Back in the day (late 80’s to mid 90’s for yours truly), the never ending quest for a compact lighting kit for on location photo journalism made me a believer in John Falk’s book and philosophy “Adventures In Location Lighting“.

The premise being customized portable strobes that did more than the origional manufacturer intended. It was a heady time - walking around with only 3 bags to shoot 95% of my assignments (One camera bag, one lighting bag and one lightstand bag) that required controlled lighting was available to me in this compact setup.

Fast forward to 2007 - Video Journalists are the new breed of news and short feature content creators. Although available light can be had, there is something about utilizing controlled lighting that can add that needed extra something to make your footage if need arises.

I found Nino Giannatti’s EFP/ENG Lighting Tutorials website which offers a wealth of information for aspiring and seasoned VJ’s on the topic of location lighting.

Taking what I learned from my previous work in still photojournalism and location lighting with a compact lighting kit, and combining it with Nino’s tutorials, I have developed a compact lighting kit that can provide what I need for a vast majority of my lighting needs.

My kit consists of the following:

• 1- Lowel Totalite (A broadlight that is my key light with a 24″x32″ softbox or bounced off a wall to provide strong soft illumination)
• 1- Lowel iLite used as a hairlight with a 12″x16″ softbox or bare as a background light)
• 1 - Photoflex Silverdome NXT 24″x32″ Video Softbox
• 1 - Photoflex Silverdome NXT 12×16″ Video Softbox
• 1 - Photoflex Speedring for the Lowel Totalite and 1 portable strobe speedring for the iLite.
• 2 - photoflex lite discs (32″ white/soft gold and 12″ white/silver)
• 2 - Bogen compact Lightstands
• 1 - Photoflex Lightdisc boom arm (which can double as mic boom when needed)
• 2 - heavy duty extension cords
• Assorted Bogen clamps
• Gel filters to color balance with ambient lighting

The lights are packed in an f/64 medium format semi-rigid case with custom partitions and the stands are carried in a Domke Sling bag. I carry all my camera gear, Rode VideoMic, Cavision 3×3 Mattebox, Cokin P series filters, etc. in a Tenba P263 Photo Backpack.

Taking what I have learned from Nino’s site (especially his tutorial on quick interview lighting) and applying it with my lighting kit has given me a bump up in the quality of my interview footage for a couple of projects I am currently working on.

I’ll post more once I get them finished and online.