All About Lights (Day 3378 - 2/23/19)

Previous Vlog (Day 3377) | Next Vlog (Day 3379)

The vlog starts out with Stephen filming Sagan and telling him to say that today's vlog is "all about lights". Stephen says "Let there be light" and Mallory turns on the light on the range hood above the stove. Mal turns it off and Stephen says "Let there be light again" and Mal turns it on and it's a dimmer light and Stephen comments how that was not as exciting. Stephen then talks about how 7 bulbs around their house have burned out. Mal said that she had to replace 2 other bulbs a week ago. Stephen says that this house is either haunted or more realistically it was wired by an imbecile. He said that the light bulbs burn out a lot especially the ones in the office which they had to replace often before. Mal said that they have not had to replace the bulbs in the office lately, but for a brief time they had to replace them often and they learned that it had to do with LED light bulbs they were using.

Stephen said that when they moved into the house they bought LED light bulbs which they thought would last for a long time, but the LED light bulbs were burnt out within a month. He said that the light bulbs burnt out to the point that they wouldn't work even if you tried putting it in a different light socket. Stephen said that they eventually figured out that they had to use traditional light bulbs in order for it to work and they have stuck to traditional light bulbs ever since. However, even the traditional light bulbs still burn out very quickly. Stephen said that today they went out to buy a light bulb for the range hood because they needed to have a light over the stove. Mal says that a certain corner of the kitchen counter next to the stove is very dark and the only light there comes from the range hood light. She said that she wasn't able to use the range hood light when she made cupcakes in that corner on vlog Day 3375 because it wasn't working.

Mal says that the light bulbs in the hallway have never been replaced except for the middle light bulb that is in front of a closet. She said that it burnt out sometime on their last trip and Stephen's dad ended up replacing it for them. Stephen then says that they have replaced 2 light bulbs in the hallway since there was only 1 light bulb working, so they decided to replace both together. He then talks about how the lighting in their bedroom is very dim and he and Mal had been talking about adding an extra light bulb to make it brighter. They both presumed that the lighting fixture holds 2 light bulbs since their bedroom was so dim with only 1 light bulb, but the fixture actually could hold 3 light bulbs. So, their light fixture had 1 light working, 1 light not working, and 1 light missing. He said that they replaced the light bulbs and their bedroom was finally bright after being dim for 2 years. Stephen said that he and Mal don't spend a lot of time in their anyway so that was why they weren't in a hurry to replace the light bulbs in there. Mal told Stephen that 1 light bulb went out in his bathroom and she had replaced it. Stephen said that he didn't notice because it is a globe light fixture that has 6 lights and it is not really noticeable if 1 of those 6 goes out. Mal then talks about how one of the flood lights in the back of their house went out. She said that when Jeff was at their house and emptied out their gutters, he barely touched the flood light and it fell with the metal part still in there. Mal said that Jeff got the metal part out because they had corks and so they replaced that.

Stephen then talks about how Mal has been using same lighting kits for MalMakes since it began. A clip from vlog Day 2187 shows the first day that they had gotten those lights which was back in 2015. Stephen says that those lights are very cheap and when they moved into the house one of them broke. So, they only had 3 lights out of the 4 left. Stephen said that they both talked about getting Mal a new lighting kit so they ordered one online. He says that he is going to unbox the lighting kit today. Kepler then walks into the frame and Stephen says that he knows that Kepler probably won't like the new lights.

Stephen talks about yesterday's gaming stream and how he and Mal played some more Tetris 99 after they ended the vlog. Stephen says that Mal ended up getting 2nd place which beat the record he set at 3rd place before. He then talks about how they had game night today and a few people were sick so they just talked and played games on their own. Stephen then walks to the office and shows his computer screen which show that he finally got 1st place in Tetris 99. He then says that after all this time he is as good as Thomas, except that Thomas is consistently in the top 10.

