EGO Portraits for Summer Theater 2007

Click on photos to enlarge - Here, our German professor with a very convincing bald cap. Two EGOS - Ego No. 1 illuminates both the background and is turned just enough to create a rim light on the shadow side of the actors' faces. Ego No. 2 provides the "main" light and is functionally enlarged for the 3/4 portraits with a simple piece of tracing paper (#3 above) that spreads the useful diffusion surface to become similar to the coverage needed to show off some of the costuming of the thesbians. The background material is a very inexpensive lightweight non-woven paper measuring 12 x 24 feet purchased for $30 during the Photo Marketing Association show from a Chinese company - I am trying to track them down to learn their American selling agent. As to getting the EGO up on a studio lightstands, see details in a subsequent blog entry.

EGO, the light for Video Blogging

Tired of looking twenty years older than Noah while spouting the wisdom of the ages? Yes, it is true that video cameras are now so sensitive you can light your face from the monitor - that's cool, really cool! as the monitors have a native white point somewhere in the very blue 7000 or 9000 degrees Kelvin. And your light source is ghoulishly coming from below your camera position. Look at some of these faces on bloggingheads.

Better to compliment yourself and your viewers with a 5000K high color (92 CRI) wide spectrum beauty light - the Lowel EGO was designed to make photographs of products even better than life and you are your own best product, so....follows.. and it's much cheaper than surgery.

Ingredients needed:
1 Lowel EGO with 5500K high color lamps, 120Vac USA, Japan (240Vac version available)
Option - adjustable table top tripod

EGO, the light for SAD (Winter Blues) Interventions

My design work for the Columbia University's Clinical Chronobiology and Winter Depression Programs under Dr. Michael Terman led to the development of light diffusion systems for Dawn and Dusk Simulation over sleeping and waking subject and then to lightboxes for suppression of melatonin as it seems to relate to winter blues by improvement of sleep and mood especially due to lack of light in the short winter days. Dr. Terman's group formed the Center for Environmental Therapeutics (CET.org) as a research foundation educating individuals and corporations to change lighting in the home and work space to improve productivity, mood and subsequent sleep.

An even larger problem than seasonal lack of light is the lack of light due to the corporate light deprivation in most workspace cubicles - efficent illumination of a work space is NOT accomplished from the ceiling area - if the window office is still a day or two off in your corporate like consider taking action into your own eyes.

This version of EGO is re-marketed with two special high output 32 Watt 4100K lamps at SphereOne.com, owned by the CET group - so a portion of sales goes back into research.


Ingredients needed:
1 Lowel EGO with 4100K high lux lamps, 120Vac USA, Japan (240Vac version available)
1 Adjustable table top tripod to bring the lower edge of the EGO to slightly below eye level - that is, to mimic the position of the sky if you were outofdoors.

EGO, the light for Art and Craft Work and Reproduction

Any flat art larger than a flatbed scanner is a problem to digitize for the web or print. But with a good digital camera and the four EGOs with two tripods shown here, you could reproduce any flat art and painting up to four by six feet - goal is to cross light at 30 degrees off center from the four corners of the art work - so you are limited only by the height of your tripods or lightstands.

It then follows that a color critical reproduction lighting kit can also be used a artist or craftperson's daylight high color tasklight as they create their art. The tripods shown extend to 5 feet height or the EGO unit self stands on a table - giving flexibility to position one or all of the group to illuminate your task.

Ingredients needed:
4 Lowel EGO with 5500K high color lamps, 120Vac USA, Japan (240Vac version available)
2 Adjustable table top tripods

EGO, the light for Museum Conservation and Condition Reporting

My 200 Watt SCANDLES has done very well with museum and private conservators or art and artifacts due to high color daylight lamps that lack UV and IR (heat). Scandles has become a examination standard for condition reporting at world museums - Guggenheim New York needs the same lighting standard as the Guggenheim Venice as Bilboa.

But Scandles, at $1500 per fixure, it's a bit pricey and specialized. The EGO's first conservation client was the New York Public Library, so that each conservator could have their own high color, but low cost, tasklight. No heat (IR) and no UV (ultraviolet) - harm is minimized to the art, book or artifact you are repairing, recording or analyzing. Self standing or atop a tripod, cost is still below $200.

Ingredients needed:
1 Lowel EGO with 5500K high color lamps, 120Vac USA, Japan (240Vac version available)
Option - 1 adjustable table top tripod

EGO - the light for viewing Wine Clarity and Hue

I recently had a conversation with a winery in Oregon looking for a daylight, color critical, fluorescent SINGLE light BULB for visual examination of wine clarity, color and turbidity. After my explaination about broad diffusion, "CRI" and 5500K daylight, I suggested they take a look at the EGO's website, but the answer was "oh, we're not looking for photo lights". WAIT a moment - that's my fault. To me, photographing something with the wide spectrum high color EGO meant lighting anything with EGO - if it's good for film, it's perfect for color judgment - so yes, it was true that imaging was the first market - but anything else, visual or imaged motion, is the next market(s).

Whether wine production or wine tastings, without a visual repeatable stable lighting standard, the winery in Spain cannot know what the problem is when their shipment reached Oregon, or the customer's home cellar. Just as my Scandles has become a examination standard for condition reporting at world museums - Guggenheim New York needs the same lighting standard as the Guggenheim Venice as Bilboa, so EGO is the portable, repeatable color critical heatfree broad light source for judging clarity and hue, be it wine, cosmetics, food prep or any other critical color judgement task.

Ingredients needed:
1 Lowel EGO with 5500K high color lamps, 120Vac USA, Japan (240Vac version available)

EGO, for EBAY product lighting

The classic product photograph has a top light overhead to reveal shape and texture, then a second light source near the camera postion to sweep across the product, showing form by highlights and shadow. So two EGOs, one atop a tripod and one self standing hnxt to the camera position solve 90% of every EBay power seller imaging need. Take a look at "Lighting with Ego" blog for examples of everything from soup to nuts - OK, bread to bones.

Ingredients:
2 pcs EGO with 5500K lamps, 120V (240V version available)
1 pc EGO Sweep
1 pc Adjustable tripod