Continued from Building Light, Construction. It’s SHOWTIME!

Nice, strong, white light, and an unexpected side-benefit; because of the multiple sources of light, the shadows created are somewhat diffused. I had imagined I’d need to create some sort of diffuser for the light, but it works well even by itself. I brought out the camera to see what kind of photos I’d get, and voila! Beautiful stuff at 1/125, f 5.3.

Already, I can see the improvements I’ll make in version 2. I’ll use the screw-type bulb holders the next time, they hold the bulb much more firmly. The plug-in types on Version 1 feel a bit flimsy. But yeah, I’ll test this thing out on Saturday – fingers crossed!

Total cost (excluding parts that didn’t work):

Stand = Kshs. 3,000
Frame = Kshs. 1,500
Board = Kshs. 2,250
Broom Handle = Kshs. 320
Brass Hooks = Kshs. 160
Bulbs = Kshs. 20,680 (Aaaargh!)
Bulb Holders = Kshs. 3,430
Aluminium Foil = Kshs. 140

TOTAL = Kshs. 31,660

Continued from Building Light, Ingredients. The first thing I noticed, this thing is going to be quite huge. The frame and stand together stand more than 2 meters high.

Now, how to connect the board to the frame? The frame had two hooks which could be used for hanging up the board, but the board would need some kind of handles which would hang on the hooks. I sketched out another piece for the metalworkers, and Eric had them made.

2 x Metal clips = 250 x 2 = Ksh. 500.

The clips were too rough to use and the bolt holes weren’t straight. Ahem. Back to the drawing board. I then spotted plastic drain plungers at Uchumi. The handles looked just right, and the plungers were cheap.

2 x Plastic Plungers = 70 x 2 = Ksh. 140

I then unscrewed the plunger bit and bolted the handles onto the back of the board – which was easy, they’re plastic and it was easy to dig holes into them.

Perfect. The board help up on the frame (note cool swivel action, below).

The next major task was mounting the bulbs onto the board. The forex material is cool because you can sketch on it with a pencil, so I divided it up and came up with 49 squares that fit on the board with a 10cm margin around them for mounting issues. 49 squares!

Mathematics: This means 49 bulbs and 49 bulb holders.
49 x CFL bulbs = 49 x 460 = Ksh. 22,540. Yowza!
It also means 23 watts x 49 = 1,127 watts.

Kevin assured me that I could plug it into an ordinary household power outlet without blowing something up. I also had 15 CFLs and bulb holders from the previous lights, so I’d only need 34 new sets. Eric and I went off to the shops and depleted the stocks of CFL bulbs at 3 supermarkets (Sorry, that was us). Luckily, we also came across 12 of the same bulbs from Osram – which were 305 Kshs. each, saved us some money. God Bless Osram.

In total:

12 x Osram 23-watt daylight CFLs = 12 x 305 = Ksh. 3,660
22 x Philips 23-watt daylight CFLs = 22 x 460 = Ksh. 10,120
34 x bulb holders = 34 x 70 = Ksh. 2,380

Drilling holes into the forex was also very easy, yet it remained firm. 49 holes through which the wiring would pass. I added a layer of aluminum foil onto the board to help direct more of the light onto the subject.

Enter Kevin the wonder-boy electrician from last time. He wired up all the holders and made an extra-long power cable to power the whole thing, and I then screwed the holders onto the board. They held up, firmly. Good stuff.

Testing time. I mounted the board onto the frame and begun plugging in the bulbs. Oh, wait. The board handles begun sagging – the plastic handles were not firm enough. Back to the drawing board.

After another random stroll at Uchumi, I noticed the broom section. The handles of the brooms were the same diameter as the plunger handles, but much harder – made of metal with a coating of plastic to make it easy to hold. Longer, too – 1.2 meters on average. Perfect, one long metal pole would probably work better.

Broom Handle = Ksh. 320.

