Modifying Construction Lights - will it burn?

Michael,

Don't even think about it - house fires aren't my idea of fun!

Instead, either use a shoot-through umbrella, which you can tape to the stand, or support your bedsheet at a safe distance in front of the light.

Hi all,

<br><br>

I'm using a few of these 500W construction lights for my "just for fun" studio

lighting:<br>

<img

src="http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/189063/2/istockphoto_189

063_construction_lamp.jpg">

<br><br>

I would like to diffuse the light by taping a bedsheet directly in front of the

lamp. Will it get too hot, i.e., will the bedsheet burn or is it ok?

<br><br>

Please no speculation - I'd like to hear your experience.

<br><br>

Many thanks,

Michael

Michael: really bad idea! Those lights get extremely hot, and could easily catch the sheets on fire. Even if they don't, it will definitely discolor them. Also, the tape adhesive on the hot housing may cause some trouble.

It may be more work, but use some cheap PVC tubing and joints to make a square frame over which you can stretch that sheet, and use it at a distance from the light. This is important NOT just because of the fire hazard, but because it will also help you with what you're actually trying to achieve - a more diffuse source of light. When you put your sheet/scrim a bit farther away from the light, you'll get a larger source of light on your subject. With a diffusing material directly on the light itself, no larger than the light's opening, you have really done anything to increase the size of the light source, and so the light will still feel rather directional. This is why all light modifiers that work well in a studio setting (umbrellas, softboxes, scrims) are physically a bit distant from the actual light source. The few inches you'd get taping a diffusing material to the face of those worklights wouldn't really buy you anything (though you'd really want to buy a fire extinguisher!). Please be careful! And as mentioned above - hit your local photo store and look at umbrellas, or surf eBay. They're cheap, and you can find a way to rig one with a clamp at a healthy foot or two from the light... plus, when you inevitably buy a flash and stand, it will be useful in the more traditional way.

we lit cigarettes with theese.

for lightning purposes under controlled circumstances remove the protection "metal piece" (whatevers the right term) but keep the glaa in its place !

D.

I think Matt's idea is right on the money. There is no good reason to do this up close. It won't help, and it will burn. It certainly wouldn't be the first house burned down with 500 watt construction lights. Besides, you want the diffuser sheet to be away from the light at least a foot, perhaps three. This will give you far better diffusion, shadows, and light spread.

I used these lights with diffuser sheets like you're talking about, but I hung them on a stick about two feet from the light, and about three feet from the subject. They worked pretty well this way, but I had to use a fairly high ISO (film in that day) and a longish shutter speed. Later I used umbrellas, as they were easier to set up and move around, but the effect was the same.

BTW, they do make low temp construction lights that use florescent bulbs. The color of light is probably not what you want though, and they are more money.

If you can eat the cost of a few more lights, the clip-on painters' lights in the big aluminum

reflectors can be used with standard tungsten bulbs. If you're into B&W, you can get away

with compact fluorescent, which is cooler yet. I've been using those, held to stands with lab-

clamps. I worry quite a bit less about tipping one of those over, or getting it too close to the

woodwork. I thought about the halogens, but just too much heat when I walked by them

during some renovations at work.

Add some pvc-pipe diffusers and reflectors, and it's a fun way to get into studio work.

I have used Rosco Tough Frost draped over these- clipped to the handle, which gets very hot.

I would suggest some kind of zip disk clipped to a stand several feet away from it.

Do not remove the glass and I would suggest leaving the wire as well- it won't cast shadows if you use a diffuser.

<p>even if nothing will burn, in order to defuse a light in a good way, you have to keep the defuser a bit far from the light.<br>

so the light will be "out of focus" </p>

<p>As others have mentioned; your diffusion scheme can be very dangerous. ie bedsheets.</p>

<p>I use these type of lamps all the time in construction and with still photography too and sometimes filming. I have about a dozen or more lamps. I have had some cheapies fall right off their tripod head; ie it had a poor plastic gizmo. </p>

<p>The color temperature is a great nice black body; often close to 3200K too.</p>

<p>Many stands are very easy to knock over; thus be carefull.</p>

<p>For me tungstens are not such a big deal; I have been using them for 40 to 50 years.</p>

<p>With a vertical diffuser; if it catches on fire it will go up quickly. Thus some of us just aim the lamp 180 to the subject at a reflective piece of metal painted white; or a wall or ceiling.</p>

<p> Here are two 500 watt Harbour Freight lamps lashed to our process cameras Xenon arc/strobe lamp spires. This is for a 50 megapixel scan of a 54 by 84? inch original from 1942. Speed Graphic from 1947; Componon lens; IBM Pentium III from 2000; 768megs ram; win2000</p>

<p> The 99 cent on sale price bulbs are good enough to shoot artwork with a digital back</p>

<p>***You can also just use smaller wattage bulbs in that 500 watt fixture too; ie 300, 250, 200; 100 (in you can find them).</p>

<p><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/scanback/P5180050BIGCAMERAMAY2010.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/scanback/P5180051SCANBACK.jpg" alt="" /></p>