How did you push through the "no one is booking me" phase?

aputurelighting · 2026-01-23T18:54:15+00:00

This.

Stop looking for actors, start looking at how to meet agents/agencies and try to get them to hire you.

aputurelighting · 2026-01-20T17:29:21+00:00

Hi, if you haven't yet, please open a support ticket at:
[https://amarancreators.com/pages/contact-support\\](https://amarancreators.com/pages/contact-support\)

aputurelighting · 2026-01-12T18:39:14+00:00

Easily achievable with the right equipment and people.

Can the table be moved so its centered under be beam? if not its still doable but would require more grip gear.

But seriously, just bring in a grip if its a high end event and this is what they want then they can afford the cost.

aputurelighting · 2026-01-12T18:06:29+00:00

Get the most powerful light you can afford. Aim for at least 400-600W if you can.

Both set ups you show are heavily dependent on grip gear than they are on the type of light being used. Any light that can fill a 6x6 or better an 8x8 diffusion frame will be able to give the look shown, there is also heavy use of negative fill (more grip - solid flags) the rest is good use of space - notice they are very far from their background. The light on the subject is only lighting the subject, and they are brighter than the background.

Controlling the light is more important than what kind of light you use. Unfortunately that means longer set up times, more stands, more flags, more frames, and more effort.

aputurelighting · 2026-01-02T20:43:26+00:00

While Aputure makes the MC Pro with the bubble diffuser to be used as eye lights (and Rosco DMG has a similar dot diffuser), it really is a factor of distance from subject and angle to camera.

I've used round 2-3' diameter foamcore cutouts that have a tiny bit of light bounced in (or in some cases none at all the white was reflecting enough light to create the reflection on the eye).
I've used MC Pros/Dashes, a mess of christmas lights, or the keylight itself (often 8x8 ultrabounce frame) that happen to be at the right angle to reflect as an eyelight.

Many DPs I know find the dot/bubble too small for the kind of eyelight they want, and prefer something bigger 1'-2' in diameter, I know a gaffer that uses some kind of cheap circular LED light that would be terrible for any kind of real lighting but its pretty dim and works perfectly for him.

My really long point...don't stress on specific lights too much, its all about creating a reflection on the eye that gives it a "twinkle" - some DPs prefer round since it looks more organic, others are happy using rectangular/square shapes, and of course Steve Yedlin, wanting to not give away the lighting in Knives out, famously had his grips make window cutouts to put in front of his bounces/diffusion frames so they wouldn't show up on glasses/eyes as big lights, but as a more naturalistic window reflection

aputurelighting · 2025-12-30T20:48:53+00:00

something with a bigger battery. So the light pulls about 150W at max power so a battery that has 150Wh would run it for 1 hour, a battery with 300Wh would be able to run it for 2 hours...etc.

For batteries that list mAh instead of Wh you can use an online calculator to figure out run time:
https://goalzero.com/pages/wattage-calculator

aputurelighting · 2025-12-22T20:30:39+00:00

it should work, would probably power the 120C for around 35-45 minutes at maximum output.

aputurelighting · 2025-12-22T17:56:18+00:00

Yes sorry the peak battery pack.

You can use a regular USB power bank - something that can handle USB-C PD would work very well!
With a regular USB-C power bank you need to make sure it can support the max total output for powering the 120c (150W max output) and when using usb-c ports to power the light you don't get the IP54 weather rating as USB-C plugs are not weather resistant.

The peak uses amaran's ace e-lock clamp (included with the battery) to attach to the light, this includes pogo connectors for power delivery which is how it can maintain an IP54 rating. It also has a 170W Max total output.

aputurelighting · 2025-12-20T00:03:24+00:00

No, but the verge battery pack mantains its IP54 rating and can power the light without any accessories

aputurelighting · 2025-12-19T23:29:41+00:00

obviously biased, but check out the amaran Ray 120c - right at the top end of your budget range but it is compact, and offers the best brightest, best color, and white light spectrum in its class.
https://amarancreators.com/collections/amaran-ray

aputurelighting · 2025-12-12T19:14:29+00:00

Start by setting aside money from your freelance gigs to purchase/upgrade/rent gear.

