500W Halogen Work Lights fro Home Depot

They are cheap but what's the down side?

If you had three or four 500W halogen work lights, all of the same brand (and presumably the same bulb), would custom color balance think that they were good (expensive) hot lights from B&H?

That's "500W Halogen Work Lights f r o m Home Depot'

500W halogen work lights get very hot and produce a harsh light. You could diffuse them, but then the heat could be a problem.

To answer your question though, yes it would work with a custom WB and assuming thats the only light source. Olympus used to demo this trick at their show with Mark Greenberg using "shoplights" vs. "expensive pro photographer lighting". He'd print two prints of the same shot on their P400 printer and ask people if they could tell the difference. Yes, difusing was very important as he had them facing backwards into white gatorboard.

I've used them before in a pinch at a car shoot in a garage... They work fine but WOW are they HOT ! Also I bounced them off of something big and white (a wall) because they are really harsh.

Let there be light !

Rod

You can also get 300w "painters lights" which are diffused and color corrected.

But with the diffusion material - basically a big slab of frosted plastic - they do not seem like 300w anymore, probably more like 150w.

And they are still incredibly hot, and you've got heavy-duty power cords running all over the floor. Definitely not recommended if you have children around.

Thanks for all the input.

I think I've gotten almost what I want now in the way of soft, shadow free lighting. I'll post a picture when I have time to take one.

Here's the basic setup, all for now around a studio tabletop setting with a graduated backdrop: 500W directly overhead, three to four feet above the object; 500W to the left and angled down, two-three feet above the object; and 1,000W to the right and over my shoulder, five feet away from the object. One or two layers of difussion material (flame-retardant) in front of each.

Oh yes, an exhaust fan too.