How To Light A Seminar

[joshsweets]

I am having trouble getting my classes lit correctly for video. I am trying to light about 20ft wide by about 7 ft deep. Right now I have 3 1,000 watt lights, and 2 750 watt lights hung from a 9.5 ft ceiling. The lights are halogen bulbs I believe the brand name on the light cannons is timber but I can't read the faint letters. I have diffuser paper in front of the 3 big lights. Right now my lighting is uneven with highlights and shadows and it is orangish. From what I've gathered from local " expert" I would benefit greatly from putting soft boxes instead of diffuser paper and rearranging the lights. I will include pictures to help understanding. Any suggestion or advice on how to fix what I have of how to scrap it and start new is greatly appreciated.

thank you for your help

 

[techieman33]

I would scrap them and start over. What you have are parcans. They just aren't very good at providing the nice even wash you want for video. You may be able to improve what you have with better focusing. You would be better served with fresnels, they would give you a much more even wash when properly focused. Altman 65q's are pretty cheap (under $150 each). Or if you have more budget you could get nicer fixtures with more "features." Honestly though a fresnel is a fresnel for the most part, especially when your going to focus them once and not mess with them again other than touch up focus after you change lamps.

 

[Footer]

What kind of camera are you using? Have you white balanced it? Are you dimming the lights or just plugging them straight in? Are all the lamps in the lights the same color temperature?

It is a bit long, but the second part of this is a good short version of how to light for a single camera shoot: Know How... 46 | TWiT.TV

 

[zmb]

Cameras don't have anything close to the dynamic range of the human eye. Whenever I do portfolio pictures on a digital SLR camera, I need to meter down at least a third stop to avoid overexposure.

I just don't think you're going to get enough coverage with such few lights over a big space. But for the meantime, are you using the long life lamps that have a lower (oranger) color temperature? I haven't had issues on multiple cameras getting the white balance correct on Auto.

 

[cbrandt]

You might be able to even the light out a bit (those 1k pars are pretty close to the presenters) if you move them far left and right, and cross shoot. You'd probably want another one though, so that you had two left, and two right. It might be a little less "in your face" for the presenter as well.

 

[kicknargel]

If you have to work with what you have, moving them out and cross-lighting is a good idea.

PAR lamps come in different spreads. The one in the picture is wide flood (WFL). This is what you want-make sure they all match. You can tell by counting the wide stripes across the lens (I think 12 for WFL and 8 for MFL.)

Also, PAR lamps throw an oblong beam. Grip the porcelain socket on the back and spin (it's not always easy) the lamp inside the fixture. I think you'll want it horizontal to spread the light across the stage as much as possible.

Then go to a theatrical supply and buy several types of diffusion/frost gel. (Make sure to include "silk" such as Rosco 104, which spreads more in one direction than the other). Also buy different strengths of "color temp blue" color correction gel, and experiment with those to get a better color on camera.

 

[malsell]

A lot of great advice here. I know we typically use Rosco 119 and/or Lee 203 for Color correction on par bars. As stated previously, cross shooting your pars, setting a horizontal spread to the lamp, and a good silk to pull the light more horizontally will help out a lot.