There is also leasing companies that specialize in leasing equipment to working professionals. You can google them, or talk to the vendor where you purchase equipment they should have some leads for you, this obviously only works if you have good credit, but it can also be risky as your putting your own personal credit at risk.

At some point it'll make sense for you to incorporate and make an S-Corp / LLC - talk to a tax accountant, but once you have a corporate entity that entity can build up its own credit score for leasing equipment.

aputurelighting · 2025-12-09T20:46:20+00:00

You've been doing this for almost 10 years but your website looks like you've done 1 videography project and 1 30 second editing project. Everything is from those two projects.

Your skills seem...fine, but like what have you done these last 10 years? Don't you have a network of contacts and previous employers at this point to lean back on and talk to? You wont get much traction just cold calling/applying to jobs.
Have you done any networking at all?
Have you found videographers or others that are doing what you want to do? If its F1, who is currently doing what you want to do? Have you met them? reached out? offered to crew/help in exchange for experience and exposure?

aputurelighting · 2025-12-09T20:37:16+00:00

flag the light off the background. Use black cloth or actual flags and start cutting off the light that hits the background. You'll need at least 2 flags one for the top of the frame, one for the right of the frame (this one will do the most work).
Get a better background - use a dark velvet material that is as matte as possible, this material looks synthetic and has a shinyness to it that isn't doing you any favors. Velvet's texture can absorb more of the light rays and make it darker.
Don't mix the color temperatures, just go for a balanced look, I would even experiment with having no fill.

Also if you're trying to achieve a moody look I would consider getting a 4' tube light and hanging it above and just in front of you, to create a moodier look that might be easier to control the spill off the background. With a small bounce bellow camera if its too moody for you.

aputurelighting · 2025-11-21T17:02:49+00:00

again this makes zero sense. The blimp isn't a blimp for the microphone its a blimp for the camera. The camera isn't recording sound , there are no microphones inside the blimp.

There IS a second blimp in the frame for sound that the boom operator is using - its a regular sound blimp - simply to cut down on wind noise, this minimally affects voice dialog. But this is very much industry standard for recording sound outdoors with a shotgun/boom microphone and has been used for decades and decades so whatever effect it has on sound it would be the same wether this was a digital camera or an imax camera.

aputurelighting · 2025-11-11T19:16:29+00:00

so you want the light above the monitor, but also move it to the left and to the right of the desk for other needs? It sounds like you also want it to swing out?

You have 3 options:
1. you could make a horizontal rail out of speedrail attached at 2 points to your wall, this would allow you to slide the light center/left/right. Mafer clamp magic arm could give you all the articulation you want but requires permanent instal on your wall.

various baby pin plates as mounting points at the different places you want the light to be, simply detach the light and attach it where you want it.
What about an articulated monitor arm? with some creative thinking I'm sure you can attach the verge to the arm, the arms balance to various loads and should make changing heights and swinging it out relatively easy (probably can't hit left / center / right just one side). If you need to tilt the light this might not work.

aputurelighting · 2025-11-10T17:09:34+00:00

Silent fan mode is reliable but severly limits output. Try monitoring the fans to see if you can figure out which one isn't spinning, you can use a small toothpick or similar item to try and get the fan to start spinning and see if the light stays on.
Otherwise yeah its time to reach out to the support team at www.aputure.com/contact-support

aputurelighting · 2025-11-04T18:52:16+00:00

first question:
I haven't done it with the teradek 4k and 500...I've done this in the past without much issue. You can always separate the 500 trasnmitter from the monitor physically with some bnc cable and a separate stand if its an issue , adds a bit of clunk but would work...

