Product Review: Linco Table Top Lights

One of the biggest challenges for indie filmmakers is getting really good lighting. It's the difference between amateur cinematography and professional-looking cinematography.

I'll admit, when I started filmmaking, I was pretty bad at lighting. Or maybe I just didn't take it seriously. Too often I just relied on the lighting in the room. Practicals have their place, for sure, but practicals should rarely be your entire lighting strategy.

I had one of those work lights from Home Depot. You know, the ones with the metal clamp. I used one from time to time to throw more light on a scene. But, that's all I got really... was more light. And, it was an ugly incandescent light that tended to just give everything a more orange hue that would need to be worked out in color correcting. Plus the light was hard with zero diffusion.

It was finally on my one-minute film, STOOD UP, that I broke down and bought some table top studio lights. I am frugal by nature, and the lights I bought were about $50.

I highly recommend them, especially if you're just starting out in the lighting game. The lights plug in, so no concern about recharging batteries. Plus, the plugs are two prong so, if you're shooting in an older home as I often am, the search for a three-prong to two-prong adapter is not an issue. Even though the lights aren't tall, they are adjustable and get up to a height of two-and-half feet. They also come with a great diffuser.

Here's a photo of me setting up the lights for a shot. As you can see, I also have a skateboard under the camera... great for getting some camera movement.

Here is the resulting lighting/shot from STOOD UP.

If you're interested in these lights, you can find them here on Amazon. (I'm making zero dollars for promoting these)