The only problem with the metal pole is that I could possibly pass screws through it unless I had a drill (which I don’t have), so I bought some brass hooks from the hardware store:

4 x Brass Hooks = 40 x 4 = Kshs. 160.

I then screwed them onto the board and slid the pole into place. Perfect; the board stayed up, no sagging. So I plugged in the bulbs and SHOW TIME!

Continued from Building Light, Part Two. From the sketch I made, these were the parts that I’d need to build this thing:

The Stand
The Board
The Frame
and lots of bulb-holders, bulbs and cables.

Throughout the process, I made sure to select materials that were cheap and easy to obtain in bulk (just in case I want to make several copies of the light).

THE BOARD
What I Need: Something light, heat-resistant and strong. It’d have to withstand being riddled with holes, bolts and screws and then remain cool despite all the heat from several bulbs. After visiting a few photo exhibitions, I noticed that most photos were mounted on a hard, white, plastic-y looking material. Enter Mr. Najam “Chico” Qureishi of Photo Mural Gigiri (who does excellent photo prints and mounts, by the way). I asked him if I could buy the material from him (forex, it’s called).

Chico showed me a variety of different types of forex, the most appropriate was a 1cm thick version; a layer of foam sandwiched by two layers of plastic. Light, but very strong.

2 x 1m square pieces (plus trimmings) = Ksh. 4,500.

THE STAND
What I Need: A larger, stronger version of my own light stands. I used my own rather flimsy light stands in the earlier version of the light. They’re not very strong, and supporting a large weight was a wobbly affair. Enter Kibugi, the sound man who helps Just A Band out with venue sound. While helping him carry sound equipment into a gig venue, I noticed his speaker stands. They were the big brothers of my own light stands. Perfect.

AND they turned out to be cheaper than my light stands, which is strange. They’re bigger, stronger, lighter (!), and Ksh. 5,000 cheaper and available everywhere! These audio guys have it easy!

1 x Sound King Heavy-Duty Speaker Stand = Ksh. 3,000.

THE FRAME
What I Need: Something that can slide onto the stand, and hold the board in place. Strong and light, as well.

The frame needs to sit on the top of the stand:

I figured I’d have to make this piece myself, so I sketched the pieces on paper for my very cool assistant, Eric. He went to Kibera, spent a couple of hours with some metalworkers and came back with the frame. It was a little rough around the edges (literally), but it worked after some filing off of rough bits.

Frame = Ksh. 1,300.

BULBS
The bulbs were the most expensive item the last time. I don’t want to use ordinary tungsten-bulbs – they’re really cheap but they waste a lot of energy and give out too much heat (not to mention the over-warm tone they add to footage). So, it had to be the 23-watt daylight-white CFL bulbs from last time.

CFL Bulbs = Ksh. 460 each.

BULB HOLDERS
In the electrical shops/supermarkets, these things cost between Ksh. 200 – 400. Eric and I visited Toi Market and found a guy who sold the very same things to us at about Ksh. 60 – 70.

Bulb Holder = approx. Ksh. 70 each.

That’s it! On to construction…

Ever since I built the cardboard box lights last year, I’ve been itching to build something bigger and better.

I sketched out an idea of how the light would look – it’s essentially a DIY version of the type of light you get from companies like KinoFlo (salivate, salivate); complete with stand (which would cost a small truckload of cash by the time our dear Kenya Revenue Authority were through taxing an imported one).

After months of experimenting (and meeting random people who helped me with ideas along the way), I’ve finally come up with the final version below, and it works!

Sure, my version looks a bit lousy in comparison with the KinoFlo model, but you get the picture. I’ll be test running it tomorrow at my first PLUS shoot, just to see how useful it is in a photo shoot scenario.

In the meantime, I’ll post a series of bite-size posts about how the light got made (for those people who wrote to say they’d found the cardboard-box lights useful and built their own – you guys are so cool!).

