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Not to knock you man, but I own more than 20 ton of grip and lighting and have lit almost 4000 scenes not to mention more mainstream shows than I can count and I still have the first two 4 foot x 4 bank Kinos that I bought 10 years ago. Kinos are very durable, light weight, portable and reliable as hell. Many respectable companies, 100 times the size of “Amvona” have tried to clone a Kino, but none have even come close. Largely due to the fact that Kino has reflector technologies that not even a mirror can reproduce. Plus “stable,” high output, and very low heat electronic ballast. I too, have built many custom florescent fixtures for specific lighting situations but never for a general key or fill light. When it comes to light output I have metered a 4 foot x 12 bank homemade fixture against a 4 foot x 4 bank Kino and the Kino beat it by almost two full stops. Although your aftermarket ballast may have the power to strike a Kino globe, keep a sharp eye out for subtle flicker that may intermittently show up in your video. Especially when your cheaper ballast heats up. Also the globe probably will not give off the correct color temperature of 3200 Kelvin (tungsten/indoor) or 5600 Kelvin (daylight/outdoor). Sure you can compensate for this variance in video by white balancing, but the number one problem with homemade systems is the inability to hold a constant color temperature over a period of time. In other words you might start the scene off with the skin tones looking normal but toward the middle you may notice things going a little green. Here again it may happen subtlety so your eyes will naturally adjust and the unwanted greenish tint may go unnoticed until it’s too late. This shit green tint is due to the increase in the “green spike” common in all fluorescent globes. Forget about color balancing in the middle of the scene because the camera will all of a sudden add a fair amount of magenta to overcompensate for the increase in green spike. You may be able to hide the difference in the skin tones, but any and all background lights and colors will visibly shift in the middle of the scene. Remember: what you pull from one side of the color spectrum you take from the other. Green happens to be the worst color for skin tones due to the fact that green pulls the magenta or pinkish color from the skin causing the flesh to appear pasty even sickly depending on the shade of green. To test this: light your scene how ever you see fit with a green sofa under the talent. Shoot some test footage, then switch out the green sofa for a warm tone colored sofa like red, deep yellow or tan and note the difference. What’s happening here is known as a radiosity effect. Your light hits the green sofa which pollutes the temperature of light, then bounces back all over the talent almost as if you put a light green gel on your Key and/or fill light.
Divas in my opinion output far too much light for the relative size of the fixture if and only if your intention is to try to use them for direct key or fill light. On the other hand Divas are great for back/hair lights. The key to lighting porn is more in the physical size of the source and not so much the output. This is why so many pornographers gravitate toward bouncing lights off the ceiling. Obviously I am no fan of pointing two or more lights at a ceiling and calling it lit, but it does give you the effect of a large source which reduces shadows while softening the light a great deal. The main problem with this style of lighting aside from the uncontrollability is the angles of most ceilings are not 30-45 degrees to the talent. Unfortunately, they are more like 90 degrees which is a very “toppy” and unflattering placement for the key light. If you don’t have a 4 foot x 4 bank Kino aka “Fat Man” try bouncing a 1 or 2 Diva 400s into a 4x4 piece of foam core at an above head height 45 degree angel for a much more flattering high key fashion type look.
To sum it all up, relatively speaking Kinos are cheap as hell. Don’t forget how long they last, the very high resell value, and have you ever heard of anyone regretting owning a Kino? Time is money...Don’t waste it building a light, instead invest time in where to place the light. I’ll stop here and save my C-light discussion for another time. If any of you guys need any more free tips on lighting let me know. I am easy to get a hold of and I’d be happy to help…
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