Cool lighting info site...Plus DIY bits

thanks knightly,

curious why their foam core doesnt burn when close to hot lights like mine does?

they're probably using flouescents or "special" foamcore I've had good luck with the screw in flourescents (GE soft white compact flourescent)...had my AD hold one up in the corner with his bare hands just out of frame in our final shoot on my feature. Love them, so do my cast/crew...no more cool down breaks.

Do you then use ALL flourescent bulbs, to avoid variations in light temperature, or do the match close enough with 3.2K tungsten light? I've always used matching photogenic bulbs to avoid light temp variations. On the other hand, I've always wondered why I care, when half of my lights have gels on them, so only the ones without gels would be color-temp sensitive.

I have a drawer full of GE and Sylvania flourescents, for the office lights. I guess the other reason I haven't tried them in my light kit is because I'm generally using 250W and 500W lights. The flourescents I have in the drawer are 60W equivalent bulbs (18W?). There is no doubt, they'd be much cooler ... of course, a 60W incandescent would be cooler than what I'm using! I'm thinking now, that a DIY light bar, with 4-8 sockets might be the ticket for a fill light.

Now I may have to try a white balance test... like I didn't already have enough to do!

p.s. Regarding the linked softbox tutorial; I believe the speedlight is a strobe with a modeling lamp. That wouldn't generate nearly as much heat as a continuous light.

regarding the speedlight: I should probably have read the intro. It seems the Speedlight is not a strobe, so I must correct myself. I looked it up on B&H, and it looks like it is a 500W halogen lamp.

I use:

flourescents and reflectors indoors
sunlight and reflectors outdoors
mixed flourescents and halogens outdoors night + reflectors

mixed light seems to work alright outside at night when people are used to seeing mixed sources. Outdoors I need be less concerned with heat generations as well...so I have 5 500w craftsman worklights to throw at a scene. I use these mostly for wider shots where the light has to throw farther...any mid to closeups I do with flourescents.

What we digital folks have that the film folks do not is the ability to use different lighting and make them all look the same temp by white balancing...they're jealous The rest is all light placement and soft vs. hard light. That can be done with any light.

Yes, shooting digital does have the white balance advantage. However, if you have two different colors of light (unintentionally, not because you wanted it that way), it can be difficult to reconcile. For example; I shoot the interior of homes for a realtor (the most boring work in the world, but it pays some bills), and if I need to light the interior during the day, the discrepancy between the daylight and the interior lights is really evil. No matter what I white balance on, I get a range of color balance. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but we are surrounded by evil, and it's name is "mediocrity". If my job is to record a scene, true to life, I try to get the white things to look white.

Thanks for the tips. I may look into a flourescent lighting setup; especially since I can put it together as time allows and use my current setup in the meantime. It's nice to have the luxury of dragging things out!

it's easier to gel flourescents too as they don't generate the heat that incandescents do. You can gel with contact paper if necessary, or colored saran wrap. Better in a pinch to not have to worry about setting the set on fire or forgetting your gloves.