David Greene on Ghetto Fluorescent Strip Lights
David Greene does a great job of walking you through Home Depot's lighting aisle and shows you exactly what you need, how to mount them to stands, etc.
FWIW, I can see lots more possibilities for this beyond split 45's against the wall. I'd at least pull her (and the lights) out away from the wall to drop the tone of the background for more tonal separation.
Think what you could do with four of these babies, adding one on each back side as a rim/separation light. They could also look pretty sharp (in front) done high/low, strip-light-clamshell style.
This is a good way to get a "look" with people wearing glasses, too. There is so little horizontal width to the light source that you can just let the reflections hang out away from the eyes. (Example here.)
Just checking my local Home Depot, the fixtures (in red!) are only $21.97 each. Just remember to get the 5000k tubes. And I sure am glad that I am not the only one who hears rock guitars when I walk through Home Depot trying to score some cheap lights...
(Thanks for the tip, Manblu.)
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by David, at 1:12 AM.
27 Comments:
Heh, I've been shopping around for lights too at Home Depot for the past couple weeks. Looking for lights for makeup stations.
The nice thing about the red one compared to the regular work lights is that it has a reflector. I think the red one uses one tube (the more expensive black one uses two, about $35-ish).
It wouldn't be too hard to fashion a reflector out of cinefoil. Grids (egg crates) would be cool too. Kino Flo isn't too expensive but I'm sure there's a cheaper way of doing it.
wow. That's an awesome setup from home depot. HD week was awesome. I can't wait to try this out this weekend. Is there a way to see his EXIF data too?
Wal-mart (ugh) has these strip lights for like 8$
I'm not sure about their tube selection though....
On the topic of DIY lighting.
Just found these OSRAM CIRCOLUX EL "ringlights":
http://www.osram.com/osram_com/Professionals/General_Lighting/Compact-fluorescent_lamps/Product_overview/DULUX_EL/OSRAM_CIRCOLUX_EL/index.html
Not sure how expensive they are or if they're any good... Anyone used them???
Osku
Another way I have found to mount them to light stands is to use those clamps that people use to hang up brooms and mops. Just a couple of sheet metal screws to the back of the flo and you are good to go!
DH, here is a link to my Ep gallery and the top 3 pics were done with 2 metal halide units I got at an industrial salvage yard. One is a huge metal urinal looking thing that i had rewired for either a ballast or mongo based incandescent bulb. The other is an old interior box that already had a ballast and reflector set up. I just carry the bulbs in a lightware case and then plug em and warm-em up and they're good to go. Thanks for posting your home depot finds for they truly are innovative and creative. Cheers, SRE071106
http://editorialphoto.com/portfolio/portfolio_view.asp?id=2250
I get "sorry, this video is no longer available" Tuesday 8am EST
Amazing light and cheap too! Although, do the lamps get hot? Since the model is so close to them you really don't want to burn her if she touches them.
As a Strobist, I also hear rock guitars when I walk through Home Depot; but as a television producer, I have to add my 2 cents about using licensed music in an "original" video.
I know this sounds really prudish, but as creative artists, we are all hurt when people use our labours without permission. Imagine if a musician used a bunch of our strobist photos for a music video without asking. Personally, I'd be flattered, but that's just me.
As YouTube says.
"if you use an audio track of a sound recording owned by a record label without that record label's permission, your video is infringing the copyrights of others, and we will take it down as soon as we become aware of it."
Again, I'm not trying to a wet blanket, but let's support all creative artists here.
Hey, Long time reader, first time poster.
I used the inside of a silver insulation tube for my reflector, and stretched it over a pvc pipe frame. It is big, sturdy, and reflects with minimal shadow casting. I know I'm new to this, but I enjoy everything on here! Keep up the great work! I'll post pictures of the reflector and some examples of shots on my flickr. www.flickr.com/verdict1st
florescent light is very spectrum specific, look for lights that not only have the right color temperature but also have the highest CRI(color rendering index) these will most closely mimic the higher spectrum density of sunlight (but wont even come close compared to an incandescent or strobe light). Used as a fill typically skin will look rather waxy or dead, although used as a rim light it wouldn't matter so long as fill was a strobe.
