Lighting a BIGGGGGGG space (How to)

[tirediron]

Thought this might be of interest to some... there have been a lot of posts about lighting BIG spaces, but I don't recall anyone actually showing their setup (Thanks to Derrel for the consult on this!). I was asked to shoot a Cadet parade in a local Armoury; the interior space was about 220'x80' with a ceiling about 40' high at the peak.
My lights were 5 Speedotron Brownline M11 heads running off of 1600w/s power packs so that each light was pumping out 800 w/s. The lights were clamped to balcony supports about 18' above the floor and aimed up to bounce (more or less) off the ceiling:

The lights were held in place with magic clamps, and the cord was passed twice through a turn-buckle as a safety measure in case the clamp let go; had the turn-buckle not been there I would have added para-cord safety lines.

This balcony area was open to the public, and while it wasn't expected to be used much, if at all, I didn't want to take any chances. Here you can see my cables ball-bungeed to the railing, the power cord is gaf-taped down, and the power supply has a safety cord (it's too tall to fit under the railing):

Ball bungees keeping the extension cord secure and out of the way:

As an added precaution, the handles on the magic clamps were also gaf-taped to prevent idle twiddling:

Here's a partial view of the space; you can see the hot spot from the light, but as I wasn't shooting on the balcony, I wasn't concerned; the idea was to get an even, flat light on the floor to produce the best overall photos:

The goal was to get sufficient light to allow me to shoot sync speed (1/250) at f5.6 <ISO 800. The general results looked something like this:

Not bad for a space lit with metal-halide arc lights and a few gable windows. Base exposure without flash was ISO 1600, 1/25, f2.8.

 

[Derrel]

Errrrrr ya' go!

 

[ac12]

Good job.

I like the ball bungees. I gotta get me some of them.

 

[tirediron]

Good job.

I like the ball bungees. I gotta get me some of them.

Thanks! It worked out well. Yeah, ball-bungees are realllllllly handy! People wonder why I tote this huge tool box full of grip gear... jobs like this are why.

 

[tirediron]

Errrrrr ya' go!

Thanks again!

 

[snowbear]

VERY nice.

 

[smoke665]

Thanks for sharing your setup. Always interesting to see how you make lemonade out of lemons.

 

[tirediron]

VERY nice.

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your setup. Always interesting to see how you make lemonade out of lemons.

Thanks! It wasn't actually all that difficult, but it relies on having more gear than the average bear....

 

[Christie Photo]

Ambitious! I hope you had some help setting up.

I've got a lot of the same gear, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done all that work. You get a HUGE atta boy! Very nice.

-Pete

 

[tirediron]

Ambitious! I hope you had some help setting up.

I've got a lot of the same gear, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done all that work. You get a HUGE atta boy! Very nice.

-Pete

Thanks Pete! Nope, just little old me, but that's my preference. I work best alone, and that way if something is f'd up, I can only blame me. The cadets is a fantastic organization, and I figure it won't kill me to give them a hand.