advise on different types of bulbs and watt?

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hpoolsarah

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sarah
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hi, i couldnt find anything on hear about bulbs so posting a new thread.

im just wanting some advise and info on the different types of bulbs for studio photography, and what watt bulb should i be looking at?
i have read things on google and ther jst seems soo many different types of bulbs and watts.. so im totaly stuk what to go for and what would be right for my type of photography.

i have currently been taking photos of children at home and have a set up studio, white vinyl high key background 3 umbrellas with bulbs which say energy bulb 36w this sounds really low! but as itsa a energy bulb could it be a higher watt but only using 36w? iv read of pple using 1200 watt bulb should i be lookin at something this high? any help would be great.

it dose not say what typeof bulb i have on the box, im having to light most of my shots up to get the bright white look, i also have a speedlight 430 which i use.
if anyone else is doing the same as me would be great if you can help me owt of let me no which bulb you use.
thanks
sarah
 
What you're talking about here is continuous lighting, which is a very bad choice for any kind of people photography. Use flash instead.

Turning to your specific question, as a very rough figure fluorescent lights produce about 4-5x as much light per watt as tungsten lights, so your 36w lamps will probably produce as much light as 150 watts or so of quartz lighting, and without the heat that makes quartz lighting unacceptable.

But it still isn't much, you'll have to use high ISO settings to get any kind of usable shutter speed, you'll probably still get camera shake unless you use a tripod, the light will seem very bright to your subjects so they'll squint and their pupils will look very small, and because there will be little or no power adjustment you'll have to move your lights closer or further away to get an effective change in power, which will dramatically change the quality of the light.
 
The general consensus is that in the studio for portraits a set of flash heads is best! There is no reason why you can't use high powered energy bulbs for your key lights and your 430ex for the background light, but you either need to get day light balance bulbs or gel your flash to match the colour temp of the bulbs! 36watt bulbs are about as powerful as you going to get off the shelf but eBay has some high power ones and the higher the better. As mentioned before if you want to take it further you should start thinking about studio lights. There are plenty of budget packages
 
thankyou for the replys but yeah im kind of confused, i just wanted to know what type of bulb i shoud be using as im looking for something brighter.. wondering what watt bulb photographers owt ther use for studio photos? some 1 said the brighter the better so shout i go for a 1200 watt bulb? but what type ?
i thought mine wer studio lights?
i also use my flash aswell speedlight 430 i think it is and payed about 200 for it,
one of yous said to youse the flash for the background and the lights for the subject.... i have been using my lights 1 either side but sort or behid the subject towards the backround as i found this helped avioding the shadows, and the 3rd light and umbrella pointing at the subject and i also bounce my flash of celling or sort of diaganally towards background and celing, but i stil end up playing witht he lighing and sometimes movin them on the subject and bounce flash for the background.
my photos arnt to dark i would just like them alot lighter, i dnt struggle to get a good shot and use around iso 400 and lower with the flash.

the last post added a link for a flah will my flash just do the same as this?
sorry for all the questions. Thanks :-)
 
I thought we'd explained it...

Basically you have a choice, continuous lighting or flash. Almost everyone uses flash for the reasons already given, but if you want to use continuous lighting then fine. Brighter bulbs though aren't necessarily better for you because they will be even more uncomfortable for your subjects than dim ones.

And in case you're not sure, there are various types of flash, including studio flash and the type of flash that fits on your camera. They work in different ways and have different advantages and disadvantages, but they are still both flash.

And please don't consider the on-camera continuous light in the link.
 
That on camera led light only has one use.
That's on a small tripod for macro and close up. Pretty useless for anything else.

If money is an issue you can pick up Chinese manual flash guns and Chinese triggers very cheap.

I have an sb-28 and 2 Chinese flashguns with 3 receivers and a trigger. Whole lot cost about £120 and then Won 2 manfrotto light stands, a pop up 50cm softbox, 1 large multi cover umbrella, 1 silver umbrella, full set of gels and bag for £80 on eBay. Plenty of 2nd hand bargains pop up :)
 
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