buy as set of good lamps, the junk that you get with these kinds of lights may only last a few minutes.
If you use ANY lighting gear made in the US get someone who knows what they're doing to replace all the mains leads, the thicker 110V style leads fail internally pretty easily, we've had a few burst into flame where they get flexed.

Bob.

I thought I was the only cheap-skate doing this! My studio has three 2x500w work lights banked on six foot high yellow tube stands I got at Home Depot for $25 each. Yerh $75 for 3000w lighting. Just removed the protection and as said added gels and made some cheap barn doors from tin cans.

Also I picked up a outside house illumination halogen flood, 1000w at a garage sale for 25c and converted likewise. Studio lighting is very overpriced. Of course as said white-balance, but you always do that anyway - don't you?


Mike S

You can build heat shields for the lights easily. if you are not mech. incline, then ask any bump shop or heating shop, show them what you want, and they can usually make it while you wait. Also if you remove the glass, the light structure will run cooler, but the bulb is dangerously hot. shielding should be used in a matter that no direct contact can be made, ie, like the bulb is at less a ft from the entry of the light structure.

When I convert my lamps I was not sure if I should have removed the glass which has UV filter. Did this make the lights cooler and is this the best thing(for good color not safty) to do?

Mike S

Great stuff here guys. I'd be safe to say that colour-wise, halogens OK, if not the best, ie HMI and Fluros are better, but costlier. On the safety front, there are issues to be delt with. In Oz, our Occupational, Health and Safety (OH & S) Act, tells you to identify hazzards and put in place measures to overcome them. Info from these posts will definately help compile a checklist for safe use of halogens. Again great stuff.
Stefan

I've found great results adding a halogen flood (mounted on a music stand) behind me as a talent key light, then just having 5K flourescents mounted vertically on shop light stands tied to torch lights (for vertical uprights) ...at 45 degree angles, to light the chromakey + me ... + overhead 5k flouro's too..bright, not too hot, excellent balanced lighting..

here's all of that, explained in a 3 minute video walkthrough, without the key light behind (I added that recently, this clip is from a few months ago):

www.daytradingu.com/chromakeylightinga.wmv

ken

Despite all the best intentions things outside your control can and will go wrong. Fires DO happen, power DOES fail, people DO get hurt.
The thing is to have a plan of action for when they do occur, odd thing is of course when you have a plan they don't seem to happen as much (Murphys Law).
Have one light, any light, that runs from another circuit, at least one of the crew should always have a torch on their belt and everyone should know what to do if you loose power.
Have fire fighting equipment that works at hand and people who know how to use it. Everyone on the set should know how to get out in the event of a fire. Practice the drill regularly.
Have someone trained in basic first aid always on the set.
And this really shouldn't have to said but I heard another story today of yet another very near miss involving firearms on a set. In this country at least, be afraid, be very afraid, you need a very controlled set, if you're on location doubly so. In one incident a few years ago a number of school children came very close to being shot by the police and a similar thing has happened on another shoot. If you have to shoot any sych scenes you MUST talk to an licenced armourer, even if you're only using water pistols.

Bob.

I agree with farss and the others. I'm also from Oz and have used 500W halogen work lights successfully for years. As mentioned elsewhere, it's possible to pick up a pair of them, on a tripod stand, for under $AUS 30. I have also been in the technical/electrical business for forty years and have never heard of any laws to prevent their use -- that's in Australia, of course. Their colour temp is a little low, but well within the range of most camera's WB.

The only new point I would like to make is this -- it may not be a good idea to remove the front glass. Many years ago, I witnessed a 500W halogen tube explode. The blobs of molten quartz burned their way over a centimetre into an old hardwood floor. How far would they go into a leading lady?

Man! this thread is full of myth and rumor.

Halogen lamps (aka bulbs) are just fine. The instruments they're mounted in vary in quality but they all poop out the light and that's all you seem to be after.

Halogen lamps get really hot and have to be handled carefully. Don't touch the lamps with your fingers while installing. The finger oil will cause the part you touched to get hotter than the rest of the lamp and the glass will probably blister and deform. Such lamps don't last long.

Halogen lamps (or even plain old "tungsten" light bulbs) are a good light source because they emit a broad and even spectrum of light. They do not normally have high amounts of any particular color. However, all such lamps have an overall warm color that makes them very different from daylight. To use them in daylight you'll need to cover them with a blue correction gel. I prefer Lee 201 but several manufacturers make the stuff-and they're all slightly different. Pick one and stick to it.

Light color is measured in degrees Kelvin. (Don't mistake this for a measure of heat.) Generally, a camera's preset for indoor light is set to 3200 degrees kelvin. For sunlight the camera preset is set to something around 5600 degrees kelvin.

Halogen lamps for film and video are manufactured to be 3200 degrees when new. Household halogens may be 3k, 2.8k, or even lower. It's a noticeable difference if you mix the lamps in the same shot. One nice thing about the household lamps is that they usually last a bit longer. That's the tradeoff, color for longevity.

