CharleyL
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.1 #3 · Continuous Lights for Video | |
For video in my studio I have 8 GVM LS480 LED panels (soon to be 10) arranged in kind-of a wide leg U on my studio ceiling that produces a nearly shadow free lighted area intended mostly for doing short infomercials, but sometimes also used for pets and infants, since using flash tends to startle them. These LED panels, positioned this way produce a near shadow free soft light over the area much like a TV Newsroom. These Infomercial video shoots take place around and on an 8' long banquet table with 1-2 people sitting or moving around the table. The products being displayed are usually at each end of the table, but sometimes only at one end. All with only an 8' studio ceiling to work under. These LED panels are not very bright, so for the kind of videos that I am doing, 8 panels are barely enough and I'm considering adding two more (one to each end of the "U"). Again, I'm trying to achieve near shadow free light over a long banquet table area. I do have 2 LED constant 60 watt studio lights with Bowens mounts for soft boxes, but I don't use them for the infomercials.
I installed a lighting support grid made from 1 X 1 X 1/4" steel angle attached to the ceiling, but spaced down 4" below the ceiling. These LED panels are then attached to these steel angles, positioned so as to be nearly up against the ceiling. There are five of these 10' long steel angles running parallel with my backdrops and spaced about 5' apart all the way past my usual camera location. I can bridge shorter 5' long pieces of this same angle between any two of the ceiling angles to allow lights, microphones, props, etc. to be hung anywhere within about a 10 X 23' space. The first 10' steel angle is spaced just a few inches from the backdrop system and usually used to clip temporary backdrops when needed. My studio shooting room is relatively small at 19 X 26' and I need to shoot still life and portrait work using studio strobes below these LED panels and not have to remove and replace the LED panels when needing to do this still shooting below.
Power for the panels and other studio lights comes from Wiremold electric outlet strips running along both sides of this steel support grid on the ceiling, with one outlet every 6" along each side of the shooting space, so there is power available within about 5' of anywhere that I might want to put a light, on the steel grid or below. If I use light stands for the LED panels they would need to be about 3' apart. The lights on my light stands (if I use them) are usually powered from the above ceiling outlet strips, so no power cords on the floor and a very minimum of light stands are ever on the studio floor. This significantly improves the safety level of the studio. Can you imagine 8-10 light stands and cabling on the floor to power these LED panels? They would need to be about 3' apart with power cables running everywhere. Positioning and moving the camera around during the shoot would be very difficult too.
I have wireless control modules for each light, so I can control power to each type and group of lights being used, eliminating the need for a step ladder to reach the lights to power them on and off. This wireless control system lets me separately control up to 5 different kinds(groups) of lights from a wireless transmitter at the camera location. The LED panels are constant light, but studio strobes are flashed wirelessly via the flash control transmitter on the still camera. Powering each kind/group of lights is done by these modules from the wireless transmitters at the camera location.
My cameras are usually on camera stands. I have two 6' tall camera stands with a wireless light transmitter for each. The camera stands have a much smaller footprint than tripods and are more stable than tripods, so I mostly use them now also to reduce the trip hazards of tripod legs.
Usually left on the ceiling grid in addition to the LED panels are 6 Ultra Violet LED panels that I use for Halloween shoots with special make-up and paint that glows brightly in the UV light.
I also have two focusing 500 watt Halogen spot lights hanging from the ceiling grid, each controlled separately from the wireless transmitter at each camera. I use these mostly to simulate spot lighting of what appears to be a theater stage. One of my 10' wide backdrops is pleated to simulate a theater stage curtain. I have 6 backdrops on rollers that are motorized, also with remote wireless control from the camera stands.
The center ceiling light (work light) of my studio is also wirelessly controlled from each camera stand, so when shooting, if the work light is interfering with the photo or video lighting, I can turn it on and off wirelessly from the camera stands. There is never a need to move around in the dark to reach and operate the wall switch for this work light, again making the studio safer to work in.
So, maybe much more than you wanted to know, but LED panels produce nice relatively soft light, but aren't near bright enough for shooting infomercials around a banquet table unless many LED panels are used. I couldn't begin to light this same area with just the two constant LED 60 watt studio lights and soft boxes the way that I want to. You didn't say what you plan to shoot, so I just told you about how I do it in my studio. The inverse square law of light applies to video shooting too, so if just lighting someone up close (4-6') from the camera and predominantly lighting just their faces kind-of interview man-on-the-street type shooting, a couple of the smaller LED lights attached one on each side of your camera will be quite adequate. You can get away with less light doing either type of shoot, if you can accept higher ISO and some noise in your videos. For quality work, good lighting is absolutely necessary.
Charley
|
