Flash or studio lighting

[Tomeboy69]

My first newbee question.
If you have studio lighting set up for portraits, why do you need flash? Or....
Is there a reason I would use one or the other - or both?

Thanks!

Tom

 

[eravedesigns]

studio lights in general are flashes (strobes, monolights). You wouldnt need a flash (I am assuming you mean a flash that goes on your camera..a hot-shoe flash) because your studio lighting is already tons of power. Studio lights can get up to hundreds of watts of power. You can get alienbee monolights that are 400 watts and some hot-shoe flashes only go up to 250. So with studio lights your going to have more power, flexability in postitioning your lights and way more control in general. If you are using a hot-shoe flash generally you are stuck to having it on your camera and shooting directly at a subject but in some cases you can trigger them with a slave ( a device that makes a flash go off when it sees another flash)

 

[EOS_JD]

On-camera flash is used more as a portable lighting device for when studio flash is not practical.

Studio flash is used in a controlled environment to provide studio style images. Power can be anything from 150Ws to 1600Ws and more! There's a lot more accessories to modify the light which also makes them much more useful.

 

[fmw]

There is a good reason you would turn off the flash unit on your camera and never use it again. It is that on camera flash produces awful images - every time.

 

[Tomeboy69]

Because of my lack of terminology I think I may have confused you all. So, if I'm purchasing lighting for a studio setup, I see always on (let's say worklights)(I don't know the correct name) lights for lighting using softboxes or reflectors, and then there are flashes (bouncing off umbrellas). If my subject is lit well with lights, do I need external flash equipment?

Hope this makes sense.

Thank You,

Tom

 

[bakstreet]

I could use a little help on this topic as well. I am using a Canon EOS Digital Rebel, I have a set of "hot lights" 250 watts each with umbrellas, I use muslin backdrops most of the time for my portraits. For some reason I am not getting enough light. I've messed with just about every setting on my camera and the only way I can make it work is if I set my ISO speed up to like 1600 or so. If I put my camera on an automatic setting it signals the flash everytime like it's not gettin enough light. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, I can have both hot lights on, the light in the room turned on and it still doesn't seem to have enough light. Where do I start trying to correct this problem? Any help or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Digital Matt]

Keep in mind, your eyes see very differently than the medium you are capturing to with your camera. What looks like a lot of light to you, is in fact very little light to your camera.

Hot lights, or continuous output lights, work very well for lighting still lifes. You can see exactly, the quality of light you are getting. These do not work well however for shooting people. The lights produce a lot of heat, and relatively low light output photographically speaking. You'll be very restricted when it comes to shutter speeds and apertures, and thus your creativity is hindered. Strobes are recommened for shooting people, because they produce little to no heat, and the short burst of intensley bright light allows for a lot of freedom. If you plan to shoot people, strobes are your best bet.

 

[Tomeboy69]

Thanks Matt (both digital and analog),

That's exactly what I was asking. You've saved me from creating an oven in my house (my wife will thank you for the electric savings). Now to go find a setup....


Thanks again,

Tom

 

[Digital Matt]

Check out Alien Bees.

www.alienbees.com

 

[gizmo2071]

I also think your talking about modelling bulbs aswell.
These come with the larger flash units and can be left on continously.
It's just to provide an indication of how the flash might fall, but are not powerful enough to have a fast shutter speed at lowest iso.

 

[ADELICATEIMAGE]

How Can i Tell if a setup is compatable with my rebel xt. is a PC Sync Cord Compatable ? Need Help.......

 

[Digital Matt]

I don't think the Rebel XT has a PC socket. You can buy a hotshoe-pc adapater. The only requirement for strobes being compatible with digital cameras is the sync voltage. It must be 6v or less. I know alienbees/white lightning are safe. You can also buy a "safe sync" adapter which will cut the voltage down if need be.