Lights for background lighting?

temjam

temjam

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James
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Hi all!
I'm looking for some POWERFUL lights which are capable of flooding a background wall with white light. Most of the lights I've seen on Amazon and elsewhere advertise themselves as being for lighting a subject (or two) but I can't seem to find any which specifically mention somewhere that they are powerful enough to light a background.
I make video content and require lights which essentially lighten up backgrounds by flooding them with light. An example situation where I've managed similar is when working in a studio abroad where outdoor light could be allowed in to lighten up a room and in bright daylight this would appear in-video as if the background had changed from a dark-cream color (it's true color) to a bright white due to the bright light shining in on it. I'm trying to recreate this using artificial light (as opposed to purchasing a giant white background cloth).

Any recommendations on what I should look for?
Thanks!
 
Generally speaking (and this is a massive simplification) if you want to blow out your background then you want
the lighting on the backdrop to be one to two stops above your key (subject lights).

So basically, no one can give you an accurate answer without knowing the distance between your subject and the bg and the size of the bg - and also the ambient light levels
and the set lighting value.

You might need anything from 200w/s through to 1200, or even studio spots like Ari's or Redheads.
 
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Thank you DemiLion, am currently checking out the Redheads now.
It's currently a warmly lit room (4500k) with the subject about 1m from background wall with a background space in-video of around 1.6 by 1.6m. Subject is lit via one neewer 700 softbox and one neewer ring light kit.
To simplify it further I'm basically just looking for any powerful white lights (strobe, led, or otherwise) which can light a sizeable area of background regardless of price. I have been previously recommended something like the :

NEEWER LED Video Light Bowens Mount RGB CB60 70W, RGB Full Color 18000 Lux@1m CCT 2700K~6500K CRI 97+ 17 Lighting Scenes App Control Continuous Lighting for Photography, Studio Video Lighting​

 
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As above, except that we're talking watts, not watt-seconds here with continuous lighting.
But bear in mind that the apparent brightness of light is dependent on the Inverse Square Law. What this means in effect is that, all things being equal, if you position the background light at half the distance of the foreground (or front subject light) then it will be 4x as bright - and of course the reverse is also true.
 
Just to add a couple of useful facts into the discussion.

If you turn down the power of the keylight, the effect of the background lighting will increase (remember you’ll also likely need to use exposure compensation to get the correct exp for the subject).

The other issue is to remember separation from the background; using so much light on it will bounce back on the subject and can damage subject edges.
 
You are lighting the subject with a single 85W CFL bulb in a 60cm softbox and a 55w LED ring light? It's generally a bad idea to mix lighting types, but if they are all 5500k it shouldn't be a big problem.

IMO your issue is that you don't really have the space to significantly lighten the BG using lighting... 1m background separation isn't enough. Do you even have space to place the BG lights where they won't be visible and not be at a very shallow angle to the BG? Even if you do, 1m isn't enough to prevent lens bloom/loss of contrast/etc.

But if the BG is already lighter in color you could light it separately in order to keep it that way. In that case a pair of the 70W LED studio heads are probably overkill, a pair of the 18" 45W LED panels would probably do. You could also just bring up the exposure of the entire room to help keep it that way (lower the lighting on the subject and increase overall room lighting).
 
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Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions. I'm going to experiment a little more and will write back results here when I've tried out some of your helpful suggestions. I do like the idea of perhaps increasing overall room lighting and dimming the subject lighting. Looking forward to the results.
Thanks again.
 
I do this regularly with an AD200 with the bare bulb for portraits. For a large wall you may need 2x Ad200s or even up to AD600s. Put them either side of your subject and aim them to the opposite sides of the wall to create a more even light.
 
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