Erik Anschicks
Forum Replies Created
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In fact, as the below pictures show, you get even LESS spill:
On the right is the Dedo DLED4.1 (daylight), on the left a 200w LTM Pepper Fresnel. Same distance mounted on a triple-header, even used the same barn doors! They are both in full flood configuration, and I made the doors into the same “martini glass” shape. The Dedo is a much more clean and controlled beam, not to mention about a full stop and a third (almost half!) brighter.
To be fair, Dedolights are the exception. Odds are you won’t get the same level of control on other LED fresnels, just as the tungsten Dedos gave better control than about any other tungsten fresnel. But that’s what I recommended, so that’s the test in this case!
Dedos have been long renowned for their control and what they call the “clean beam” concept where the light is even across the spread of the beam. They produce the cleanest and most even beam I know of in the Fresnel world (though technically they aren’t a traditional Fresnel lens but rather a dual aspherical lens system) and are quite comparable with a Source Four. It’s great to see their LEDs have the same performance as their predecessors!
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As far as I know, at this point in time the Mole LED’s do not have a battery option, though I can’t imagine they aren’t working on that.
If you’re looking for a good, controllable LED kit, earlier this year I made a substantial investment in some new lights and have been extremely pleased with the new Dedolight DLED’s. I have 3x DLED4.1s and 1 9.1. Since I’ve only had them for about 3 months, I can’t speak to the long-term but so far, they have been a perfect location kit. CRI I believe is in the low-mid 90’s and they match really well with HMI’s. To one of your points, as far as I can tell they are every bit as controllable and robust as their tungsten predecessors. Pricey, but not as much as the litepanel Sola/Inca series and I think these are better overall (if you don’t NEED DMX capability).
They take batteries, but it’s not a perfect solution as you also need what they call the mobile “BAT” power supply in addition to the AC supply, so there’s more “stuff” you need to pack. But then again, these aren’t really run and gun-type lights like panels, I use them in my workflow as I would a standard tungsten fresnel so it doesn’t really matter to me.
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Hi Todd –
I like a 3 foot one, but that means 36″ of actual camera travel, not the length of the unit itself. A 4′ slider as advertised might be “only” 36″ of travel, I’ve also seen some 5′ sliders that have 48-51″ of actual camera travel. That can be confusing for the uninitiated, and that’s one thing I’d recommend that your friend/colleague make clear in their product descriptions.
I’ve found that 36″ is usually more than enough for me. Like you, mine is usually for short moves (that’s all many quick-cut happy editors will allow!). I usually hand-operate and anything longer can be awkward. On the rare occasion that I use a motion-control, I’m usually using it to go so slowly that it’s only using a third or half the total length anyway. Expense is/was a factor too, and since you might only get a foot or 15″ more of total travel, I didn’t feel like that was enough to justify double or even triple the cost. If I wanted more, I’d go way more, to like a 6′ unit or something.
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Hi John-
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter, I remembered from other posts that you were a big fan of the Cineo fixtures.
I did in fact make the decision and went for the Area 48. So far, very happy with it! Your point about barely ever using either the LS or HS at full capacity without dimming is a good one, and the Area 48 and full blast will be much more light than I would need in many cases. But in most cases, I like to heavily diffuse keylights so I’d rather have as many lumens as possible to start with. With the Area 48 not being much more expensive than the LS and with much the same specs outside of brightness, I went for the higher-powered option.
The main drawback I’ve discovered to the Area 48 has nothing to do with the light itself or it’s performance, but many of the accessories for it are waaaaaay overpriced. $120.00 for a baby triple-header?? You can get one from Norms for $35, Matthews for $50. $40 for a HUGE TVMP adapter? $10-14 bucks for an Avenger or Matthews one. $450 for a light-specific softbox (grid is another $380)?? I’m all about get what you pay for, but some of the accessories are highway robbery. Glad I don’t have a need for a lot of them except the battery power!
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Ali-
To directly answer your reply, I meant mainly to use the China Balls in the background as to help fill in the emptiness since there’s no walls. I’d use them and other practicals rigged in various places in the shots themselves. BUT, I agree with the others here, you COULD certainly use them as keys around the table as well. A few well-placed china balls for 3 people around a small table can be plenty of light. I don’t know how you’re planning on covering this scene, but you might not need all 4 800w Jokers for this scenario. You can probably spare some for the background as well to fill in where the practicals don’t, as John suggested possibly for a moonlit effect.
Yet another option in the China ball vs. Joker keylighting question…is to do both! If you can get a Chimera or Jem type of “China ball” or “lantern” (not sure exactly how they word it) you can rig the Joker to it and turn it into the source for the china ball and get a beautiful softlight for the table that you can move around and reposition easily. Then fill where necessary. My only caveat here is that I have never done this with the 800w Joker instrument itself, so I am not certain that it will fit one of these types of lanterns, so double check!
