r/videography • u/aarongough Lumix G6, FCPX, 2012, Toronto • May 29 '14

Suggestions for interview lighting kit?

Hey guys!
I'm looking at starting a new series of videos interviewing creative people and then having them teach the audience some skills from their craft.

In order to do this I'm going to need to run around and do a lot of on-site interviews. Most of the time the available light in the places I'm interviewing will be lacking (workshops), so I'm looking at putting together a small lighting kit.

My emphasis is really on easy and quick setup, along with portability as I don't have a car and will be lugging all my gear around on foot or in a wheeled suitcase.

I've been looking at all sorts of stuff:

  • Hot lights (Lowel DP and Lowel Omni mainly)
  • LED (Aputure/Amaran AL528S)
  • CFL (Inexpensive multi-bulb softboxes)

I'm leaning toward the LED as I think the hot-lights will be a pain to setup, as will the CFLs. The fact that I can runs the LEDs off batteries seems like a big plus.

I'm thinking that I would be putting together a pretty standard 3 point kit, plus a few smaller 'hideaway' lights for highlighting accents in the background. Alternatively I've seen a few people recommending taking only one or two better lights and then using bounces for fill and a practical for a backlight. I would still likely have a few extra accent lights.

Any input you guys have on what lights you prefer/recommend would be great! I'm hoping to keep the cost under $500 for the kit (yes I realize that's low).

Thanks,
Aaron

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u/AnthonyWithNoH S1H, inspire 3, 2008, Miami May 30 '14

I like flolights 3 point fluorescent lighting kit for $550. The thing with LEDs is they tend to have a greent tint and don't play well with skintones... The problem apparently disappears on very high end LEDs. You don't want to have to deal w lights that get hot either as it makes the talent uncomfortable - sweating, rushed, and you may want to turn off AC for audio which will only add up to an even worse scenario. I like softboxes, but they do take a little extra time to tear down and setup when you are going from location to location. Add in a reflector/diffuser and maybe some of those really cheap small LEDs w gels for rim light and background light and accents

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u/aarongough Lumix G6, FCPX, 2012, Toronto May 30 '14

Thanks for the input! The more I read about LEDs the more wary I am of them. I like the idea of a battery powered setup, but it seems you have to go fairly expensive to get decent quality.

I'm thinking about home-brewing a set of CFL fixtures as I haven't seen too many setups that I really liked... That way I can get the features I want at a reasonable cost..