jstuedle
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,889
- Reaction score
- 15
- Location
- S.E. Indiana
- Website
- www.picture-daddy.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I don't know if any of you subscribe to or have heard of Photo-Vision or Ed Pierce. But they/he offers a 6 DVD disk/year series of pro ideas, interviews, and examples mostly geared to the pro portrait and wedding photographer and his/her business. One of his Ed's ideas is a wall of light. It looks and works like a portable picture window.
It's fairly simple to build and although he puts the cost at 2K, he uses a lot of purchased materials from one of his sponsors, Westcott. I am convinced it can be built for $5-600 dollars. The trick is using 5500 K balanced compact florescent bulbs. It consists of a frame made of black iron pipe with wheels mounted to pipe flanges. On the frame is mounted 5 strip light channels equally spaced. To each channel is attached 5 standard Edison base sockets. All 25 sockets have 5500K C.F. bulbs installed. A reflector is attached on the bulb side. Ed used a 8' X 8' Westcot reflector. I thought a sheet of foam board insulation with one side a reflective aluminum foil would work. The other side Ed used a similar sized Westcott scrim Jim. I'm up for experimenting but a cheaper solution must be available. Bed sheet maybe? The top, bottom and sides were covered with more westcott reflective material. The foam board cut to size and duct taped to the front and back would work cheaply. The light output is even, and bright. It matches strobe color temp. And is light and portable. All the tracks can be slid to one side to make a strip of very bright light, or all the bulb sockets can be moved up or down to make a horz. strip light. It is a very neat and simple "portable picture window". The C.F. bulbs are cool, much more so than incandescent bulb. Westcott sells a set of 5 for there spider lights for about $100. I found them for about $5.00 each online.
I plan to build one this winter if the studio is online by then. If any of you have any ideas or want to build one let me know. Maybe we can improve on the design, or find ways to build it more cheaply.
It's fairly simple to build and although he puts the cost at 2K, he uses a lot of purchased materials from one of his sponsors, Westcott. I am convinced it can be built for $5-600 dollars. The trick is using 5500 K balanced compact florescent bulbs. It consists of a frame made of black iron pipe with wheels mounted to pipe flanges. On the frame is mounted 5 strip light channels equally spaced. To each channel is attached 5 standard Edison base sockets. All 25 sockets have 5500K C.F. bulbs installed. A reflector is attached on the bulb side. Ed used a 8' X 8' Westcot reflector. I thought a sheet of foam board insulation with one side a reflective aluminum foil would work. The other side Ed used a similar sized Westcott scrim Jim. I'm up for experimenting but a cheaper solution must be available. Bed sheet maybe? The top, bottom and sides were covered with more westcott reflective material. The foam board cut to size and duct taped to the front and back would work cheaply. The light output is even, and bright. It matches strobe color temp. And is light and portable. All the tracks can be slid to one side to make a strip of very bright light, or all the bulb sockets can be moved up or down to make a horz. strip light. It is a very neat and simple "portable picture window". The C.F. bulbs are cool, much more so than incandescent bulb. Westcott sells a set of 5 for there spider lights for about $100. I found them for about $5.00 each online.
I plan to build one this winter if the studio is online by then. If any of you have any ideas or want to build one let me know. Maybe we can improve on the design, or find ways to build it more cheaply.
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/40/40288-4d5d7a8aa74ddfceb5fb82062d9b21be.jpg?1619739409)