Remember, there are no hard rules for this. No one scene HAS to be lit a certain way with certain items and a certain color temperature. It’s about deploying your resources the best you can with where you are and deciding what looks right. You may block the scene and decide that the Jokers are best served in the background. Even if that runs contrary to your initial plan, you’ll be best served to roll with it.
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Well, there’s always a light color temperature, you just need to meter it or white balance. If you don’t have a color meter, just put a white card close to the one of the sconces on the pillars and see what color temp your camera tells you. Candlelight and other warm light as you’d find in a place like your picture is generally somewhere in the 2000-2800K of color temp or even lower in some cases (real candlelight can be in the mid to upper 1000’s). It’s similar to dimming a tungsten unit way down and measure the orange glow.
Since it’s outside, I might suggest hanging some practicals in the background as you don’t really have walls to work with. Some bare bulbs that are strung together on cords that you can drape in different places would be good for something like this, and that’s what a lot of places with rooftop bars/dining areas do anyway. Since the bulbs would be bare, you can use quite low-wattage ones and get some nice warm “bokeh” with multiple out of focus spots of light. Maybe also hang a few colored china balls, rope lights, things of that sort. An environment like this lends itself to practical sources quite well, and you can always use your other lights to punch up shadows or background people where needed. Your tighter shots can look really good with the right dose of multiple options like these and for wide/establishing shots you could fill space with foreground details, like candles in the bottom third of the shot. That’s often a good way to not have to take a lot of time to light many elements of a wide shot in darkness.
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Yes, like Todd said you could certainly mix things up color-wise. Often a warmer background is quite a nice and pleasing look, especially in a darker restaurant where the lighting is often warmer to simulate that “candlelit” feel.
First you should determine what color temp the overall restaurant’s natural lighting is around (assuming you can’t turn them off). That will determine how warm to light the backgrounds yourself or simply add to and match what’s there. Be sure to have plenty of CTO and CTB denominations on hand in case the background is too warm for your taste at straight daylight balance. Perhaps try to gel the Jokers lighting the actors with a half CTO then white balance to that while using standard 3200K lighting in the background. I’ve done this with good success as it still keeps the background warmer than the talent but not too much so that it looks extreme or like a mistake. Unless it’s part of the overall style of the production, WILDLY varying color temps can appear low-budget, as in you didn’t have enough light or the proper lights to balance things a bit more. Again though, that’s a stylistic choice!
I’ve also had good success with China balls for lighting talent in this scenario, very soft and flattering light that matches well with practical locations and you can rig them anywhere. Just an option!
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Hi James-
I haven’t used Ikan lights a great deal, but I have a few times with other people’s kits and they’re certainly not in Arri’s league, LED or not. Color seemed inconsistent and build quality was not the same as a higher-end fixture.
That being said, I’m not a huge fan of Arri LEDs except the Locaster series thus far, relative to what you pay. The quality of the color and build is top-notch, but I find them all to be somewhat underpowered, especially comparing them to other similarly-priced high end manufacturers who are giving more bang for the buck, like LEDs from Zylight, Dedo and Mole. I like the Locasters best, but for really close lighting and much smaller scales, you’d have to rig multiples together to get a keylight source with a flexible enough amount of punch, IMO.
What type of Arri kit, meaning how many and what sizes, do you have that you’d like to update? That will give me a better idea of what to recommend, though I’d probably start with some kind of combo of the new Dedolight DLED series. Expensive, but beautiful, and also not as expensive as some of the other types in it’s class.
You could also try posting in the Lighting Design forum, though the kit subject has been discussed a lot there so I don’t know how willing to help others may be:)
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Hi Jim-
I agree completely about the brightness. I had a chance recently to demo them side by side before making my decision and the Area 48 was MUCH brighter, both to the eye/camera test and confirmed by the photometrics. I agree that both have great punch and couldn’t really go wrong as a general interview/actor/talent light in a lot of settings. But the Area 48 was startlingly bright. As someone who’s been dissatisfied with a lot of LED options, it was a very welcome feeling!
That’s not to say that the Cineo LS isn’t impressive, it certainly is and packs a lot of punch in a smaller fixture. Color-wise, they’re both about the same (in a good way) and are very similar instruments. For me, the output was the deciding factor in favor of the Area 48. If I could’ve justified the extra cost, I’d have simply gone with the Cineo HS fixture! But the Area 48 seems a great middle-ish ground between the two and therefore a good compromise.
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Hi Jake-
On a large budget, the most common way through my experience is gear called Lightning Strikes, though I’m not certain if that’s the actual company name. It produces a controllable burst of light from the lamp head that can go up to about 250K worth of blast! I’ve also seen it used to simulate blast from explosions. Not sure about other similar brands/products, that’s the only one I’ve ever seen in actual on-set use.
A lower-budget way is to get a few strong still-photo heads and synchronize them to varying degrees. We did this with about 5-8 Profoto heads on a country music video for Josh Turner a few years ago that needed to simulate the the look of fireworks.
