Hot lights?

IamMarcoPolo said:
http://www.shuttertalk.com/2006/03/putting-together-a-budget-diy-lighting-system.html

what are you opinions on this for portrait work?

3 of these?

Advantages/disadvantages?

Many thanks

(home set up)
Click to expand...

So many disadvantages that I can't even start to list them, the first being, you know how hot those things get? ;). You'd be better off with a few of the yonguno speed light flashes than that, and would probably cost pretty much exactly the same, they're meant to be pretty good for a first step. Get one and work from there
 
itsdavedotnet said:
So many disadvantages that I can't even start to list them, the first being, you know how hot those things get? ;). You'd be better off with a few of the yonguno speed light flashes than that, and would probably cost pretty much exactly the same, they're meant to be pretty good for a first step. Get one and work from there
Click to expand...

could you list a few of the disadvantages?
 
IamMarcoPolo said:
could you list a few of the disadvantages?
Click to expand...

- very physically hot. Makes you sweat
- lots of power
- not *actually* very much light. The short sharp pulse of light given out from a flash is far better for most photography, especially portraits
- always on, so the subject's pupils go really small - not as flattering light

and the key really:

- you can't really control the light from these. Any gel, shaper or softbox that you tried to put on the front would melt pretty sharpish unless it was an expensive one especially designed for these types of lights.

With portraiture in particular, the important thing isn't so much the -quantity- of light, but the -quality- and shape - how big a light source is affects the shadows, particularly across someone's face. I really, really can't stress how important this is - with a few of these floodlights, yes, you get a fair amount of light, but you can't really control it

(though really not enough to get a decent aperture - when you're shooting at 1/250th second, to freeze motion to get a sharp shot, it really cuts it down a LOT - makes it about 2ws - whereas a speedlight at full power gives out 90ws - a huge difference!)
 
Good grief :eek: No.

If you want continuous lights, use fluorescents. But flash is much better.
 
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