Shoot Expertise: Bright Prospects for New Lighting

The new daylight Litepanels Micro weighs scarcely more than the four AA batteries it contains. Here it is on location recently in Paris. Photo by D. W. Leitner

New illumination technologies and lighting gear, as exciting as
their potential may seem, always face prolonged vetting by a
skeptical industry before achieving wide use.

But this is where the fun comes in. These days, venturesome
independent producers, directors, DPs, and gaffers — early
adopters who could not care less whether an innovation is available
in rental houses or taught at film schools — are free to mix
and match any available lighting technology, style, or technique.
One person's unacceptable color-rendering index or correlated color
temperature is another person's low-budget holiday. For many, Home
Depot is a DIY paradise, a paydirt of silvered Reflectrix
insulation for bounce; fiberglass screens for scrimming; and all
manner of offbeat, screw-in compact-fluorescent and LED fixtures.
Even the low-rent China ball now receives big-budget
respectability. (See Jem Studio Lighting and lanternlock.com for
useful China ball accessories.)

So what's likely to appear in tomorrow's lighting inventory?

It goes without saying that quartz tungsten halogen,
fluorescent, and HMI are mature technologies. They've engendered
lights large and miniscule, lensed and open-faced, featherweight
for location use and sturdy for studios. (Originally an Osram
trademark, HMI stands for hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide. HMIs are
also called metal-halide and sometimes HID for high-intensity
discharge lamp. They're a close cousin to HID lights used by
stadiums and highway construction crews at night.)

While maturation brings dependability and familiarity,
breakthroughs can still occur. When the idea of bag lights was
borrowed from still photographers in the '80s — Chimera did
this best, like Kino Flo with fluorescents (see sidebar), although
there were others — existing Fresnels, PARs, and open-face
lights were adapted to illuminate the large new lightbanks.
Nevermind that a more compact or efficient solution might be
fashioned.

Several years ago, veteran cameraman Ed Barger introduced the
Barger Lite for Chimera lightbanks. It looks like six Lowel Tota
lights pressed into a large, flat octagonal pancake, because that's
essentially what it is. Each built-in reflector contains a
reed-like, double-ended 650W quartz-halogen bulb (a new type that
matches the output of a former 1K bulb) like that used in a Tota.
The genius of this arrangement is that a row of toggle switches at
the back of the Barger Lite turns on and off any combination of the
six lamps inside. You get six brightness levels and no change in
color temperature from a light that hardly protrudes from the rear
of the Chimera. Now why didn't anyone else think of that?

Multilamp arrangements are nothing new actually — think of
classic PAR nine-lights — and they often characterize
soft-light designs. It's the fresh thinking that counts. What about
single-point sources? Anything innovative?

Before 1989, HMI globes were double-ended,similar to fluorescent
tubes. But then a new type of single-ended bulb was introduced: the
MSR (Medium Source Rare-Earth), with a two-prong base that's
similar to quartz halogen. Unlike the original double-ended HMIs,
HMI MSRs can be tilted at any angle. This led to a variety of new
possibilities, from Arri's flashlight-sized 125W Pocket PAR to its
monster open-face Arrimax 18K/12K.

The original daylight Litepanels Mini on location in early 2005. It won an Emmy Engineering Award later that year. Photo by D. W. Leitner

The company K5600 Lighting has made a name for itself with a series of innovative “bug lights” based on small 200W, 400W, and 800W single-ended HMI lamps. The original K5600 Buglite was not much more than a naked HMI MSR bulb in a small, versatile base that could be stuck in any nook or cranny. The popular Joker-Bug series adds a slip-on parabolic reflector that converts the Buglite into a directional open-face light. K5600 compares the output of a 200W Joker-Bug to a 750W/1000W tungsten-halogen light because HMIs are three to four times as energy-efficient as tungsten. In other words, 200W of HMI “daylight” approximates 800W of tungsten punched through a full daylight gel. (Using four 575W HMI MSRs, cameraman Jerry Cotts has introduced an HMI version of the Barger bag light called Satellite-X.)

Recently a new single-ended HID bulb has appeared that is similar in appearance to an HMI MSR but available in both daylight and tungsten equivalents. Formally called ceramic discharge metal halide, the industry has nicknamed them “ceramic.” Arri's new Studio Ceramic 250W is a classic Fresnel with a 3200K output that Arri says matches the output of a 1K tungsten Fresnel. Arri has also introduced a 250W ceramic version of the Arri X light, an open-face broad light with a super-wide, 112-degree spread that has to be used to be believed. (De Sisti invented this breakthrough reflector design, introduced in the late '90s in its Goya series.)

