Lighting 101

Well, I have put it off long enough, and like most things in my life its time for me to do this article in the last possible second.

For all of you out there that like to see some sort of picture after you’ve filmed a trick, you know how important light is. I hope to explain several things in this article that will hopefully enable you to understand how light works, how to make it work for you, and the decisions that you will need to make when eventually hiring light to work for you.

Did you know that there’s science behind light? Yes! Yes there is! So first off before I tell you all the stuff that you want to know, I’m going to give you a science lesson.

Everything you see right now is made up of pure white light that is broken down into the seven spectral colors. Anyone remember general science? ROYGBIV, Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. These colors are determined by the light source’s color temperature, and the color temperature of a light source is determined by the wavelength of the light. The more red a light emits the longer the wavelength, and vice versa, the more blue and violet the shorter. Different substances will emit different colors when heated. This is why even though you may have two or three different kinds of lights that are all say 500watts, you can have completely different looking colors. There’s a lot of stuff that went into determining the way to measure this, most of which a lot of you wouldn’t care about, such as blackbody substances, spectral measurements in Kelvin, blah blah. What you need to know are the common color temperatures.

These are all just respective averages. An overcast day can be a little warmer or cooler (these terms refer to the look of the light, not the temperature, so a cool light source would be more blue, and warm more red. It’s the opposite of the actual temp) but this may explain why some of you may have taken out your camera on an overcast day, white balanced, started filming, then three or four hours later it clears up, and now your footage looks blue. Its because the color temperature changed and now you have a light source that’s cooler than it was a while ago.

So this brings us to what a light really is, and the different types of light. I’ll start from the bottom and make my way up. Hopefully you all know that in lamps, the light comes from something known as a bulb. Its that glass thing. Well, inside that glass thing is something known as a filament, and in most bulbs that you find around your house and in most of the work lamps, photofloods, and “nice” or “studio” lights this filament will be made of tungsten. (fig.1) When electricity passes through tungsten it creates a large deal of light at about 3200K. Remember that, tungsten usually heats up to 3200K. With your household lamps that means a little filament thingy inside a glass envelope (bulb). With most of the (lets say studio lights, even though that’s a bad name, most people will just call these tungsten) Quartz-Halogen envelopes are used. The difference in these is a technical thing that you again probably don’t care about, but essentially makes it so that through the life of the bulb, the light loss and change in color temperature are nearly eliminated. This means they look good for the whole time you have them. These are the lights you will be using more often than just about any other light because it’s for the most part, the standard in video production.

In film though, or at least large budget film, something called HMIs (fig. 2.1) are used, the difference is that they use a high DC voltage created by an external ballast to blah blah blah…. HMIs make light that’s about 5600K which means they are close to daylight, and they also create lots of light with less wattage. Which is why they are used on film quite frequently, because if you need light on a subject and it needs to look like day and you can only power two 1000 watt lamps, those two 1000 watt HMIs will do the work of about 10 1000watt tungsten light sources with daylight filters on. Which means they just saved money on a genny, and they will only need to rent those two lamps and can reduce the build up tear down, reduce heat on subject, reduce all kinds of stuff. Pretty HMIs are really nice lights and most of you will probably never need to use one, I’m not even sure why I spent so much time talking about them.

Ok, there are a couple different ways to classify lights that you need to know. These are Open Face Spot, Fresnel, and Flood.

An open faced spot light is just that, it is a spot light with no lens covering the lamp (fig.3), as in the Lowel Omni, or DP. These lamps are usually tungsten, and are among the less expensive lights that will give you a good amount of light for your money.

Fresnels are spots that have a concentric glass lens over their lamp, such as the Arri 300s, or 650s. This lens magnifies the amount of light expelled and allows you to focus the light from spot to flood. This also makes them more expensive. This would bring us to floods. A lot of different lights can be technically grouped into the category of floods.

Broads, scoops, and softlights, as well as you just read fresnels, are all able to give you light that spreads over a large area, or “floods” the area with light (fig.4). What most of you out there will probably be concerned with are broad lights, such as the Lowell Tota or V-light. These lights spread lots of light over a large area, and are therefore harder control. But if you need lots of light over a large area, and precision doesn’t matter, I would suggest looking into a couple of good floods.

For the most part any of these lights will work for lighting up a spot for skating, but if you are going to be buying a set of lights you should at least know what you are buying and why. I like working with all of these lights and in the real world they all have their practical uses. But the fun thing about skating is that there really is no need for practicality, you can do whatever you like with them.

So here is what most of you came here for; recommendations for lights that would serve you well when you decide to invest in lighting up spots at night. Since most of my experiences have been with lights that are on a somewhat more professional level, I’m not going to be able to tell you if 5, 500watt“insert no name brand” lights on eBay for $50 are going to be good. My guess is that there’s something wrong with them. When it comes to lights, brand recognition has been earned through having quality products that the industry trusts.

