Lessons in Lighting - Lighting Buyer's Guide 2008 (page 2)

Anything you put between or even near the lamp and the subject modifies the quality of your light. This includes reflectors, grids, barn doors, umbrellas, scrims, cookies, gels, etc., and it can be work just figuring out which ones you really need. Many beginning videographers find that umbrellas, color correcting gels and diffusionmaterial are all they need to meet most of their lighting challenges. As you begin to develop an eye for what you don't want to light, you will need more ways to control the light spill.

Investing in a reliable lighting kit can be costly, but, unlike most other gear, it won't become obsolete any time soon. To get a sense of the overall cost and value to your type of videography, you need to add together three factors: the initial cost of the lighting fixture, the power draw and the lamp replacement cost. Don't forget about considering other usage factors, such as durability, weight, size, breakdown and cool-down times. If you have multiple interviews scheduled for the same day in different locations, all of these become critically important. And yes, those inexpensive halogen lights you can find at any hardware store will work as floods in a pinch. Just don't expect your clients to be impressed.

Contributing editor Brian Peterson is a video production consultant, trainer and lecturer.

• Lamp: The light source. It is also, incorrectly, called a "bulb."
  Watt = Amps x volts
  Amp = Watt/volts
• Gel: Heat-resistant material used for color effects and correction
• Diffuser: Any material put between the lamp and the subject to scatter light. Tuff Spun or heat-resistant nylon is commonly used.
• Eggcrate: A grid or honeycomb affixed to a large light source to provide directional control.
• Barn Doors: Adjustable metal shades that affix to the front of a light source, usually spots or focusable spot/floods.
• Fresnel: (pronounced Fre-NEL, the 's' is silent) A glass lens with concentric ridges that focuses light with greater precision and gradation without the distracting second shadow of open-faced designs.
• Color Temperature: Relative amount of "white" light's reddish or bluish qualities, measured in degrees Kelvin. Desirable readings for video are 3,200K indoors, 5,600K outdoors.
• Lux: A metric unit of illumination equal to the light of a candle falling on a surface of one square meter. One lux equals 0.0929 foot-candle.
• Umbrella: Lighting accessory usually made of textured gold or silver fabric. Facilitates soft, shadowless illumination by reflecting light onto a scene.

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