Good affordable lamps for interior lighting

Hello All,

After shooting the first episode of a new youTube retrogaming show, i realized that the lighting must be poor for the "intro" portion of my video. (For reference look at the first minute or so of this video: and note that this includes adding the Glow effect from FCPX at value 40). Can anyone recommend a decent and affordable lighting solution for the situation visible in the video? The room currently has one large light in the center of the ceiling, but apparently it is not bright enough for video recording. I know I can just try to shoot in the daytime and open the windows, but that will probably be too bright: I'd prefer something more controllable. Thanks!

Anyone have any suggestions for proper equipment? Thanks.

Assuming you are only using the one light in the ceiling, then any supplemental light would probably help. Not sure what you consider affordable, but for about $200 US you can purchase a pair of FJ Westcott soft boxes with 250 or 500 watt tungsten lamps that would light up that intro scene pretty well.

Maybe you could also bounce some additional light from a reflector.

I could spend a few hundred to get it all done properly. In addition to using the ceiling light I had a 100 watt lamp; but it was too harsh to face directly at us so I pointed it at the ceiling; hence I am looking for something more ambient. I will investigate the FJ Westcotts now. Any else have anything to add? Thanks!

The "old" tungsten lights are ambient. They have a bit a higher K than your average household bulb, but they are pretty close. You'd use the one or the other gel in any way.

I have an Arri kit, but also use a 4-light soft box kit with them CFL lights (specs say 4KW in total, but that's a lie). The CFL kit cost some 400 bucks including the lamps at Skaeser, but they are all over the web.
I prefer the light from the Arris, but living in the tropics, cool lights are a boon.

You might also want to look into inexpensive LED panels that are meant to be camera mounted (less than 100 bucks). I wouldn't see them as cinematic, but as you only want to brighten up some shadows.... Put some gel on it and you are good to go. Caveat: Use dedicated camera batteries on those LED lights. They run with AA, but start flickering when the AAs lose their power. Those small lights come with a table stand, so you can place it on your desk.

scotopia wrote: ...but it was too harsh to face directly at us so I pointed it at the ceiling; hence I am looking for something more ambient.

Get some bubble wrap, hang it in front of that lamp. Different sizes give different effects, but diffuses wonderfully. Shish Kabob sticks help out a lot for this guerrilla video trick.

Cool tips Ben, but I think I want to by some good lamps as well.

I've been amazoning and it looks like a toss up between these three:

www.amazon.com/Fancierstudio-Lighting-Ha...id=1335498564&sr=1-1

www.amazon.com/Fancierstudio-Lighting-Ha...id=1335497024&sr=1-8

www.amazon.com/Photo-Basics-402-uLite-Li...id=1335499057&sr=8-1


The Westcott seems like it will be less overall light, but setup / takedown seems much easier (the green screen thing doesn't really matter too much to me, but a bonus I suppose). Based on my situation will these do the job, or should I get one of those fancier sets (or something else)? Thanks!

That Westcott setup is far better than the other two you searched. I am not a fan of CFL lighting and take that rated output and cut it in half at least for what you'll actually get. I will also tell you that the Westcott stands are pretty decent, as are the soft boxes. Most of the CFL setups I have seen (especially for those prices) are going to give you extremely cheaply built stands.

I think you'll be surprised how much light those two tungstens will provide. This is a basic entry level kit, but with two 500 watt bulbs you'll have plenty of light for what you're trying to do. It may come with 250 watt, but even that will handle your request.

Tungsten is a nice clean, warm lighting. Yes, very hot, but typically you'd place them further back. The Westcott soft boxes diffuse pretty good. You can white balance with 1/4 or 1/8 warm or cool cards to get some pretty nice looks.

Arris', Freznells and the like are great lights too, but in a completely different price point.

If you really want to maximize your budget, get some parabolic reflector lamps at the hardware store, find a few 150 watt bulbs and use Ben's trick for diffusion. Your problem is solved for under $50.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm perfectly willing to spend a few hundred on the westcott system if this is better in any way as opposed to the hardware store technique; do you think it is? It seems like the westcott might be less hassle for frequent use.

Well, it's absolutely a better solution than the hardware store technique. Depending on what your future plans for lighting are, this is a pretty basic general lighting setup. Add a back light (hair light) and you have a simple 3 way lighting kit.

For more flexibility, purchase some dimmer slide switches (relatively cheap at about $15 to $20 each) and you can regulate the light output from these boxes. CFL's on the other hand cannot be dimmed.

If you have around $1500 to $2000 to spend I would recommend something different, but it sounds like you wanted a decent light kit around the $200 mark which is why I suggested that. I purchased a couple of these at a promotional price of $199 quite some time ago, and in many cases they serve pretty well as main lights, but for sure supplemental lighting.

I think, given what you described, this would be a general all purpose kit that you would make frequent use of. It won't solve all your lighting needs but will handle a good many of them.

One problem with dimmers is it will change the color of the lights. So you'll need to set the camera's white balance, and/or white balance in post.

But your best to set it in the camera after setting up your lights if possible.

Cool; thanks for the advice guys. I'll give these westcotts a shot; at least for the time being.

Yes, dimmers change the color temperature of the light output, but you should always white balance anytime lighting conditions change on your subject, be it from your light kit, sun coming in from a window, etc. And as Dave suggests, in camera balancing is the best way to go.

On the topic of dimmers, the larger problem I noticed is that the switches themselves are very noisy. At least on the inexpensive ones. I had three of these switches on a set last year and with a boom microphone nearby the audio picked up the buzzing....so you need to be careful of their placement and monitor your audio carefully. Probably not an issue with very expensive dimming circuits.

Be sure your audio equipment and lighting equipment are on different circuit breakers. Dimmers from a hardware store will almost always introduce hum.

Yes..I would not recommend hardware store dimmers. Unless your lighting kit includes a good regulated dimmer system, the cheap ones are like these from Smith Victor (but are noisy if you cut too much voltage to the lamps):

www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/235897-RE..._Dimmer_Control.html

I would like to suggest you our site lilindo.com for interior lighting. Lilindo Lighting offers you a great choice of Lamps for home/official lighting, indoor/residential lighting, hotel/resort lighting, commercial/industrial lighting and decorative lighting.

We made a little video of us testing around with the Westcott soft boxes ... those things are pretty powerful!

Yes, now learn to position them and if you purchased some dimmers, the fill light can be set typically between 40 to 60 % of your key light. I think you'll find those will work pretty good for you....for $200 to $250 that is a pretty darn useful kit.