Stephen then proceeds to unbox Mal's new lights. Stephen said that Mal has been using CFL bulbs from Cowboy Studio that work fine, but they are very cheap. So, he wanted to get some better lights. Stephen says that these LED panels are from a company called Fovitec. He then talks about how he wanted to stop the image down for MalMakes. Stephen says that Mal shoots with an aperture that is open all the way which lets in light, but he wanted to stop it down so that it can be more in focus. He said that the problem with Mal's paintings is that they have to stop it in the center of the painting and so the edges of the painting look a bit soft. Stephen said that if they are able to introduce more light, then they can close the aperture and get more focus. He said that the LED panels came from the same company they got the LED panels in the office from, except the panels in the office have 600 LED lights while Mal's lights each have 1,200 LED lights. Stephen says that these lights are bright enough that they could be used outside like for wedding photography.

Stephen is curious about how the light stands compare to the Cowboy Studio light stands. He says that they are a little sturdier, heavier, and are spring loaded unlike the Cowboy Studio stands. Stephen then talks about the terrible design for the cable. The cable for the light stand has a short cable above where the adapter is connected, while the cable below it is long which makes it so that the adapter is hanging in mid-air when it it connected to the light stand. This puts a strain on the wire above the adapter which is not good to do over a long period of time. Stephen then talks about how they got these on Amazon and if you want professional lights you have to pay for them. He said that you can buy expensive lights on B & H, but that it is going to be really expensive.

Stephen then adjusts the light stand to the lowest setting and the cable is still not long enough so the adapter is still hanging in mid-air. Stephen says that he wishes the lengths of the cables on each side of the adapter were switched since the cable below the adapter is very long. He then talks about how the LED panels he got were for daylight only and that they do make LED panels where half are for daylight and half is for warm lights. Stephen says that the advantage of those lights is that you have 2 different color temperatures, while the disadvantage is that you have half the power. He says that he thought it would be better to get the daylight one because you're never going to really use day light and warm lights at the same time. Stephen then tries to adjust the brightness of the lights and says that even at 1% it's still really bright. Stephen mentions that a lot of LEDs take a minute to power on completely.

Stephen then talks about how for some people the AC adapter would not be an issue because it is only needed it if you are using it in a studio setting. He said that the LED panels also take in V lock batteries, so if you have the V lock batteries that are used in professional cameras you can slide them in there and it would work. He then talks about how these LED panels are twice as bright as the ones in the office. Stephen says that the lights are so bright that he can't even see. He said that Mal's lights don't have a diffusion, but they have a clear and warm filter that you can put in front of it.

The video then transitions to Stephen already having the other light set up and putting in the diffusion filters in front of the lights. Stephen said that these lights would probably need more diffusion material because he had to paper in front of the LED panels in the office to diffuse them further. Stephen then turns off the lights and it's pitch black. He then regrets his decision because he can't see where the button to turn on the LED panel is. He turns on the LED panels and Mal yells "Ahh!" because the lights were blinding her eyes. Stephen then tells Mal that the lights are still only on the low setting and Mal is astonished. Mal says that she can't look directly at Stephen because of the lights and she covers her eyes from the lights. Stephen then states that at 1 meter away each light had about 12,000-13,000 lumen. He then says that they have clamps to hold the diffusion material in place, but they still have to figure out what material to use to diffuse these lights further. Mal then asks Stephen how she is going to be able to see anything while painting if these lights are so bright.

Kit Kat Flavor Tried: Matcha no Chikara (The Power of Matcha)

Stephen talks about how they were having matcha flavored Kit Kats back to back since yesterday's Kit Kat was also matcha flavored. They both said that this Kit Kat was not as good as yesterday's Sublime Matcha Kit Kat. Mal said that she doesn't like it even a little bit. Stephen was eating it and then suddenly exclaimed that the aftertaste was horrible. He said that they went from eating the best matcha flavored Kit Kat (Sublime Matcha Kit Kat) to the worst matcha flavored one.

Stephen then talks about how Mal can't use these new lights yet because she is in the middle of a painting and can't switch out lighting. He said that switching out the lighting would make it so parts of the video look different and he didn't want to do that. Stephen then talks about how great these new lights are and that they are versatile and can be used for MalMakes or for VlogMail. However, he says that the length of the cable is bad and wonders if it might be possible to get extension cable that is 3 ft long. He also talks about how happy he is with 600 LED light panels that he has in the office.