[Roger Hobbs]

Hi everyone,

I’m in a similar situation, and I’m really curious about what kind of shop lights I should get to pull this off. I’m getting an Arri kit with 1×1000, 2×650, 1×300 (I’ll use lights from this kit to light the subject). Down the road, I plan to get a Kino kit for the chroma wall, but that’s not possible right now with the budget. So then I read this thread and the shop lights idea piqued my interest. I have zero experience with these consumer flos, so I have no idea how many to purchase or exactly what kind of 4′ shop lights I should buy. Here is a link to a comparison of some I found on Home Depot’s website, but if there are other lights that would work better for something like this on the cheap, please let me know:

https://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/THDProductCompare?errorURL=ProductAttributeErrorView&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&prodComp_0=202052422&prodComp_1=202192989&prodComp_2=100427185&keyword=shoplight

The chroma wall is 13’3″ across, 9′ ceiling to floor. I was thinking of putting the chroma lights on either side since there’s not an ideal height ceiling to floor. The room has about 27’7″ length from the chroma wall to the rear wall, so I’ll be able to get the subject a decent distance from the wall and away from the flo lights. There will usually be only one person who will be the subject for these shoots. There’s not a lot of room on the sides, so I’m painting the side walls black to avoid lighting headaches (I know that alone is something people like to debate and a topic for another thread).

So my question for the people in here who have more experience than me with this sort of setup is: how many shop lights should I purchase? Or perhaps, how many lights should I start with — I’m okay with buying more if the first set is not enough. I was thinking 2 (one for either side and adjust for even lighting), but please let me know if you have a better suggestion.

Also, specifically what kind of shop lights do you recommend, and what kind of bulbs? I see various kinds of fixtures, so I don’t know what kind works best in this situation.

Again, this is a temporary cheap solution until I can get the pro lights for the chroma wall. Also note — I will be using these lights for the wall only, not for the subject.

Many thanks in advance for your help!