ENG LIGHTING

When you leave the confines of the television news room or production studio for an ENG assignment, your main concern will be the availability of lights. If you are outdoors on a sunny day, there is not much of a problem. But when you move indoors or shoot at night, you will need a portable, lightweight and versatile lighting system that either runs on batteries or plugs into a wall outlet without blowing fines.

Before we cover the components of ENG lighting, keep in mind that the television lighting principles previously covered also apply to ENG lighting.

Portable Lighting Kit

Portable lighting kits will supply you with the lighting equipment you need in most situations. They normally include the following pieces of equipment:

l Lighting instruments

l Tripods

l Short power cables

l Battery packs for each light l Accessories

Additionally, you may want to include a set of insulated gloves, heavy-duty masking tape or gaffer's tape and at least one extra bulb for each lighting instrument.

There are many commercially available selections of ENG lighting kits. They usually provide at least enough instruments and accessories for your basic lighting needs.

The color temperature of ENG lighting kit instruments is 3200K. They are usually variable-focus lighting instruments that may be adjusted for use as a key, fill or backlight.

Accessories.

Your light kit should contain accessories, such as barn doors, screens and scrims (fig. 14-30). They are covered in the following text.

Figure 14-30. - Barn doors, screen and scrim.

Figure 14-31. - Basic television set.

BARN DOORS. - Barn doors are metal flaps attached to a ring that is connected to the body of the lighting instrument. They come in either two- or four-door versions. Depending on the type of barn door, you can open or close the doors at the top, bottom or sides to crop the light.

SCREENS. - Screens are small, round or square pieces of metal screening, placed in front of the light to reduce its intensity. They do not change the color temperature of the light. Use screens to reduce or eliminate strong shadows.

SCRIMS. - Scrims are made of clear spun glass or gauze used to diffuse and soften a light. They decrease the intensity of a light without affecting its color temperature.