There is a huge difference between hardware store worklights and professional gear. However, the difference only seems to show in the hands of an experienced electrician. For beginners, the goal is to get something that will emit light and give you enough level to shoot with. It's hardly worth spending the money on good gear right off the bat. A better use of the money would be to hire someone and rent their good lights, then you get to see how they work and what they can do.

On the safety glass, this is there to stop hot bits of glass from spraying into the face of the person you're lighing if the bulb explodes. UV from a halogen lamp is minimal and while the glass may say it's a UV filter that's not it's purpose. (You absolutely do need a UV filter for HMI arc lamps, on the other hand). If you remove the glass from your shoplights you should replace it with a loose wire mesh screen.

The loose mesh screens are a fairly recent safety feature on professional open faced lights and are probably there to protect Chimeras more than talent. It's a bit of a loss to have holes burned in a $400.00 small chimera by hot glass. These "blast screens" usually aren't installed on Fresnels but PAR lamps (headlight-like lamps) should have some sort of screen. I once had a 1200W HMI PAR blow up and burn holes in upholstered furniture.

Mesh safety screens shouldn't be confused with scrims. Scrims are disks of wire screen that will cut the output of a light be a half or full stop. In pro lights they slip quickly in front of the light and allow you to reduce the light without changing the color tempurature (dimmers change the color along with the output). Ideally each light should have it's own set of scrims in a bag that you can hang on the light stand where it can be readily found.

Safety? I'd say that many safety regulations have been driven by California law more than by unions. When I started working in this business in the mid 80s all the San Francisco electricians were perfectly happy with ungrounded paddle/pocket distro systems. We then went to grounded Bates connectors but were still using molepin and welding cable for the main distro. In the early 90s we moved to Camlock and theatrcal grade cabling which has a tougher insulator. I don't think we've ever mandated GFI circuits but you'd be a fool not to use it in wet conditions.

Regardless, I think that safety concerns here have been driven by public agencies in Los Angeles rather than by the IATSE local there. Because those companies were required to meet certain standards the entire nation eventually had to follow along.

Does this even matter if you're going to use worklights? I don't know. For most people who go to the hardware store to buy lights the only concern is to get something cheap but if I were that person I'd be making every effort to ensure the safety of those around me. Sandbag the lights, tape down the cables in high traffic areas, use GFI circuit protectors, and protect people from burns or accidental bulb explosions. And keep a first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your car.

Rob Mack

You and Farss just made excellent safety points, many of the same points I was making in my overlong post.

Lamps do explode and the pane of glass in a shop light may not be enough to save anyone. The 1200w PAR I saw blow up (okay, I was the gaffer so technically I blew it up) shattered the glass of the bulb and the pop-in lens in front of it. The shards melted upholsery and the plastic faces of the stereo components we were shooting. They also burned the hardwood floor. We were really lucky no one was in front of them at the time.

Producers need production insurance. If you are the producer, it's your responsibility.

Rob Mack

Hear! Hear!

Rob Mack

Hasn't anybody come up with some usable LED arrays that would work with video yet?

There were two companies at Government Expo that had LED arrays, but I didn't grab their card or brochure. Wish I had, now....But for close in/ small sets, they seemed to be really nice, lightweight, and cool running.
They were about the size of a snow sledding saucer and smaller.
http://www.colorkinetics.com/corp/busunits/oem/partners/altman.htm are fairly small, and quite deep/thick compared to what I saw at Gov't Expo

http://www.zgc.com/zgc.nsf/0/b356a54255c0f99d85256f1e006c4b2a?OpenDocument

Are very small compared to what I saw at Expo, but they're pretty interesting

"Producers need production insurance. If you are the producer, it's your responsibility."

...and if you have production insurance, it is quite possible that the insurance company will refuse to pay if you used worklights, same as they might if you used high power pro lights without bulb blowout protection.

There is a large variation in quality among worklights, but I am yet to see any that could be considered safe by any reasonable person.

Time to switch to those 5k fluorescents mentioned above :O)

Where do you get and what are the 5k fluoresent lights called (i.e., brand, type, watts, etc.)?

Yes, you're right of course.

I find it hard to make the case for good quality lights to someone who thinks that a worklight is just fine. So I decided to try not to be too discouraging.

The truth is that if you're opting for work lights, clip-ups, or whatever else you can find then I suspect that 1) you're not thinking about insurance and 2) I'll never see you on a set or on location.

At one time I lived in a commercial space with 9 other penniless artists and we lit all of our shows with clip ups and household reflector lamps. We didn't have money nor insurance. That is the very last time I saw anything lit that way. Not that people don't do it, just that I work for pay now and they wont be hiring me.

You can definitely light shots with just about anything. However, if you are competing with more experienced, skilled, and professional people, it might pay off to at least appear to be professional. It's a matter of showing up with the right tools vs showing up with what are obviously not the right tools.

However, many here are hobbyists and aren't try to or expected to look like pros. For them I think that it's good to help with what they can manage as well as point out things they might aspire to.

When you have little money you can manage worklights. You should aspire to using sandbags on the lights to keep them from falling over and burning something/someone. You should also aspire to not setting off the sprinkler system. Most of all you should aspire to never ever hurting anyone.

Rob Mack