DIY studio lighting - under $200

A

Alex Brown

OK so I went to a lighting workshop today and thought; I keep a marine fish tank, and for it to survive, I must replicate the strength of the sun in tropical climates, mainly the correct spectrum for living coral to flourish.

I have 5500k white flourecent lamps. Today, the teacher had 5500k flourecents in a lamp holder, with starter ballast and dimmer for flourecent lights. On the side was printed "ARRI."

Forget the electrical physics on this, I would like a second opinion on the colour tempreature not rigging flourescent lights with dimmers - thats another discussion.

Providing I buy the correct aquarium light (or similar light product for arguments sake), at the correct colour temp, this is effectively exactly the same as the studio light?

The aquatic lamps DO NOT FLICKER on video. They are low watt (39w), low heat, cheap, and instead of "ARRI" they have "marine-glo" printed onto the side. An aquatic lamp unit comes with starter ballast all assembled and safety checked. They also come in banks of 4 of more.

Could we have a indie budget light solution here?

Alex Brown.

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I've used these same lights to replace scanner bulbs too in the past. Much cheaper than the manufacturer bulbs were.

I would absolutely couple these with some coollights barndoors (DIY flaps from http://www.coollights.biz ) to make some really good Kino-flos type of lights. perhaps some large muslin pieces to act as a large diffuser or honeycomb stuff.

Here's the link for the barndoors for worklights: http://www.coollights.biz/-c-23.html Make these bigger.
 
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the difference would only be in the ballast for these lights...as ARRI and Kino...both use electronic ballast so there would be no flicker on Film or Video...

as for the price...they will cost a lot more...ballast being the main reason...and can dim with no flicker and the options that come with them...being modular...cables can be swaped..ballast...heads..and have doors and eggcreats...and 750 and 2k mounts...and not to metion...they are for FILM...FILM title gives it a million dollar mark-up...lol

but i am sure you can make your own...as long as the ballast you are using gives you no flicker...and you can get bulbs in tungstun and daylight..so thats never a problem...and nothing a little gell cant fix anyway...

you can get mini flos too...and with a converter...these are great in cars

you should also look into LED Lights....there are a few pro ones out there now...but if you look around in camera(Still) shops and catologues...maybe you can find one of those FLAT PANNEL lightboxes...they give off great light and are flat...just stick em on the wall...great for when you have no space to work in...

just some thoughts
 
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There is two components to lighting look: CRI and Kelvin Temperature. Low grade flos tend to suffer from low CRI but sometimes appropriate Kelvin. You need higher than 84 CRI otherwise colors will have a dull look. Photographic incandescent bulbs tend to reach into the mid 90's in CRI, but flos rarely do.

The flicker, as mentioned, with flos have to do with magnetic ballast as opposed to electronic. In film, flicker can be caused from other things too.
 
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