What I call the “China factor” has lately entered the equation too, resulting in an inexpensive knock-off of a small Arri Fresnel in the form of Cool Lights' 150W ceramic CL-MF0150, as well as several low-cost HMIs from Alzo Video based on a $40 150W HMI HID lamp that screws into a standard light socket. (Used naked, it still requires a $140 ballast.) Considering that sophisticated high-tech bonbons such as Apple iPhones are made in China, I wouldn't dismiss these low-cost imports out of hand.

So far, the other exotic lighting technologies on the horizon have had little practical impact on film/video lighting, including microwave-driven HIDs and electroluminescent displays (ELD). Various flatpanel technologies have flopped too. At NAB 2004, Arri introduced Sky Panel,a 19"×16" flat fluorescent light using the Osram 8.5mm-thin Planon panel that backlights large LCD screens. It was deliciously soft, came in 5600K or 3200K, and was dimmable by 50 percent with a lamp life of 100,000 hours. I called it “innovative and outstanding” in my review from NAB 2004, but try to find one today.

Rosco experienced better luck with LitePad, its flatpanel LED luminaire (fancy French word for motion-picture light) that was introduced a couple of years ago. LitePads are light as a feather, resemble white plastic panels, and glow a bright 6000K. There is a new dimmable high-output (HO) version that's 33 percent brighter than the original, in eight sizes from 3"×6" to a 12in. circle. Like the LED backlighting in recent laptops, LitePad is an LED array light-piped from the edges of the panel to form even illumination across its area. (Similarly, K5600 plugs a Joker-Bug into fiber-optic light-piping to create its Softube, which could be mistaken at first glance as a fluorescent tube.) LitePads give new meaning to soft, diffuse light and will not be confused with high-key lighting. At the moment, however, nothing else comes close when it comes to ultra-thin and bright.

Element Labs Kelvin Tile, shown here at NAB 2008, now available from Kino Flo. Photo by D. W. Leitner

Which leads us — last but not least — to the larger world of LEDs, those solid-state miracles that inhabit every consumer-electronic device in existence. Anyone who owns an LED flashlight — of which there are endless designs — will never again reach for that trusty tungsten Maglite. LEDs throw bright, clean daylight and last forever. No ballast or buzzing electronics. What's not to like?

Well, LEDs are the pointiest point source there is. But a single LED can never be as bright as a tungsten filament or HMI globe. So they have to be massed, which is why all the LED lights mentioned below have clusters of LEDs. Secondly, to collect light and project it forward, each LED needs a lens. Ever noticed how those LED “Walk/Don't Walk” signs and traffic lights project their colors a block away at night? That's a convex lens at the rounded tip of each individual LED, and it radiates a cone of focused light. When you look directly at those signs, you're looking directly into a projected light source.

Another issue with LEDs is that they're intrinsically narrow-band, or single-color. Therefore, to create a white LED, whether 3200K or 5600K, a mix of phosphors similar to those in fluorescents is necessary. How does this work? Monochromatic light from an underlying LED — deep blue in color, for instance — strikes a mix of phosphors in the LED and excites them to glow white. Inefficiency built into this process, however, manifests itself as heat, which is why the bright-white LEDs used in film and video lighting get hot and need heat sinks. Like the phosphors used in fluorescents, the spectrum of white LEDs is discontinuous, with a bump in green. Also like fluorescents, phosphor consistency — color consistency — remains a serious quality issue.

What Kino Flo is to fluorescents and Chimera is to lightbanks, Litepanels is to LED luminaires. The company's first products were a 72-segmented ring light (demanded by Nicole Kidman) and the classic Mini, a chalkboard eraser with a grid of tiny white LEDs. Then came the 1×1, a 1ft.-square LED panel — 16 of which can be tiled to form a massive 4'×4' wall of light only 2in. deep. All of the above are powerable by battery, fully dimmable, and come in 3200K and 5600K or flood and spot versions (the latter determined by the LEDs' built-in lenses).

Earlier this year, Litepanels debuted the Micro, a breakthrough 5600K LED light hardly larger than a cigarette pack and weighing scarcely more than the four AA batteries inside. Made of light plastic, at first it feels cheaply made. Then you realize what brilliant a choice this is: atop a handheld camcorder it adds virtually no weight or imbalance. With its built-in dimmer, it's the perfect Obie (eye) light. A set of alkaline batteries runs 1.5 hours; a set of Energizer e2 lithiums run an astonishing 7 hours to 8 hours, ultra-thin and bright.

By Litepanel's own photometrics, the little Micro puts out 90 percent as many foot candles as the flood version of the Mini. I carry at least three Micros wherever I shoot, along with a handful of improvised Micro light stands: cheap miniature tripods made for point-and-shoot digital cameras. I use Micros as tiny kickers and accents and whatever else strikes my fancy. I wish I had a photo of the time I rubber-banded a Micro to the back of a driver's headrest to illuminate the back seat of a car cruising Manhattan at night. This worked only because Micros stay cool; otherwise the rubber bands would have burst apart mid-take. Not a good way to befriend actors.

