HD lighting for video vs. lighting for portrait photography

[sayhitokatie]

in my university, we can rent out lighting equipment to use for filming video. the kit includes a fill light, a key light, and a back light. the fill and key lights have an umbrella and a soft box to put over them. can't you use this same kit for shooting portraits with a digital camera inside too? The man in charge of renting the equipment out claimed he couldnt give me the equipment becuase the lights are for HD video cameras and ONLY work with that, but i don't understand that if im trying to take basic portraits for an introduction to photography class and want to use these lights why they wont work. any help?

[TPF Sponsor]

[Big Mike]

If they are used for video, they will be constant (hot) lights. Yes, you can use these for still photography but they are not ideal for portraits. For one, they can get hot (depending on the type) and that may not be comfortable for the subjects. Two; they may not give you enough light to use a fast enough shutter speed to get really sharp shots. That is why it's usually preferable to use strobe (flash) type lights for portrait photography.

But as to why he would tell you that you can't use them....I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me either.

[bango707]

in my university, we can rent out lighting equipment to use for filming video. the kit includes a fill light, a key light, and a back light. the fill and key lights have an umbrella and a soft box to put over them.

Any light can be used as a key light, a fill light, and a back light. You wouldn't go to a camera store and tell them that you need a new hair or fill light because lights are lights. Now your key, fill, and backlight can all be the same kind of light i.e a 650W tungston fresnel, it all comes down to the ratios of lights for key and fill and the position of the light for a backlight/rim light. They sell different accessories to help facilitate a specific kind/quality of light (a softbox for a fill light, barn doors or a snoot for a hair light). The key light is your main light source, that can be anything from natural light coming through a window or a 25K softsun filling a football stadium just as longs as it is motivating the light in your shot. Fill light obviously fills in the shadows and again this can be any light that is less intense than your key light. The back light is a light that is used to separate your subject from the background.

The equipment guy either doesn't have the slightest idea what he is talking about or there was some miscommunication about what you were doing when you picked up the gear.