Need lighting avice

guyguerra · Jun 21, 2006

I had bought non strobe lights made by photoflex, and decided they were too hot. I was happy with the set up though. I had two lights with umbrella's and a softbox light. When I traded them in today for stobes all they had was a kit made by Patterson Interfit. The kit only includes two lights, a softbox (which is much larger than the Photoflea, and much nicer lights. There are model interfit steller 600's. It's bothering me that I only have two lights know. is this a problem? The price to add a third is almost the same as the cost of a pair.

mysteryscribe · Jun 21, 2006

get yourself some kind of back light and you will be fine. Two lights can be used a lot of ways. LIghting accessories can be more important than the number... snoots and barn doors give lots of flexability to them.

guyguerra · Jun 22, 2006

I was told that if you should not mix strobe lights with lights thta stay on all the time because the K rating of strobes is 6500 and the lights that stay on are K2500 (or 3500?) and that the yellow would show up with too much contrast against the strobes. Is this true? I have a small Photoflex Starlight QL with a 500 watt bulb. Would there be a noticable difference? It seems like I should just spend the money and do it right the first time. I'm not pinched for money, but mix and match , les than par set ups bother me terribly. Over the life time of use, the money probably averages a dollar a day. On the other hand, why waste money due to my inexperiance.
Second question. In The pair I have now, one can be used as an umbrella bounce, and the other is a nice size soft box. For a third light would you go with another soft box, or set it up as an umbrella bounce, which could then also be shot thru a white umbrella to diffuse the light with a third option? I know these questions come down to personal preference and types of use. I will run into all types of use and would like as many options with the three lights that I can get.
Thanks, Guy

mysteryscribe · Jun 22, 2006

If money is not an issue buy whatever you think you want. If you dont use it, store it. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Most of us make do with what we can afford. There are about a million lighting schemes, if you liked the one you had replicate it. If you want to learn new ones, read the literature out there and shoot demo shots.

Thats just my opinion.

Soocom1 · Jun 22, 2006

A little over a month ago I purchased a New-Old stock Beseler 750 quartz light that hits around 3300K with the bulb that is now in it. I put it up with a strobe hitting at 5500K and discovered that you will either have too much blue, or too much yellow. There is no balance between them. (I adjusted the K setting on the camera both up and down across the full range.)
With that being said, (this with digital) Lord only knows what kind of havoc this reaps on the film regardless of filter used.
In a nut shell, don't mix them unless you are trying to achieve a certain look. If you are going for full white light, stick with one or the other.