I happen to like the characteristic Litepanels blend of directionality — rows of small-lensed LEDs — and soft, shadowlesslight resulting from their collective overlap.(In August, Litepanels was acquired by the Vitec Group, which includes Vinten, Sachtler, OConnor, Anton Bauer, and Petrol.) But equally fascinating are approaches to professional LED lighting that exist elsewhere. Gekko Technology's kicklite and kuelite are diminutive, well-designed rectangular lights with one or more arrays of largish white LEDs in 3200K or 5600K — great as ultra-compact kick lights. The company also produces a nifty series of ring lights, as does CineLED (formerly Acolite). LEDz puts its white LEDs in little parabolic reflectors, then gangs these mini PARs into petite six-, nine-, and 16-light brutes.

In a high-tech class by themselves are Zylight, Element Labs, and Nila. Zylight makes two small LED lights, the Z50 and Z90 — the first a 2in.-square onboard light, the second an inch wider. But the output is astonishingly bright and fully dimmable. And because it uses clusters of red, green, and blue LEDs instead of white LEDs, you can dial in a white-light mode (3200K, 5600K), a gel mode (2500K to 9000K in 50K increments, also plus-green and minus-green), and a pure color mode for any deep color imaginable. What's more, Zylights are radio-enabled so that one Zylight can control any other Zylight wirelessly.

Element Labs Kelvin Tile, which resembles a Litepanels 1×1, takes technology a step further, using tiny clusters of red, green, blue, amber, cyan, and white LEDs to enable any color or color temperature. (Kino Flo will OEM the Kelvin Tile system.) Then there's Nila, pushing LEDs towards the high-lumen output of HMIs. Nila's system is based on interlocking block modules, each containing 24 super-bright white (3200K or 5600K) LEDs in parabolic reflectors. Each module, similar in shape to a brick battery but somewhat larger, draws 65W and outputs the equivalent of 350W tungsten. By locking several together, real punch can be achieved.

For the truly venturesome, further LED technology can be sourced from companies in the fast-growing field of green architectural lighting, including Element Labs, Color Kinetics/Philips, Luxeon, Enlux, and Sundance Solar. (There's a reason the Museum of Modern Art's recent exhibit, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” showcased white LED lighting built into the floor and ceiling of Kieran Timberlake Associates' breakthrough Cellophane House.)

No doubt about it, tomorrow's lighting and grip will weigh less and shine more (per watt). Investing in a new gel company at this point is probably not a bright idea, so to speak.

Ever since the late 1980s, when Kino Flo broke through the quartz ceiling to find a home on motion-picture lighting trucks — all production then was on film, HDCAM was 10 years in the future — other novel lighting technologies have dreamed of doing the same.

Kino Flo wasn't the only company at that time to see the potential of lightweight, energy-efficient fluorescent lighting tailored to the needs of motion-picture production, which demanded high-speed electronic ballasts to prevent flicker and custom phosphors to match full-spectrum tungsten and daylight sources. There were others such as Softube, Videssence, and later LTM — some long defunct, some prospering still. But Kino Flo did it best, with an ideal combination of design, technology and timing — which is what it takes to crack motion-picture production, notoriously traditional and slow to embrace new methodology. Today, there's hardly a lighting manufacturer that doesn't flaunt a family of fluorescent systems.

At about the same time, miniaturization also fed the trend towards plug-in-the-wall, location-friendly lighting. Film was growing more sensitive, lenses faster, and independent location production was exploding. This was territory pioneered decades before by cameraman Ross Lowell, whose classic Lowel Light Totas and Omnis are still made today. Lowell's compact lights were essentially safe housings for white-hot quartz-halogen bulbs, involving no focusing optics. Dedo Weigert, a Munich DP, had a more elaborate idea: Why not add a focusing lens in front of a tiny quartz-halogen bulb? The light would be so small that a weight-saving Fresnel lens (essentially a collapsed lens) would be unnecessary. A simple plano-convex lens, with none of the aberrational or light-scattering flaws of Fresnels, would provide unprecedented output and a true even field, even at low voltage. (This is why you see these same small-diameter lenses today on automobile xenon headlamps.)

I remember using Dedolights in the early ‘90s around a union feature-film crew in New York, who looked upon my dinky lighting kit with undisguised condescension. To them, size mattered. But time has a way of leveling the playing field. Today, Dedolights are prized by the world's top DPs as not only an essential tool but a refined one, like a jeweled Swiss watch.

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