Modelling Light - Worth considering?

yoby

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Dave
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Hi all,
Not really ventured too far into artificiall lighting, but fast approaching the stage where I feel I ought to. I have a Flash which I do use both on and off camera but want to try and get a little bit more sophisticated.

Received in with the usual Monday spam, a 7 day shop email where they have a modelling light on special offer.

CLICKY

Leaving opinions on 7day to one side (I've used them on numerous occasiuons and not had any problems aside from slower than 'normal' delivery) would this be a useful 'all round' piece of kit for say product shots and maybe some macro work (along with some extra lighting for portraits of course) or is it another cheapy snake oil solution that could be recreated with a couple of table lamps.....

Would appreciate your opinions on this if possible...
Cheers
Dave
 
I just used one of the smaller ones to light the couple at the first dance of the wedding and it gave a nice spotlight effect. Wouldn't like to use it too far away though.
 
It's actually a video light, a modelling light is something entirely different.

Useful? Nowhere near as useful or as versatile as an on camera flash IMO. Usable certainly, but only if you set the camera to pretty high ISO
 
I think probably one of the best uses is when you want several shots in rapid succession and your flashgun won't recycle fast enough.
 
Buy a flash first. Far more versatile.


These do look cool though, I shot entirely by a small LED video light yesterday because I was working with special needs children who didn't seem to like the flash... worked fine.
 
I use them a lot for fill light on natural light portraits, more subtle than using flash to fill and WYSIWYG so much easier to get a natural looking result I find. I've had good results with them at gigs too, they give a nice subtle touch of extra light without killing the atmosphere.
 
Cheers for the responses everyone - I do have one flash already and use it fairly regularly for fill outdoors, and indoor portraits. Finding myself to be a bit limited now and could do with another flash for backlighting etc. but budget is an issue. I guess I was wondering really whether this would be a useful for lighting the subject, so I could use my Flash to light the background or perhaps add some rimlight whilst using the 'modelling' light as a source for the subject. Just to get a bit more creative than having only one flash allows.

Might get myself one anyhow, just to see how it goes. there's always the bay of e if it's not much good.
 
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