Continous or Flash

Wheels

Wheels

Julian Keeler
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Which is best for a studio situation?? And why
 
It really depends on the purpose of use, but I'd say flash light is much better for studio situation and photography, you have more control over the power, plus with continues light your model is gonna warm up very quickly.
 
Flash is bright, cool, adjustable power, good stable colour. Continuous light for video.
 
Wheels said:
Which is best for a studio situation?? And why
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Open ended question aside there is alot of information floating around on both.

Short answer Flash.

Long answer

Garry Edwards said:
Beginners often like the idea of continuous lighting because they (wrongly) believe that it's easier than flash, but in fact it has a lot of disadvantage and no advantages that I can think of.

Will your setup work? Yes, up to a point. Power may be an issue though. You say that your softbox lights will produce 1400 w of light. They won't, but I'm guessing that the seller is claiming that they produce the equivalent of 1400 w. If they do, then that equates to an equivalent to about 5.6ws of flash, assuming that you use a shutter speed of 1/250th second. That's pathetic.
If you slow the shutter speed down to 1/25th second then you get a light output roughly the same a hotshoe flashgun, which is just about acceptable but you'll also get subject blur and camera shake, which aren't acceptable. The result? You'll need to use a high ISO, which will of course reduce image quality.

If that isn't bad enough, you're proposing to use LESS power in the Hi-Lite, when it needs to have MORE power.

And the colour temperature may (or may not be) 5000K - but what about the Color Rendition Index?

No fluorescent light designed for home use can ever reproduce all colours accurately, and unless the CRI is around 95 or more then some colours will definately be off. For example, reds will reproduce as orange and pink skin will look yellow. Bad CRI can't be corrected on computer, or at least not well or quickly.

Even if these lights have a very high CRI and even if you're happy with the quality produced at a high ISO setting, you'll still have all the other limitations of continuous lighting.

My advice?
Do what nearly everyone else does and use flash.
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Wow seems i can use the search function :)
 
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As I am totally clueless about these, that's also the question I wanted to ask. As I have some free space in my basement, I was thinking about setting up few lights there, just to try it out. Is it also advisable to mix both techniques, to have a bit of continuous light and flashes?

I'm thinking about most possible budget set up as (are these kits from ebay any good???), as can't really justify to spend £500+ for a hobby set up.

Shall I start with couple of flashes and brolies first (again, I have no clue how to set it up, so any links to tutorials for absolute beginners would be helpful)?

Mariusz
 
Fazi27 said:
As I am totally clueless about these, that's also the question I wanted to ask. As I have some free space in my basement, I was thinking about setting up few lights there, just to try it out. Is it also advisable to mix both techniques, to have a bit of continuous light and flashes?

I'm thinking about most possible budget set up as (are these kits from ebay any good???), as can't really justify to spend £500+ for a hobby set up.

Shall I start with couple of flashes and brolies first (again, I have no clue how to set it up, so any links to tutorials for absolute beginners would be helpful)?

Mariusz
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Most people are totally clueless about it, which is why the junk sold on Ebay finds buyers - don't be one of the mugs:)

There's a whole pile of reasons why you should go for flash instead of continuous lighting but, at the end of the day, light is light and as long as you have light you can produce photos, it's really more about what type of photos you can produce and how easy the process is, both for photographer and subject. Flash is easy, safe, versatile, efficient and people don't get dazzled by it.

TV and film studios have to use continuous lighting and they get brilliant results - but they also have massive studios, the very best lighting experts there are, the very best equipment, which is unbelievably expensive, and they're filming talent that doesn't get fazed by heat or bright lights.

Mixing continuous light and flash? Yes, it can be done provided that both are the same colour temperature, but then you have the problem that although continous light looks bright, it actually has very little power, and you're mixing it with a very powerful flash. Continuous lighting used in the home relies on high ISO, long shutter speeds and large apertures. Flash works at low ISO (for better image quality) fairly small apertures and the shutter speed can be as high as around 1/200th. It's a bit like saying "can we drive a few hundred miles in a convoy made up of rally cars and vintage cars?" Yes you can, but much easier if you don't...

So, if your budget won't stretch to studio flash, get a couple of hotshoe flashguns instead, use them off camera and see what you can do with them. With very little in terms of either equipment or knowledge, you can produce pretty average results. With a lot of care and knowledge, you can be fairly creative too, so even though IMO they don't come close to studio flash in the studio, they're a much better choice than continous lighting.
 
Wow Gary, thanks for advice! I surely will give it a go, still need to clean and heat up the basement though :)

I think I might also come to one of your lectures, if my bank manager allows of course. After all, Bradford is just around the corner...

Mariusz
 
Garry Edwards said:
TV and film studios have to use continuous lighting and they get brilliant results - but they also have massive studios, the very best lighting experts there are, the very best equipment, which is unbelievably expensive, and they're filming talent that doesn't get fazed by heat or bright lights.
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if you've got a few quid to spare, there's 8 of the finest studios in europe up for grabs in a purpose-built landmark building in west london (with a few small ones thrown in as a bonus) since the geniuses at the top of the bbc can't see more than a year ahead on a spreadsheet any more.

Sorry, bit off topic there, I blame this cheap plonk...

Ps not so sure about the "talent" coping with the heat though... Makeup is the most important department after lighting! :lol:
 
Fazi27 said:
As I am totally clueless about these, that's also the question I wanted to ask. As I have some free space in my basement, I was thinking about setting up few lights there, just to try it out. Is it also advisable to mix both techniques, to have a bit of continuous light and flashes?

I'm thinking about most possible budget set up as (are these kits from ebay any good???), as can't really justify to spend £500+ for a hobby set up.

Shall I start with couple of flashes and brolies first (again, I have no clue how to set it up, so any links to tutorials for absolute beginners would be helpful)?

Mariusz
Click to expand...

What are you photographing? If you're doing moving subjects then mixing flash and continuos is not going to work as you're still going to have to use a long shutter time to properly expose the areas lit by the continuous lighting regardless of the fact you're using flash. Continuous lighting is ok for product photography, and is actually my prefered way of working because people are mostly a similar shape and you can get a good idea of how to light someone very quickly so you're not usually too far off on your first shot, but products can be all shapes and sizes so I prefer to experiment and see results instantly. I can then switch into flash when I know where to put my lights

If I was going to go for continious on a budget i'd look at the smick light bank, 7x 50w bulbs in a twin head kit with huge softboxes. Anything less than 1k equivalent is no where near enough, flourescent lighting doesn't give great colour responce (even the pro grade stuff) and they do get hot after about 15 minutes, HMI is a massive pita (and expensive). Hotshoe mounted strobes are probably your best option, or look into LED lighting panels
 
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