Newer LED lights run quite cool, so much so that you can generally touch them without even feeling uncomfortable. On the other hand, older light designs can run quite warm, and some can run downright hot — hot enough to literally cook an egg. Check out this fun video in which a photographer grabs some tungsten lights and does exactly that.
Coming to you from Sweet Lou Photography, this great video follows him as he grabs some ARRI Fresnel tungsten lights, a pan, and some PAM and proceeds to cook an egg, using the lights as the sole source of heat. It's no secret that such lights produce a tremendous amount of heat, but I have to be honest: I didn't expect them to produce enough to literally fry an egg or bake cookies. One of the main touted features of these models is the "ribbed housing for cooler operation," which of course leaves me to wonder what you could cook if it wasn't for the built-in cooling. If nothing else, if you are someone who owns a few of these lights, you know where to turn if your oven breaks and you're in a tight spot when it comes to cooking dinner!
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Any assistant worth his salt brings gloves to a hot-light shoot. On some of those lights, ALL of the metal bits can get hot enough to peel skin off you with just a momentary touch.
This just in: hot lights are hot, and the sky is blue! News at 11
There are degrees of "hot" (literally)... Not having used these types of lights before, I actually found it interesting just how hot they got.
I had to shoot a Phenom 300 in a hangar once. Covered it with diffuse silk and lit it with 6 ARRI 1200 HMI so I had a well lit interior for the shoot.
1 The power in the hangar kept dropping out because of the lights.
2, After a day in the aircraft, my arse was sweatier than that of a glass blower.
In my early 20s it was common for me to light a joint off my Smith Victors while shooting. The tips of my bulbs had an ashy black crust on them.
I love Sweet Lou so much! He's a breath of fresh air in a genre full of stuffy egos. If anyone knows of other people with the same energy lmk, I'd love to follow them.
I'm more upset about the metal spatula on the Teflon pan. Mama told me that'll scratch!
Over 30 years ago when I worked on a jobsite as a welder, I used a 500 watt tungsten work light in a metal toolbox to finish cooking italian sausages for lunch. Took about 15 minutes.
In my studio now, I bought a bunch of Mole Richardson lights and modified them to take LED bulbs to use on my cyc room. I first bought a bunch of bulbs and tested them with a spectrometer to very verify CRI and intensity, then modified the lights accordingly. I wanted to get away from the heat and electric bill of the hot lights, but wanted that type of fixture. Still not as good as the original hot lights were, but good enough to serve the purpose.
I should add that I still use non-modified MR lights for the talent, the LED versions are only for the cyc room itself.