CFL Studio Setup or Not?

[astroNikon]

There's alot to learn ...
You can also get a mentor here at TPF to help you along your way
and there's plenty of books out there too. I just ordered this one ==> Monte Zucker s Portrait Photography Handbook Monte Zucker 9781584282136 Amazon.com Books

there's alot on the internet but it all seems to be lacking depth and detail.
I haven't photographed people in a while now but starting to get back into it. I thought I would read more and get more ideas than just straight up studio shots.

 

[kellyhenselle]

CFL lighting (Crummy Freakin' Lame ) is a way that a number of eBay vendors have come up with to create attractive-looking, low-priced lighting kits. The costs are low for these vendors, so they can pile the kits full of junky accessories, which boosts the "piece count"; 12-piece complete lighting kit! 15-piece studio in a box! And so on...

...

The LACK of modifiers, light shaping tools, like parabolic reflectors, barn doors, and honeycomb grids, is what really kills the e-Bay and on-line CFL kits for "real lighting". Having lights that can use ONLY umbrellas and softboxes is what makes these CFL kits so limiting for creative lighting tasks.

CFL lighting (Crummy Freakin' Lame )... lol I love that... I heard once it stands for cheap freakin' light...

Great points Derrel... Thank you. I should have also considered different type of modifiers... I though softbox can cover almost every purpose.

 

[kellyhenselle]

Speaking of light modifiers . . . .
The small umbrellas and or soft boxes that come with those kits are only big enough for one subject portrait head shots, or head and shoulder shots.
If you want to shoot multiple subjects, 1/2 body, 3/4 body or full body you will need larger light modifiers.
As light modifier size increases you need more light power because some light power is absorbed by the light modifier.

You are right that watts, watt seconds, and the GN number used for stating hot shoe flash unit power are not directly comparable.
From experience, a 500 watt tungsten/incandescent constant light is about equivalent to a 150 watt second strobe light set to full power.

Unfortunately hot shoe flash unit GN numbers are all over the map and hot shoe flash makers manipulate the numbers for marketing purposes and hot shoe flash GN numbers cannot even be compared to each other with any accuracy.

Lol.. I am having too much input in 1 day... Now there is GN number???

All these information must be artifacts of years of study and experiences... I am a little swamped...

 

[astroNikon]

Lol.. I am having too much input in 1 day... Now there is GN number???

All these information must be artifacts of years of study and experiences... I am a little swamped...

FWIW, it is over whelming. Just tackle one thing at a time until you understand it.

But you'll find out if you want to photo people to go with strobes/flashes instead of continuous. yes Continuous you can see the shadows BUT .. then you'll need different intensity bulbs. If you have 2 lights on one the left and one on the right and they are both the same intensity and same distance, you shouldn't get any shadows then .. right ?

Essentially in a studio a standard setup is a (1) Key, (2) Fill & (3) Hair lights. yes there are alternatives with using a reflector, and more lights, etc
With Strobes/flashes you can control the light intensity very easily and quickly of each individual strobe/flash to get the exact shadows that you want.

You can test CFLs probably right now. Get 2 lamps and put CFLs on them.

 

[Designer]

My thinking was 2400W CFL kit will let me show much more clearly where light and shadow fall.

The comparison is actually between speedlights (that do not contain a modeling light) and studio strobes (which DO contain a modeling light).

I apologize if you misunderstood.