cheap lighting

[nomav6]

I need some cheap lighting that is portable, I'll be doing a lot of shooting at night in a parking lot, they will be action shots, anywhere from 5mph to 90mph, any suggestions?

 

[KevinR]

What is cheap? and by portable, do you mean battery powered?

 

[nomav6]

cheap is less then $100usd, and portable as in can run them in the middle of a parking lot, maybe off my truck or something, but yea battery powered would be awesome too.

 

[Azuth]

Lots and lots of flashlights taped together?
Seriously, how big is the thing you're photographing? How far away will it be from the lights? How bright does it need to be?

 

[nomav6]

it'll be motocycles, the area doesn't have to be huge, and I was thinking about just getttng a lot of flashlights or something like that

 

[Digital Matt]

To freeze motion like that at night, you'll really need strobes/flashes. They fire a bright burst of light, with a duration of less than 1/1000 / sec. It's just not going to be cheap. Alienbees makes a good, low priced kit, and they make battery packs that you can take with you to power them in the field. You are looking at over $1000 though. You could use a hotshoe flash, but it would be limiting in terms of power output, and still would be over $100.

Try high speed black and white film, and just use the available light, which I'm assuming in a parking lot would be something like street lights. ISO 3200 film "might" allow you to stop some motion.

 

[nomav6]

not really worried about freeze motion, I would love to have strobes but dont have the money, was thinking about something like this [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00076Q0JC/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added/104-3097736-8543116?ie=UTF8[/ame]

 

[JamesD]

Keep in mind: Those are power hungry. If you use two of them, that's 1000 watts. A kilowatt at 120 volts AC is going to be hard to supply to a parking lot; extension cords aren't a good idea for several reasons. If you've got a generator, that could work.

And no, you shouldn't use one of those 12-120 DC to AC converters they sell for running household stuff from a car's cigarette lighter. Two of those lights would draw 8.3 amps at 120 volts, which translates to 83 amps at 12 volts. Most household circuits are 20 Amps at most... and I believe that most car power outlets and cigarette lighters are, too. 83 amps is a LOT of current... trip breakers, blow fuses, or worse, start fires.

 

[c_mac]

well home depot sells these... i have kinda thought about trying to use them. we have a few where i work, and they seem to put out a decent amount of light. http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@0324592276.1157551042@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccciaddikigemmlcgelceffdfgidgki.0&MID=9876

 

[markc]

An important thing to know is that light falls off very quickly. Every time you double the distance, you get only a 1/4 of the light. At two feet, you get 1/4 of the light that you had at 1'. At 4', you get 1/4 again, or 1/16 of that at 1'. At 8', 1/64. At 16', 1/256. Whatever you are shooting will have to be close. And with the background all black, you'll have to be very careful in how you meter the subject. If you go with the standard matrix metering and the subject doesn't take up the frame, you'll probably blow out the subject.

 

[usayit]

Anyway to do the photoshoot at a football or baseball stadium equiped with lights for night time games? Might be worth the $$ or donation.