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Click to EnlargeLighting Equipment Technology
Since the introduction of the tungsten-halogen bulb in the early 60s, lighting technology has changed little except in the fixture styles that use the quartz lamp.
Lighting has finally jumped on the bandwagon of change. For many years the HMI enclosed metal arc lamp introduced in the late 60s and the xenon gas-discharge arc introduced in the 80s were the only real changes in light-emitting technology. However, this year's industry technology convention features a myriad of new lighting equipment technologies. Companies offer not only the standard quartz-powered lighting units, but also the newest technology in fluorescent lighting and LED lighting. LED lighting? Yes, those little light-emitting diodes have grown up. Today, LED lighting is one of the preferred sorts of lighting equipment. In this column, we will take a look at some of the new technologies in the lighting arena, talk about their benefits and provide a few cautionary comments as well.
Lighting Equipment Basics
The quartz-halogen light has been popular through the years because it is consistent in its color temperature rendition and it is a lot of light in a very small package. The one disadvantage of this technology is that it burns very hot, and the life of the lamp is fairly short.
Enter the fluorescent fixture. Most of us think of fluorescents as the lights that drive us crazy when shooting in offices. In the late 80s, companies like Kino-Flo and Videssence introduced fluorescent lighting that was color-corrected for video and film. Unlike their quartz-halogen brothers, these lighting fixtures gave off little to no heat, and the lamp life was extremely long. An added advantage was very little power consumption. While the industry was slow to catch on, fluorescent fixture lighting is now used everywhere in the broadcast and video world.
A new technology that has really swept through the industry lately adds the advantage of working with both AC and DC power. In other words - no electric cords! This technology is LED lighting. Companies like Litepanels offer LED lighting fixtures that not only give you the ability to run on battery but also provide a bright, soft light when you are on location. LED lighting has really come into its own!
Fluorescent Fixtures
Bright, soft panels with fluorescent tubes are lighting television studios throughout the country. This piece of lighting equipment require very little maintenance, because they measure lamp life in thousands of hours, not hundreds like their quartz-halogen brothers. These units consume minimal power.
Lighting equipment panels with fluorescent tubes use both daylight 5200K or 5600k lamps and indoor or 3200K lamps. These fixtures give off very little heat, which is a distinct safety advantage (see sidebar).
These lamps provide soft, flicker-free light. The talent will rave about how this light takes years off the face.
This is all well and good, but what if you wanted a harder light? What if you wanted to show the wrinkles on someone's face or the texture of an object? In the past few years, companies have developed lighting fixtures that use the spiral fluorescent bulb as their light source. These fixtures have the advantages of the standard fluorescent flat panels with the added advantage of being single-lamp sources, when the scene or shot demands a hard light.
The fluorescent fixtures have the added advantage of letting you easily change the color temperature of the fixture. If you find yourself shooting an interview in an office with a great deal of outdoor light that you want to use, change the lamps in your fluorescent fixture to daylight color-temperature lamps. No longer do you need to worry about adding lighting gels to the lights. Just change the lamps.
Lighting gel does cause a problem for fluorescent fixtures. Do not attempt to use lighting gel on a fluorescent light. If the lamps do not have enough airflow, they will heat up, and the color temperature of the lamp will begin to move towards the ugly blue-green spectrum you usually associate with fluorescents. This can be problematic if you are trying to add color to your set. To do this, mount a lighting gel in a frame that sits in front of the fixture but does not restrict airflow to the lamps. This is the proper solution for using a lighting gel. A little more work perhaps, but the end result makes the hassle with lighting gel worth it.
Fluorescent lighting comes in a variety of shapes and styles. Whatever your lighting needs, think beyond the ugly green fluorescent tubes of the past, and consider adding this low-heat, low-power-consumption soft light technology to your lighting equipment list.