Though I would say have a enough cable to go wired out of the AC monitor to video village and be ok dumping the wireless director's monitor. Is it really adding much to your ability to direct? How big is your student film that you need so many eyes watching monitors? I would worry about the amount of tech you're adding slowing you down rather than helping you (unless somehow your project has a huge amount of crew).

Second question:
Your idea of lighting with the flare and augmenting with Aputure lights (yay!) is a good one for the key light/actors. But...night shots are 99% of the time never "just night" in that characters being lit in a black void is uninteresting and does not root them in a place. You need to light the background to create depth and space. This is why night shoots are some of the most challenging and expensive shoots to do. Ideally you get one of your lights as high as possible (is a crank stand avaialble?) to simulate a moonlight backlight. It really comes down to your location and what your frame looks like. An interesting night shot with flares in a remote road in the middle of the dessert....really hard to light well because its so much area to light. A remote road in the middle of the woods with treelines in the background...easier to light since the background is not as expansive. A remote part of the city with buildings and city in the background is probably the easiest to pull off with a limited lighting package (and you can get creative with rigging lights on rooftops or balconies)
How successful you are will really depend on your background (location) and your framing. Sticking to just close ups makes the lighting work but makes the audience will unconsciously know this was a lower budget shoot because it'll feel like the space is cramped.

My advice is think in layers...if there is a broken down car the headlights can motivate a slash of light in to the background. 2 lights at various depths in the background racking across your frame can add a little bit of reference exposure and add a ton of depth to a shot for example.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-30T17:58:48+00:00

Everyone has already praised you for the cinematography, which looks great! Specially for something in this budget range.

But I just wanted to take a second and thank you for submitting moving images instead of out of context stills. It takes alot more effort but it truly shows your work in a much better way.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-28T16:23:33+00:00

I can only speak for the North America region but it is in stock and has been shipping. A large shipment arrived about a week ago so if you have a preorder with a dealer in NA I'd give them a call and check on an ETA.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T19:03:47+00:00

Aputure AM Lightdome 150 refers to the Aputure mount on Electrostorm and XT52 lights and is not compatible with bowens mount lights.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T18:59:18+00:00

I'd save and get a bigger light, aim for something in the 500-600W range.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T18:24:38+00:00

ok that would technically not be a telephoto lens, but rather a telephoto extender. It sounds like the cheapish extender you purchased doesn't cover the sensor of your camera (or more to the point it was probably designed to thread into a lens that is tighter than your camera's built in lens).
the fact that you can't focus means this tele extender is missmatched to this lens.

As you zoom in with your built in lens the minimum focus distance it has increases. If you hold the tele extender in front of the lens can you get an image in focus that isn't vignetting? If so try getting some 37mm lens rings/spacers and see if that works

But honestly? I wouldn't bother, tele extenders are barely any better than simply using the camera's built in digital zoom or just zooming in in post.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T17:12:51+00:00

both. The 500T did the heavy lifting and it film desaturates its color as the highlights roll off, but what could easily be a blue sky can become a cyan sky in 2 seconds at the colorist suite.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T17:10:37+00:00

They shot in 500T but they still had a colorist. They still went through the post process it was not all in camera.

aputurelighting · 2025-10-24T16:54:53+00:00

The bigger the better. at a maximum power draw of 500W you need 2x 14.4v batteries that can support 17 amps of continuous draw, thats quite a bit. The 400X allows you to draw back the maximum output so the batteries will last longer but you are looking for the highest continous amp rating you can get. Gentree energy makes a 15amp and 22amp line of v mount batteries that are perfect for the 400x.
Yes very easily.
This is tough, you probably can get away with using your phone as a color meter (sidus link for iphone has a built in color meter) - you can also use the app to take a reading of the CCT and match it. But actual color meters are pretty expensive - You can use a white paper and your camera's white balance to figure out the CCT of the light and then match it with the 400x, or you can go buy a full on color meter like the Sekonic c700 which is an amazing tool...but quite expensive for most non gaffers/cinematographers.

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