Lighting cars at close range

[oakeedokee]

Hope someone out there can help me with this one. I only have limited experience of lighting mostly in the corporate hospitality side of things , but have been given the task of hiring in some equipment to light three cars at relatively close range from floor standing trussing in showrooms around the country as part of a travelling exhibition. The client likes the brightness and daylight type effect of 400w metal halide fittings I have used in the past but I feel these will be too in-your-face for this type of gig. The punters are encouraged to get up close to the cars and sit in them. The fittings must look nice too, so I was thinking 150w metal halide in a silver fixture, maybe six per car. Is there anything out there that springs to mind? Any help would be much appreciated.

[J Pearce]

Chrome parcans fitted with MSR lamps?

Shop display style floods with discharge lamps?

[KevinE]

Do they need to be kiddie-safe?

[oakeedokee]

no, they will be out of arms reach. Par cans have been ruled out as the client thinks they look, well, like PAR cans I suppose and wants something a bit more visually pleasing. I know, I know! :o however, I've seen the Source Four PAR HIDs and they would do the job I guess. it's the price that is a bit off putting. I can't find them for hire anywhere.

[mac500]

Used Lighting have some of the source 4 par HIDs for sale if thats any use?

[Graham NZ]

Look at the Selecon Acclaim range of PCs fitted with Metal Halide Lamps. Compact and focusable plus they go to wide angles. You can get them in Silver but as to if anyone has any in hire??????

 

Graham

[WiLL]

I doubt you'll find many units for hire in silver/chrome. But then again, I'm a pessimist. Buying will be a different matter of course, and maybe, if the length of your tour is long enough it would actually be cost effective to look at purchase rather than hire?

[Jonny DMX]

You've not said how high your truss is and what the cars are. however as someone who finds themselves lighting cars rather a lot a good rule of thumb is between 4 and 8 lights per vehicle. You could do worse than to talk to Andy at Static Light or PM me and I can give you his number.

 

Although these fixtures are more about motor show lighting, I have seen people using 500W Floods with a L202 glass filter, if you have enough of them and you can find some that look nice I think that could be a good alternative if the budget is tight.

 

Jonny

[Jivemaster]

A lot of the big set car shot photographs use a HUGE overhead reflector with lots of light so that the reflections in the gloss and glass are big and soft.

[lxdad]

Stage Electrics have got a selection of 575w Discharge S4 Pars in both Black and Silver. I have seen both out and about on various jobs and they are VERY bright!

 

LXDad

[Jonny DMX]

This works well for TV and photos, however like you pointed out they have to be huge and with a really even wash. In my experience cars that are lit in this way give the impression of not being lit at all! about half of the light energy that is being produced is being reflected off the material and is wasted. Also although it may be worth mentioning how professional photographers do their lighting I'm not convinced a set up like this would suit the OP's scenario.

 

Jonny