Re: Help lighting a chroma backdrop

I'll be interested to see how you like these little compact flos and how good they really work. I love how B&H prints "dimmable with switches"

I wouldn't call this reflector a parabolic reflector, its more like an intensifier found as an accessory with some brands of HMI's, and its hardly reflective. I honestly think you won't get a nice even source from 5-60watt compact florescent bulbs.

I too like T-12 and T-8 tubes if I want a florescent light.

You may be better off with a few T-8 shop light fixtures from a good electrical supplier and find some Advance Mark-5 T-8 ballast (Dimmable) and some Philips TL950 or TL930 T-8 tubes to install into these cheap fixture. The 9 stands for 90 plus CRI and the 50 and 30 refer to 5000K and 3000K. I built my T-8 system more than 10 years ago and all of them are still working. I used Kino housings and made remote ballast cases and built my own head feeders using the Amp connectors just like Kino Flo. The reason I made them is I hated renting Kinos because at that time they weren't like they are today and didn't burn as color constant as the Philips/Advance system.

If you go the DIY route you should still try and contain the back grounnd light from ever spilling onto your subject.

http://www.truesun.com/philips_TL950.php
http://www.bulbs.com/eSpec.aspx?ID=9738&Ref=Base&RefId=21
http://www.advancetransformer.com/products/fluorescent-electronic.jsp?pbid=...


Good Luck
Michael Palmer