This light wouldn’t exist without the help and counsel of the following people:
Najam “Chico” Qureishi from Photo Mural Gigiri, Eric Mutunga; my helpful assisstant, Kevin Wekesa; the boy-genius electrician and Kibugi Wamai; Just A Band’s sound guy. Thanks a lot, guys!

As a result of the whole Afrigadget saga (which, frankly, is overwhelming), a question that has come up plenty of times is: “Did it work?”, and “Do you have photos that were lit by the cardboard lights?”. Here’s a unedited photo I took of Mbithi using the two units I made:

There. Nice, clean light.And a top-view schematic of the set-up:

A – 5-bulb unit
B – 10-bulb unit (with tracing paper diffuser)

Light B casts the softer, more-pleasing light on Mbithi (because of the tracing paper), and light A casts the harder light on the back of his head. This is a setup I frequently use in my photo shoots, the theory works exactly the same with continuous light.

The other question: “Does it work?”. Well, yes. I did manage to light the indoor shots that were later used in the Fly music promo, and the light was easier to control than the sunlight that I used in the Maisha and Lalalalala promos (if you watch them closely, you’ll notice that the light on the subjects is sorta flickery, like a candle – that was because the reflectors used to direct the sun kept moving around with the wind – a nice, but unintentional effect).

Next I’d like to make a 20 or 40 bulb unit and see the difference.

The good people at AfriGadget thought they’d share my DIY cardboard lights on their site (thanks, guys!).

It’s actually a very interesting blog, with lots of innovative DIY ideas by our fellow Africans. We’re not only about drought and AIDS, it seems.

Check it out!

New music promo for Just A Band – the coolest clients ever. Closeup shots in the promo above were lit using the cardboard-box lights I mentioned earlier.

I took way too long to get the energy to sit down and finish this one. It’s the second (and last) video from the shoot last year – which I’ll never mention again.

Using lessons learnt from my first video shoots last year:

1. the sun is REALLY powerful,
2. but very unpredictable,

I set out to build my own personal sun – controllable, consistent, white light – using ordinary household equipment. DIY till I die and all that.

So, using:

1. 2 cardboard boxes (20/-)
2. 15 bulb holders (approx. 150/- each)
3. energy saving bulbs (the 23-watt ‘cool daylight’ types – 450/- each. Ouch.)
4. a roll of aluminium foil (approx. 200/-)
5. lots of cellotape/masking tape

I made these little thingies, and got master electrician Kevin to figure out the wiring at the back, so that the whole unit would only need one power cable.

We ended up with two units, one with 10 bulbs (which I figured I could use as a key light), and a smaller one with 5 bulbs (for air/separation/fill light duties).

I added a sheet of tracing paper over the 10-bulb unit to soften its output, since I intend to stick it in people’s faces.

Even I was surprised by the results. Much brighter than even I’d hoped, with a nice white light that’s very even. And the units don’t get too hot, so you can really move them close to subjects.

If my math is correct, the 10-bulb unit uses about 230 watts, and the 5-bulb unit uses 115 watts – and I figure I’m getting much more light than I’d get from those 20,000/-, 800 watt, hot-as-hell tungsten lights they’re selling in town.

Of course, if you’re into swanky-looking gear which is nice for impressing clients), this ain’t the way to go…

I mentioned earlier that we were using a cheapskate greenscreen consisting of bits of bright green paper stuck onto a cardboard box.

Will it work?

The shot above was taken on the second day, and the screen had taken some beating by that time – hence the folds. But it looks promising, no?

Building the Cheapskate GreenScreen(TM)

1. Stick bits of green paper on cardboard:

2. Prop cardboard against suitable stand (such as neighbor’s car):

3. Place subject in front on the screen:

4. Resulting footage:

This allows one to cut out the background and put something else (more interesting) in place. For example (quickie example! Excuse the unfinished-ness):

This is all theoretical, of course. I’m yet to see the footage to find out if it’ll work.

Fingers ever crossed.