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Cheap Lighting Tricks

T

TDMExperience

After my initial camera purchase, everything I do is forced to be on a shoestring budget. So I'm always looking for very cheap (or even free) ways to make things happen.

Right now I'm nowhere near being able to afford a professional lighting kit, but I'm realizing how incredibly important lighting is to making a video look good. So here is what I'm currently working with:

-Sunlight
-The Lamps/Lights that are in my house
-3 Can Lights
-Car windshield shade to use as a bounce board
-I've also been able to use a flashlight to some effect.

I'm planning on getting a couple of stand up work lights when I get some extra money, but does anyone have any other cheap (or free) lighting products or tricks?

I'd appreciate it.
 
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I found a very cheap swivel floor lamp, like one uses for reading, I picked one up at a consignment store for like 10 bucks, and it works wonders for a "flood" type light (I use Daylight bulbs when indoors)
 
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I used those ACDelco clamp lights for a long time... then got one of those Smith/Victor 1500W open face lighting kits ( http://www.amazon.com/S-V-401433-KT...6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1306212255&sr=1-6 ) and a pack of lighting gels (Lee Master Location Lighting Gel Pack - http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Filters-Location-Correcting-Lighting/dp/B000FSE0FI )... never looked back, wonderful kit on a budget... add one more light with some spill control (I have a craftsman worklight with metal barndoors on it) for lighting the background and you're in business.
 
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Creating shadows and controlling light is just as (if not more) important than adding it. Black wrap (durable, black aluminium foil) is very useful if a little expensive, but sturdy black card, black foamcore and thick black fabric can all be used to block or "flag" the light, helping you to create layers of light and dark.
 
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Knightly, that kit looks interesting. I've always been weary of buying a less expensive version of a normally "expensive" thing. It usually turns out that it's completely useless to me, and I just wasted money that I should have saved and put towards the more expensive version. Do you have any examples of videos you've done using that set up?

chilipie said:
Creating shadows and controlling light is just as (if not more) important than adding it. Black wrap (durable, black aluminium foil) is very useful if a little expensive, but sturdy black card, black foamcore and thick black fabric can all be used to block or "flag" the light, helping you to create layers of light and dark.
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This isn't something that I had considered yet. When you're blocking light, do you do it at the source (i.e. covering up a portion of the actual light), or do you set things up away from the light source? Or is it a combination of the 2?

Tinalera said:
(I use Daylight bulbs when indoors)
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That brings up another question - are there specific bulbs I should be using? Outside of the power of the bulb (level of brightness), are there any other factors I should consider?
 
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Not going to lie, more expensive lights give you more control over coverage and spill, but using the lights, the environment and lots of flags and black wrap creatively will get you some decent results. You'll note that these all seem relatively flatly lit compared to what I'm doing when I use better lighting.

In this cooking spot I was going for a more even contrast ratio.
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/CookingWTude_2.mov

These were more successful, but blended use of that kit with sunlight and craftsman worklights. These are past 48 hour project entries.
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/EC-web.mov
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/9thLife-LB-final.mov

These were shot fast for school:
In the first one, you can see me "acting" after our entire cast left to go to a hockey game instead of being there for the shoot - so we recast on the spot and ended up with an OK production anyway. There's even a handheld take where one cameraman/actor leaves frame, grabs the camera and the second enters frame as there were only 2 experienced camera ops on set and both were acting in the same scene!
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/Sharks.mov
I'm not directly responsible for the second one - but contributed euipment and some time on set as a lighting and FX consultant
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/PDP-sm.mov

Here's footage from a production I directed for a writer which has since been abandoned by the producer. Again, my equipment and crew, which makes it a YAFI Production (that's the agreement I require of folks wanting to use my resources - it becomes an educational film set for people interested in getting on set experience and gets the YAFI splash card at the end)
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/ntty-raw.mov

This spot was done recently, the interviews are lit with this kit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHTZILUniZY
Sorry for the audio in the interviews... this was me rediscovering why I run on batteries, had to scrub the audio pretty heavily to take the buzz out from the dimmer on my fill light feeding back through the line.
 
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Nice! I'm at work right now, but when I get home I'm going to check these out.