Whow! I was wondering why I had 19 new contacts on Flickr this morning. :-) Anyway, the image linked is part of a series where I use my version of the Home Depot strip light setup. I do it way different though. I use a single bulb fixture and completely cover the fixture behind the bulb with Tuf-Flock so the bulb is the only thing you see in the reflection... NOT the fixture behind it. That stand setup looks scary too. :-) Thanks for stopping by folks. You can see more of this stuff on my blog too.
http://blog.ayola.com
I was in Home Depot this past weekend and in the work lights section they had a 360-degree flourescent setup from Husky (also red). Advantages include a built-in stand and collapsible for portability. The 360-degree light means you can fashion reflectors behind it for more flexibility. Disadvantage would be the color of the bulb (I presume it's not daylight), maximum height of 5'4", and price ($50, although you do get the stand).
I forgot to mention that the Husky's 84-watt bulb supposedly outputs the equivalent light of a 300-watt halogen.
Home depot has some great circular fluorescent bulbs that are meant to be drop in replacements for halogens. Just pull the ballast and bracket out, screw on a lightbulb->120VAC plug adaptor, and voila, cheap ringlight!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7989374@N05/1768136059/
darjan,
No, fluorescent lights do not get hot. They do not create significant (if any) infrared radiation. Therefore, no heat.
anonymous at 1:28 PM,
Same deal. The halogen bulb produces a lot of infrared radiation, so it requires more power (300 W in your case) to produce the same amount of visible light as the fluorescent bulb (84 W in your case).
Light bulb power is given in electrical power consumed, not light power out (which will, of course, be less...much less in some cases)
to create reflectors for the tubes use that silver foil tape found in the AC dept at home depot I think it was mentioned here a few weeks back
I bought the 6500K flourescent 4' lights and fixtures today and tried them out.
Every other frame, i had an extreme color shift....
any explanation?
I cannot post the shots...my girlfriend wasn't primped and forbade me to publish!
:>
But, when the color didn't shift....they look AWESOME!
Thanks!
I agree with the previous comment about the music. However... a simple credit would be cool too. I loved the song and would probably buy it if I knew who it was!
Are you kidding with the music comment? Seriously, if he was making money with this or selling a product or service, I would completely understand. But he's not. Just some good ole information with a sweet soundtrack. Thanks for the great tips and video
The last song is "Le Disco" by Shiny Toy Guns.
"Every other frame, i had an extreme color shift....
any explanation?"
Your shutter speed was probably too fast to capture the full spectrum cycle of the fluorescent bulb. Slow your shutter down to 60th or less should resolve the problem.
TimBoyles-
Simple: Cheap fluorescents with cheap ballasts flicker. That's why they aren't used cinematography. Our eyes don't notice, but, as you note, cameras see the difference.
In shooting stills, you're capturing the color shift.
A fluorescent tube used in cinema costs ten times as much. The instrument (the fixture) costs ten to twenty times what these bargain consumer models cost.
first of all, jericho has it right. the music track shouldn't be used w/o the artists' permission.
secondly, ISO 100 at f/3.5 might be useful info if we were talking strobes, but since those fluoros are continuous, it would help if you gave a shutter sp as well.
@ Timboyles
fluorescent lights have a cycle during which they shift in colour a little.
If you don't want this to happen you need to adjust your shutter speed to something like 1/60.
I suppose it depends on the light...
Jorren
This is awesome! I had to go out and buy a couple of these at my local Canadian Tire (hardware/auto store in Canada like Walmart). Cost me less than $60 for the bulbs and fixtures and did some tests and am very happy with the purchase! Posted a few shots on flickr. Thanks!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vidguy/
DH your example of the reflections that this lighting plan can leave in glasses made me think that i've seen that before. and i have, in senator larry craig's mugshot lol. not to start any political arguments but check it out.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/larrycraigmug1.html
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