Lowel ( http://www.lowel.com/ ): These would be my first choice for any location shooting, whether it’s skating, interviews or b-roll. They are relatively inexpensive. Probably more than most of you would want to pay for lights, but if you’re just filming skating, these will be the last lights you will ever buy, probably.

V-light: (fig.6) A broad throw flood, this little guy can throw out about 500watts, and is in a good price range for those that would be taking filming a bit more seriously than the average filmer.
Pro-lightt: (fig.7) This dinky little guy only kicks about 250 watts at most and probably wouldn’t be too effective at lighting up very large spots, but for any aspiring videographers, this light used in tandem with the v-light can be nice for all kinds of basic lighting scenarios, for a good price.
Omni: (fig.8) Between 500Watts and 100watts, this little open faced spot gives you lots of lights in a nice little neat package, its also versatile enough to use for a soft fill or any number of things outside of skating.
Tota: (fig.9) This would be my highest recommended light for skaters, followed closely by the omni. This sleek little guy is able to throw out between 800watts and 500watts, and is able to throw it over long distances. Two of these will more than likely cover any spot you will ever need to light up. They are also, like the omni, not ridiculously overpriced.
DP: (fig.10) Like the Omni, but with more light, 1000watts-500watts, and a larger throw. These guys are going to be costing you a bit, but they are great for lighting up large areas and they will give you a softer less harsh light that the Tota.

Smith Victor ( http://www.smithvictor.com/index.asp ) : These are the cheapest well constructed lights available, it’s a name that has been established as having at least decent lights. The main point is that they will work well, and they are a bit cheaper than most lights.

Q-80: (fig.11) Ok first of all 600Watts for a hundred bucks is one hell of a deal. There aren’t any bells and whistles here, just light and a good amount of it at a decent price. If you wan t light for nothing other than filming spots, and you don’t want to fork over lots of cash, this may be your best bet.
Q60SG: (fig.12) I actually have a set of these that I bought off of Mr. Ryan, and even though he beat the shit out them, they still work fine. Once again 600watts, a little price jump because they are a bit sturdier, and they have two leaf barn doors. The barn doors are pretty lame though, cause they are actually like screw on and are sort of hard to adjust, but for most of you it would be a nice little upgrade for just a bit more scrill.
750SG: (fig.13) Smith Victors broad flood actually outperform the Lowel Tota, in wattage at 1000watts, and even has the added advantage of four leaf barn doors. It also has a bit more of a protected casing, which may actually build up more heat but I’m not sure of this, its only speculation. It will set you back about $160 though which is about thirty bucks more than the Tota.
720SG: (fig.14) This would be Smith Victors big boy open-faced spot. 1000watts along with a focusing knob, and the ability to attach four leaf barn doors. Its about the same price as the 750SG and would actually compliment it fairly well if you were to shoot something outside of skating.

Arri ( http://www.arri.com/entry/products.htm ) : Arri is industry, and when I say industry I mean these are the shit. I absolutely love Arri’s lights; I would sell my own child if I had one, for their lights. This is almost definitely out of the aspiring skate videographer’s budget, and in most case, outside of their needs. I thought you might just want to know about them, and if you really wanted to get serious, or you’re just incredibly spoiled, check them out.

Arrilight: (fig.15) These are Arri’s series of open-faced light heads. They range from 600watts to 2000watts. They are as sturdy well-balanced workhorses that can give you a better quality light from an open-faced spot than any one else. They also range from about $300 a piece up to about $400, and that is about as cheap as Arri gets.
Mini Flood/Mini Cyc: (fig.16) This is Arri’s broad flood, its 1000watts of pure Arri lusciousness. Its going to last you a hell of a lot longer than the others, and the price tells you that at about $300.
Arri Fresnels: (fig.17) These lights are the things of my dreams; I seriously fantasize about them everywhere I go. As you can see they have a concentric glass lens. These lights are so unimaginably nice that I can’t even explain it. They go any where from 150watts up to 5000watts, and will cost you about $250 for the 150watt, to $350 for a 650watt to $1000 for a 5000watt. You know what’s crazy about it though? These aren’t even the nicest lights available.

Now just for the record, these are by no means the only lights out there, they aren’t even the only well known lights out there, brands like Mole Richardson, Altman, Kino Flo, are all great brand and I have even played around with some. These are the lights that I am most familiar with though, and that I believed that most of you would be most interested in, or would at least give you the best understanding of the range in quality of lights and types of lights.

I hope you have all learned a bit about the basics of light and lights, and can now understand why things happen the way they do when you’re shooting. Also, I hope that if you are considering purchasing lights that you will now be a little bit more informed as to what you want to buy. Well, I’m your local light man Mr. Berns; if you have any questions or comments, please direct them to the lighting thread.