Now I need to apologize for asking what is probably a stupid question, but I'm very inexperienced right now. What are coverage and spill?
 
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TDMExperience said:
This isn't something that I had considered yet. When you're blocking light, do you do it at the source (i.e. covering up a portion of the actual light), or do you set things up away from the light source? Or is it a combination of the 2?
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Often both, sometimes only one of them. The further you are from the light source and the smaller the light source is, the sharper the shadow will be. If you want to, for example, ease off the light from a softbox so the top of the wall behind the actors is darker, you might have a flag less than a foot from a light. Other times you want a hard edge - the film noir-esque shadows from venetian blinds is a classic example of this - which may mean the object causing the shadow needs to be five metres or more from the light.

TDMExperience said:
Now I need to apologize for asking what is probably a stupid question, but I'm very inexperienced right now. What are coverage and spill?
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Coverage (in this context, rather than editing) is basically how narrow or wide a beam of light can be projected. Spill is any light where you don't want it.
 
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hmm, I'm pretty much in the same area as you are, except I have the work lights.. but nowhere to plug them in! :D got any ideas how to get some lights that are portable? I mean, I have a softbox at home, dying to use it. but can't outdoors, how do you get portable light? I really don't wanna buy a battery pack that costs a million bucks.
 
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pen said:
hmm, I'm pretty much in the same area as you are, except I have the work lights.. but nowhere to plug them in! :D got any ideas how to get some lights that are portable? I mean, I have a softbox at home, dying to use it. but can't outdoors, how do you get portable light? I really don't wanna buy a battery pack that costs a million bucks.
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You either need batteries or a generator. If you're inside and can't get power for whatever reason, battery powered lights may do the trick. If you're competing with the sun outside, you're going to need a generator. You may be better off controlling the light with reflectors, diffusion and flags.
 
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TDMExperience said:
That brings up another question - are there specific bulbs I should be using? Outside of the power of the bulb (level of brightness), are there any other factors I should consider?
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Yes, CRI and temperature. Daylight and Tungsten have different temperatures, 3200k and 5500k respectively, If you've got an open windown be careful about using tungsten lights. Much safer to use some home depot spiral flos. Mixing different temps will give these weird lightning bolts in the frame.
 
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pen said:
not exactly competing with the sun, it's more of filming in dark areas, forests where the light can get really dim
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Ah, okay. I think you'll need to decide on the motivation for you lighting - are you trying to recreate bright sunlight, dull skylight, the light from a burning torch? If you can only use battery powered sources, something small and LED based is probably your best bet, but you'll need a lot of them if you want to do more than just light their faces up. You could also use practical sources carried by the characters - mobile phones, torches etc. - to light the scene, but this may still not be enough light for you.

brianluce said:
Mixing different temps will give these weird lightning bolts in the frame.
Click to expand...

Lightning bolts? Sounds exciting…
 
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brianluce said:
Yes, IRE and temperature. Daylight and Tungsten have different temperatures, 3200k and 5500k respectively, If you've got an open windown be careful about using tungsten lights. Much safer to use some home depot spiral flos. Mixing different temps will give these weird lightning bolts in the frame.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou. :D
 
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brianluce said:
Okay, so lightning bolts might not be the best descriptor, how about "Weird, bluey messer uppers"...I think that's the proper technical name for the phenomena.
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I believe the term you are seeking (as I commonly hear it) is "Daylight Spill."

As in, "We need to cover that series of skylights before we shoot in here, or we will be fighting daylight spill all over the place."

- or -

"Crack those blinds just a little more open, I'm liking the daylight spill on the background."

:D
 
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David.rhsc said:
I believe the term you are seeking (as I commonly hear it) is "Daylight Spill."

As in, "We need to cover that series of skylights before we shoot in here, or we will be fighting daylight spill all over the place."

- or -

"Crack those blinds just a little more open, I'm liking the daylight spill on the background."

:D
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Daylight Spill? Sounds too much like a breakfast drink. If you said "Hey, we have some daylight spill", the crew might think it was time for a break. "Weird bluey scene messer uppers" sounds a lot more professional. :lol:
 
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