Got a lighting kit! Woot!

manaheim · May 3, 2009

My brother-in-law is giving up on photography as a hobby so he gave me his still-in-box Smith Victor 750 lighting kit. Never even used. 750 watts total, 3 6' aluminum stands, 2 larger reflectors and one smaller one.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. :lol:

Crazydad · May 4, 2009

Awesome! I have no doubt you will figure out what to do with it. Now how do I convince my wife that I need one?

JerryPH · May 4, 2009

manaheim said:
My brother-in-law is giving up on photography as a hobby so he gave me his still-in-box Smith Victor 750 lighting kit. Never even used. 750 watts total, 3 6' aluminum stands, 2 larger reflectors and one smaller one.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

If you haven't before, now is the time to start reading the strobist 101 and 102 archives and get those lights out and start using them.

Free gear is always very cool! :thumbup:

BTW, once your wife or g/f is is done medium well due to flashes, I suggest slowing down... lol

manaheim · May 4, 2009

Crazydad said:
Awesome! I have no doubt you will figure out what to do with it. Now how do I convince my wife that I need one?

Does she want to be a model???

JerryPH said:
If you haven't before, now is the time to start reading the strobist 101 and 102 archives and get those lights out and start using them.

Free gear is always very cool! :thumbup:

BTW, once your wife or g/f is is done medium well due to flashes, I suggest slowing down... lol

hahah...

Oh yeah, didn't think about strobist. Do they cover non-flash lighting as well? (you don't have to answer that, I'll go look)

JerryPH · May 4, 2009

manaheim said:
Oh yeah, didn't think about strobist. Do they cover non-flash lighting as well? (you don't have to answer that, I'll go look)

No, but a vast amount of info there can be applied to constant on stuff (I'm not a real fan of "constant on" lighting, but have tried it in the past... watch your white balance and don't mix sources of different WB... makes it hard to make things look right in the shot).

Inigo Montoya · May 4, 2009

manaheim said:
My brother-in-law is giving up on photography as a hobby so he gave me his still-in-box Smith Victor 750 lighting kit. Never even used. 750 watts total, 3 6' aluminum stands, 2 larger reflectors and one smaller one.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

Wow, sounds like you got your cake and can it eat it too.

what a coincidence, like that ever happens

manaheim · May 4, 2009

JerryPH said:
No, but a vast amount of info there can be applied to constant on stuff (I'm not a real fan of "constant on" lighting, but have tried it in the past... watch your white balance and don't mix sources of different WB... makes it hard to make things look right in the shot).

Yeah. I bet. I also noticed the bulbs only burn for like 4 hours before 'sploding. Wild.

Well, the good news is the stuff I ordered will allow me to also mount my flashes on the poles.

Inigo Montoya said:
Wow, sounds like you got your cake and can it eat it too.

what a coincidence, like that ever happens

heheh...

Hey. I killed your father! ;-)

Crazydad · May 4, 2009

manaheim said:
Does she want to be a model???

Not a chance, she has a near ninja like ability to disappear when I point the camera in her direction!

craig · May 4, 2009

Great way to learn lighting. I started with SV moved to Lowell then to Speedotron. That outfit is a work horse. Buy a couple of spare bulbs and you are good for life. Can not wait to see the first experiments.

Love & Bass

christyjo2 · May 5, 2009

Thats awesome. i started off with a Smith-Victor continuous lighting kit as well. For starting out it was great. I own flash units now and love them, but i dont regret buying the continuous. It was fun while it lasted.

manaheim · May 6, 2009

Is the primary drawback just the fact that the bulbs burn out so fast? Or are there other badnesses I'm not thinking of? (not that I won't use them and be excited by them, still... just like to understand)

craig · May 6, 2009

They are hot lights for sure. The exposures are long. That makes them bad for shooting people, but great for still life.

Love & Bass

jedi32277 · May 7, 2009

Crazydad said:
Awesome! I have no doubt you will figure out what to do with it. Now how do I convince my wife that I need one?

buy her diamonds:thumbup:

JerryPH · May 7, 2009

manaheim said:
Is the primary drawback just the fact that the bulbs burn out so fast? Or are there other badnesses I'm not thinking of? (not that I won't use them and be excited by them, still... just like to understand)

Besides the obvious?
- bulb life is shorter on lower quality lamps
- they are *hot*, as in temperature hot, not beautiful hot... lol
- colour balance needs more than average attention (it is important before... twice as important now... these lights are very warm, almost orange... ie: in the 6500K or warmer range. for comparison, most speedlights are in the 5300k-5500k range)
- If not used with strong stable light stands, a falling lamp can explode, burn someone or cause a fire

Can you get good results? Sure! It's biggest advantage was that since you had constant on lighting, you saw exactly where the light was falling. What you saw is what was on the capture (granted, a lot more orange initially until proper post processing correct for it). This pic below was done using hot constant lamp lighting:

Just be careful. When I used constant lighting, I enjoyed the fact that there was a medical kit on the table behind me and a fire extinguisher on the wall 6 feet away from me. Not that it was needed, but I felt a lot more comfortable because of these precautions.