From: Adam Tischler
Not a trick but a nice lighting technique I just picked up. When indoors use daylight for your keylight. Backlight with an umbrella pointing down on the subject using 3200 light. The result is nice, even, reddish light cascading down the subjects head and shoulders. No problems with harsh backlight. It works even better with a cheapo dimmer (any hardware store) on the backlight.
COMMENT:
"Sunshine Rain" by Adam Tischler suggested to shooters that they can get dimmers at their local hardware store….just a safety tip….those dimmers are only rated up to 600w.Let your readers know.
Randy S. Ennis, KHNL News8, News Operations Manager
My hardware store sells dimmers good for 1000w and 2000w. You just have to be smart enough to check, or you will have troubles.
You should not be using a 600w for a backlight or hair light to begin with and they sell high watt dimmers at most major hardware stores like home depot etc.. but you will have to build your own plugs and use 20 amp wire to connect to dimmer leads, that dimmer is good for keys etc… I built all my dimmers and bought 1 pre rigged ready to plug in for low watts up to 500W which i use for my 150 watt hair light no problems.
500 watt pre-built dimmers are available from Ace hardware, work perfectly, and cost $15. They have a replaceable fuse and are more reliable that Lutron. Dimmers can affect wired mics, I use wireless exclusively. Otherwise your cable runs must be set up carefully.