Shop lighting for shaping and video

[treesner]

Hey guys, just moved into a new rental house and have a space in the garage as my shop. The lighting is really bad and was hoping to fix that. I end up shooting photos/videos in there as well as carving/shaping so nice lighting would work nicely. There's one window on the end and the other end is open to the rest of the garage/garage door. 

I'd like to have a setup that I could take with me whenever I leave so I was look at maybe some track lighting but there's so many options and it gets expensive so not sure what would be best. 

The other obvious option would be to add some fluorescent lights but I feel like they don't look that great on video. My roomate has a surf board shaping bay and has florists work bench height and above which takes care of a lot of shadowing

 

heres an example of track lighting

 

[BonPacific]

I use Feit LED shop lights for general lighting, they're pretty affordable ($20-$30 depending on sales). They are 4k lights, though you can find 5k versions elsewhere if you prefer a cooler light. They are also 3-prong plugs, so you can take them with you when you leave without issue. I just drilled through the back plate and mounted them to the joists, and plugged them into a wireless switch. 

I supplement with $9 Ikea work lights for task lighting, and 100w equivalent LED's (again, available in various temperatures/CRI's). LED's are cool enough you should be able to throw a diffuser over the end of the lamp if you want softer light for photography. A nice trick with work lights like this is that you can drill a 3/8" hole in any work stations or benches, then slot the light in or out as needed.

[treesner]

15 minutes ago, BonPacific said:

I use Feit LED shop lights for general lighting, they're pretty affordable ($20-$30 depending on sales). They are 4k lights, though you can find 5k versions elsewhere if you prefer a cooler light. They are also 3-prong plugs, so you can take them with you when you leave without issue. I just drilled through the back plate and mounted them to the joists, and plugged them into a wireless switch. 

I supplement with $9 Ikea work lights for task lighting, and 100w equivalent LED's (again, available in various temperatures/CRI's). LED's are cool enough you should be able to throw a diffuser over the end of the lamp if you want softer light for photography. A nice trick with work lights like this is that you can drill a 3/8" hole in any work stations or benches, then slot the light in or out as needed.

Thanks for the tips. The remote + LED shop light seem like a pretty nice idea. On the remote is there a button to turn all on/off (opposed to clicking each one at a time). 

Any photos of your shop in the day/night with this setup? 

[Cochese]

Can't speak to how well the lights work on video, but your use case would lean me toward the GE linkable, plug-in strips. They are labeled as under-cabinet, but I use them as overhead. I have about 7 or 8 for my entire shop, and they provide plenty of light.

Perhaps if it is a color spectrum issue you could find one with LEDs.

[BonPacific]

15 minutes ago, treesner said:

Thanks for the tips. The remote + LED shop light seem like a pretty nice idea. On the remote is there a button to turn all on/off (opposed to clicking each one at a time). 

Any photos of your shop in the day/night with this setup? 

The remotes are programmable, so i have all the lights on a single button. I believe there is also a All On/All Off button. The outlets also have override switches if needed.

I'll see if I can get some pictures. I'm about to add a fourth light to a dim corner.

[treesner]

Looking at videos of surfboard shaping bays, looks pretty good on video as the work piece is very well lit (work bench is center of the room though). It gives off a more moody vibe though with the focused lighting

 

spent some time in this shop and really like how the videos came out. But it was fully dependent on the beautiful natural light. The sides of warm white oak helped too i think 

[BonPacific]

Here's an example of my lighting situation. I took these pictures early this morning. My shop is a smallish 1-car garage. 12-ish feet by 21 feet. A mess, as always.

No light on, there's a small window just to the left of the workbench.

With three of the Feit Costco 2-bulb shop lights. At the far end the ceiling opens up to a loft-shelf, so the back light is about twice as far up as the main two, which flank the center walkway. These are 4k lights.

 

For this picture, I added the two regular 60w eq LED bulbs (3k temp) in the ceiling, and a task-light I have mounted to the bandsaw (100W eq LED, 5k temp).

[pkinneb]

Well that's quite the improvement  

[BonPacific]

20 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

Well that's quite the improvement  

Hmm?

[treesner]

2 minutes ago, BonPacific said:

Hmm?

Thanks for posting those photos! so you have two main led shop lights then a third way up high. I might go a little warmer like 3k. How do these fluorescent replacement bulbs compare to the kit you bought? 

 

my video friend recommended doing some kind of soft box setup left and right of work bench (similar to shaping bay example but vertical instead of horizontal). For video lighting, could turn those on and off with switches you posted

 

 

 

[BonPacific]

The bulbs you linked to are 12W (or 10W, confusing specs) stated to put out 900 lumen each. The Shop Lights I'm using are two-bulb fixtures, with a total output of 3700 lumens (1850 ea) using 45W of power. If you're putting them in your direct sight-line, even 900 lumens might be uncomfortable. That's just over a good 60W traditional bulb. 

LED strip-lighting might be a better option if you'll be looking at them. You can get RGB lights, so you can play around with the color you want

I should point out, my phone camera makes the light look a lot "cooler" than it does to my eyes. Play around with your options for color temperature. Most lighting or home improvement stores should have an area where you can compare lighting temperatures.

[treesner]

On October 20, 2016 at 3:15 PM, BonPacific said:

The bulbs you linked to are 12W (or 10W, confusing specs) stated to put out 900 lumen each. The Shop Lights I'm using are two-bulb fixtures, with a total output of 3700 lumens (1850 ea) using 45W of power. If you're putting them in your direct sight-line, even 900 lumens might be uncomfortable. That's just over a good 60W traditional bulb. 

LED strip-lighting might be a better option if you'll be looking at them. You can get RGB lights, so you can play around with the color you want

I should point out, my phone camera makes the light look a lot "cooler" than it does to my eyes. Play around with your options for color temperature. Most lighting or home improvement stores should have an area where you can compare lighting temperatures.

That's quite a bit more light, sounds like they would be worth the extra price then. 

The thoughts with the side lighting that goes vertically would be that they are put into a soft box type of thing like this that gives a nice spread

Still not sure on the color the lower the number the warmer it is right? maybe something around 3.5-4k but probably better to see in person if you think yours is showing cooler than it actually is

[BonPacific]

4 hours ago, treesner said:

That's quite a bit more light, sounds like they would be worth the extra price then. 

The thoughts with the side lighting that goes vertically would be that they are put into a soft box type of thing like this that gives a nice spread

Still not sure on the color the lower the number the warmer it is right? maybe something around 3.5-4k but probably better to see in person if you think yours is showing cooler than it actually is

The softbox is a good idea. There are some very cool low-profile led options with diffusers that might work better than a diy setup. You could also build a wooden enclosure, using rice paper as a diffuser. Could be a fun project.

[treesner]

On 11/7/2016 at 10:32 PM, BonPacific said:

The softbox is a good idea. There are some very cool low-profile led options with diffusers that might work better than a diy setup. You could also build a wooden enclosure, using rice paper as a diffuser. Could be a fun project.

yeah thats what i was thinking, make a diy version of that, it could be framed out and sort of look like a window too. I'll take a look at the low profile led's. I guess Ideally i'd be able to adjust the ammount of light that comes out them so when i'm working it could be less light and when i'm shooting a video i could crank it up (as cameras are bad in low light)