DIY Studio lighting...will this work

Notts_Dave

Notts_Dave

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Hi all, i want to have a go at studio portraiture but can't justify the outlay of a studio lighting kit at this stage. I have seen an article by a guy who used builders halogen work lamps. Will they give "acceptable" results. I have thought the 250w lamps would be too bright in the subjects eyes so i plan to use to some fire proof translucent vynal i have at work to defuse the light.

Has anyone tried this type of lighting if so what were the results like. My thoughts are : 2x 250w halogen @ £50 vs studio kit @ £250+, i can all ways use the work lamps for thier intended purpose if they give garbage results....
 
i was thinking of the same idea using builders lamps and i went and bought a 500watt from argos for £20 with the stand i just need to go to b&q now and get a smaller wattage bulb. in theory the idea should work and probably will as i did try the 500watt out of curiosity and it was a tad on the bright side lol
 
Being too bright was my thought as well. Thats why i was planning on using the white vynal as a defuser. It is OK up to 1000 deg C so will be ok to put directly in front of the bulb.
 
what sort of colour cast will be produced by the halogens?
 
IMO

Halogen lamps have a long thin bulb so rather than light being either point source or a small round area, they can give funny reflections in eyes. If all the lights are the same, then the issue of white balance is less, and can be adjusted easily during RAW conversion

They do whack out a lot of heat, so diffusers can melt, and be careful about touching the lamp and consider what may catch fire when packing up. The brightness will cause the models pupils to dilate more than flash.

However, builders lamps are dirt cheap (£ 5 - £ 10) and you can buy dimmer controls to adjust output.

You can make up rudimentary stands quite easily.

Some builders lamps come with stands.

Certainly worth playing around with.
 
My mate who designs road lighting systems has suggested i use the lamps facing away from the subject bouncing the light off the back wall of my garage/studio to give reflected and therefore defused light.

i'll give things a try and post results in due course.
 
A Friend and myself were looking into the exact same thing, it does seem like a real cost effective way of doing things and thats alright with me!

B&Q are doing the 250W halogen lamps + Stand for £24.99, although im very tempted to invest in another SB600 and use them on tripods..
 
kevtd said:
i went and bought a 500watt from argos for £20 with the stand i just need to go to b&q now and get a smaller wattage bulb. [...] i did try the 500watt out of curiosity and it was a tad on the bright side
Click to expand...

Excuse me?
500 watts is "on the bright side"?
Maybe so if you use a 1600 ISO setting.
But not nearly if you use a normal 100 ISO setting.

Have you guys who use hotlights
1) checked your fire insurance policy to see if you are covered in case of a 'mishap', and
2) got a fire extinguisher ready nearby?
 
I use a couple of 500w work lamps for the odd band shoot, they get hot and 1000w still isn't that much - it's ok for moody b+w shots of a band tho ;)
 
dizzledazzle said:
although im very tempted to invest in another SB600 and use them on tripods..
Click to expand...

would'ent that defeat the object i mean an SB600 is about £140 :shrug:
 
Tbh, imvho... these work-lamps arent really the answer for portraiture.

Last year, I got my dslr one day, and the next, I rigged up the work-lamps on stands for a shoot for my nails comp.

I worked in a small space, with not a bloomin clue what I was doing either with the camera or the lights.
My model's make-up began melting, and her face became shiney very quickly.
The heat build-up was pretty damn scarey, at one point I could smell my own hair starting to burn when I was shooting close to to the lamp.

Naturally my wb was totally off & having shot JPEG I had to do a lot of work in PP.
But more to the point I couldnt relax & enjoy the shoot as the heat had been so uncomfortable.
If someone had tripped on the wires and brought the lights down one of us could have ended up scarred for life.

So I bought myself a couple of lights deciding that if portraiture wasnt for me, Id just sell them on.
Theres some pretty cheap kits out there now and always some-one selling up if you look around.

If you do go ahead with the hwork-lamps... be interested to hear if you fare better than I did.
 
I'm hearing what you are saying about the heat output of the work lamps but you can get 100w or 250 watt lamps for the work lights. Also, and forgive my ignorance on the subject but a xxx wattage bulb will give the same heat output no matter what housing it is in.

You can also get different kelvin rated lamps from electrical factors.
 
Even with 2x500W bulbs you don't get that much light. By the time you've diffused them and got them a couple of foot away from the subject you're looking at ISO400, 1/100s at f/5.6 or thereabouts. If you drop the wattage you'll quickly be thinking about ISO800 which is far from ideal for portraits :(
 
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