I am shooting a project soon where I plan on having 12-15 household lamps attached to the ceiling of a room and the goal is to control the lighting through the use of DIY dimmers. I will probably set it up so that I have 4 or 5 lights on each dimmer to give me more scope for messing about.
I'm not exactly Mr diy and tend to burn myself every time I use a soldering iron but I don't have money to buy any gear and making dimmers looks simple enough so hopefully there will only be minor burning of the fingers.
I have seen a few tutorials online but is there anything in particular that i should be aware of when making le dimmers with film making in mind? I'd like to be able to use them at some stage in the future when I hire pro(ish) gear from the local pro(ish) gear people.
ta
neil
Making a dimmer switch for 12/15 household lamps.....
Moderator: Andreas Wideroe
Re: Making a dimmer switch for 12/15 household lamps.....
If you're not exactly Mr. DIY then messing around with electricity can mean fire or death. You can buy small dimmers (hand squeezers is what I call them) at places like Ikea and they can plug in line with your household lamps. Safe & easy!
What you are proposing is time consuming to build and hazardous if made carelessly. You'd have to wire the array in parallel so when a bulb burns out you don't loose the entire array and ruin the shot. You'll also have to calculate the correct wire gauge that won't melt under your load. Consult your electrical code.
I admit that I don't know exactly what you mean by 12/15 lamps. Do you mean 12-15 watt CFLs? Those need special bulbs to dim IIRC.
What your building is only good for dimming household lamps. For professional lights you use professional dimmers called variacs that can handle high loads. LEDs usually have a built in dimmer. Fluorescents don't generally dim without special ballasts, Kino does have some models that do dim on their built in ballasts.
You should remember that dimming lights affects their colour temperature. Unless you are intending to get an orange cast to the scene you might find it simpler to turn off the bulbs individually (or simply unscrew them) to control light levels. Another thing to consider is how you plan to dress all the cables from this contraption in a safe manner and out of the shot.
What you are proposing is time consuming to build and hazardous if made carelessly. You'd have to wire the array in parallel so when a bulb burns out you don't loose the entire array and ruin the shot. You'll also have to calculate the correct wire gauge that won't melt under your load. Consult your electrical code.
I admit that I don't know exactly what you mean by 12/15 lamps. Do you mean 12-15 watt CFLs? Those need special bulbs to dim IIRC.
What your building is only good for dimming household lamps. For professional lights you use professional dimmers called variacs that can handle high loads. LEDs usually have a built in dimmer. Fluorescents don't generally dim without special ballasts, Kino does have some models that do dim on their built in ballasts.
You should remember that dimming lights affects their colour temperature. Unless you are intending to get an orange cast to the scene you might find it simpler to turn off the bulbs individually (or simply unscrew them) to control light levels. Another thing to consider is how you plan to dress all the cables from this contraption in a safe manner and out of the shot.
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granfer
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Re: Making a dimmer switch for 12/15 household lamps.....
Agree 100%. If you don't know what you are doing... don't even go there!!
If you are prepared to hire pro(ish) gear, then buy some dimmers.... they're cheap enough.
If you are prepared to hire pro(ish) gear, then buy some dimmers.... they're cheap enough.
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Nrk
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Re: Making a dimmer switch for 12/15 household lamps.....
Ok, so maybe not then. My electrical code consists of 1 page that reads "The Electrical Code, Page 1, The End."
My brother is clued up on electronics though so I might speak to him about it and see if he'd be up for helping me out, when we were kids we were the only house I knew of that had a self built intercom system in all of our rooms built by my brother who was about 13 at the time. He's a lunatic.
By 12-15 lamps what I meant was that I would like to have somewhere between 12 and 15 lamps attached to the ceiling. In terms of wattage I was going to go with bulbs that had a decent capacity as I'd rather have too much light than too little given that I will be using dimmers. The piece will be shot using Nizo's Auto Bulb mode as I want to use slow shutter speeds and so will be able to work with low light levels fine given the low output of household lamps.
As for colour temperature, that isn't really a concern at all as the scene is going to be pretty trippy and there will be a combination of colour temperatures used within the scene anyway.
As for the wires I might have carpet on the ceiling as well so wires would go under the carpet. Failing that, I don't mind having the wires seen within the shot as the scene is intentionally chaotic and surreal and if anything the wires will add to the messy nature of the piece.
If constructing the dimmers is going to be problematic and time consuming then I may just head out and try to find some for sale that aren't too expensive. I am really having to watch my budget and can't afford much at the moment.
thanks for your time and advice
My brother is clued up on electronics though so I might speak to him about it and see if he'd be up for helping me out, when we were kids we were the only house I knew of that had a self built intercom system in all of our rooms built by my brother who was about 13 at the time. He's a lunatic.
By 12-15 lamps what I meant was that I would like to have somewhere between 12 and 15 lamps attached to the ceiling. In terms of wattage I was going to go with bulbs that had a decent capacity as I'd rather have too much light than too little given that I will be using dimmers. The piece will be shot using Nizo's Auto Bulb mode as I want to use slow shutter speeds and so will be able to work with low light levels fine given the low output of household lamps.
As for colour temperature, that isn't really a concern at all as the scene is going to be pretty trippy and there will be a combination of colour temperatures used within the scene anyway.
As for the wires I might have carpet on the ceiling as well so wires would go under the carpet. Failing that, I don't mind having the wires seen within the shot as the scene is intentionally chaotic and surreal and if anything the wires will add to the messy nature of the piece.
If constructing the dimmers is going to be problematic and time consuming then I may just head out and try to find some for sale that aren't too expensive. I am really having to watch my budget and can't afford much at the moment.
thanks for your time and advice
Re: Making a dimmer switch for 12/15 household lamps.....
If you build something, its critical that you do not use bulbs that will draw more current than your dimmer and wires can handle. In this regard, Ohm's Law is your friend.