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Arri 800W redhead questions
Hi guys,
I’m new to lighting and have just purchased an 800W ARRI redhead kit for documentary film making (various applications). Any questions you can help with would be really appreciated. My questions are:
1) Is there a good place to find out about good quality lighting on the internet?
2) Is it worth buying a soft box for the front of one of the ARRI lights or will diffuser work fine?
3) Can you recommend any cheap bounce boards or should I just use polystyrene to start with?
If needed, I can throw a little bit of money at this but not much (certainly not more than $500). Any thoughts you might have on the above set-up would be very welcome.
Thank you very much for any help you can give.
Dan
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3 Replies
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1) not sure what you mean about “good quality lighting” — do you mean equipment? or how do do it?
2)a soft box converts your relatively small, hard light, into a larger, softer one. You can also fly diffusion out in front of the light for a similar or even softer look. The big advantage of the softbox / chimera is that when you move the light, you move the diffusion at the same time. The big advantage of flying the diffusion separately is that you can usually achieve a much softer look. I end up, frequently, using both a chimera and also flying a piece of 1/2 grid diffusion (if there’s enough stop) out in front. Even a piece of 4 x 4 opal will make the chimera much softer, provided the light fills the opal survace and the opal is close to the subject. What makes a light soft is how it wraps around the subject. So a large sheet of diffusion placed close to the subject has much more soft wrap than the same size diffusion placed 10′ away. In other words, a “soft light” can be a hard light if it is placed far from the subject. Conversely, if you were to place a studio 10K 2 feet away from the face of your subject, you would have in effect a soft wrap — of course, the subject would die of the heat very quickly….
3) Foamcore, which you can buy at art supply houses as well as at film supply stores, makes for cheap bounce. You may also be able to find larger sheets of styrofoam for an even softer bounce. Some grips glue a sheet of fragile styrofoam on a piece of foamcore (usually 4 x 4 each) so that the same piece can be used harder or softer as needed by just flipping the bounce side, plus the foamcore proves more strength to the fragile styrofoam.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Please en-lighten me as to the type of equipment you bought.
I know of no ARRI “redhead”…nor do I believe they make an 800watt fixture.DS
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There definitely is an Arri 800W redhead – I own one too! In face you can hire it out very cheaply at https://www.aeonhire.com!!
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