I spent years in the field of video using quartz halogen lights and
I have the burn scars on one of my palms to prove it... literally.
I would urge anyone to be VERY careful selecting that kind of
solution no matter what the cost.
There are so many reasons for NOT looking in that direction... not
the least of which is how the CCD in your camera works. It has a
hard time seeing blue. Quarts lights put out very little blue.
So, to compensate, the blue signal must be boosted to the point of
possibly increasing noise. (Notice how everyone always talks about
blue channel noise?) Most of the 'light' from those bulbs is
radiated as heat and what visible spectrum there is falls in the
red and yellow range.
First, good LIGHTING is not all LIGHTS. It can be reflected light.
So, if you look at your lighting needs over the long haul you will
find that you can purchase a single light and a reflector like the
PhotoFlex LiteDiscs and begin to build a great lighting system over
time. There is nowhere to go with the lights you are considering.
While I believe that strobes are harder for people to learn than
continuous lights. I'd much rather see someone by a single good
strobe and a set of reflectors than to choose quarts lights not
made for photo work.
Having spent months doing research and testing lighting sources,
I've come to really appreciate the benefits of high-frequency,
full-spectrum flourescent lighting for digital photography. It
really works well. No, it isn't as cheap or simple as the solution
you are looking at; but, over the long run it provides a very nice
growth path.
There are professional lighting systems from Bowens International
that I really love. But, if they are beyond your budget, you can
find lights that will work beautifully at
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com . Be sure to look at lights in the
6500K range with nice blue coverage.
I think the 'system' I would choose to start my lighting system
would be the new Bowens 9Lite and a 42" White or Silver LiteDisc
(or MultiDisc)... and build from there. The 9Lite includes a
softbox and is the equivalent of about 1000 watts of
incandescent/quartz lighting with a 270W power draw. And... it
produces blues to make your camera a LOT happier.
http://www.bowensinternational.com/pages/framesetcontinuous.html
Great lighting requires a LOT of control in three primary areas...
The Light Source (Quality, Intensity, placement, reflection); Light
Diffusion and Light Blocking. Of these the ONLY characteristics
that halogen lights excel in is intensity. In all other ways
their liabilities far outweigh their benefits.
Hi -
I was browsing the articles at Lonestardigital.com and came across
an article titled "Cheap Studio Lighting!" My work rarely takes
place in a studio, and when it does I usually rent a studio for the
occasion. However, especially recently, I've had the itch to set
up a home studio but balk at the high prices of "proper" studio
lighting..
If I'm going to get the best, then I'll most likely get the best
performance. However, if I'm going to try and save money and go
with one of the cheaper packages I wonder how much difference a
cheaper package will make compared to what this guy thought up?
http://www.lonestardigital.com/affordable_lighting.htm
Take a look, it's a very short article but it blew me away with the
simpleness of his idea in a continious lighting mode.. I know from
experience with these sort of lights, that if you shop around for
the good ones you can get varying intensity models, or better yet
connect them all to the same electrical source with a inexpensive
dimmer switch, or even several dimmer switches (these lights are
halogen, so you can use a dimmer with them unlike flourescent), and
all of a sudden you have 3000-5000 watt studio lighting system..
Pros - Lot's of light for cheap
- Easy and cheap to add intensity controls
- Portable
- Cheap replacement bubs, or whole lights for that matter
- Continuious lightiing
Cons - White balance set up? Possibly difficult to get right?
- Heat, these kind of lamps throw off some heat
- Unprofessional "look", however they can be "dressed up" if you care
- Unknowns..
Have any of you tried this type of light, and if so what were your
results?
What do you think, will it work, work poorly, work great???
Personally I'm pretty intrigued, but would like some input before
going ahead with this.. After a few calls I found some higher
quality units with built in intensity controls, each head unit
being 500 watts at max output, and the total cost was under $180
for four tall (can be let down to waist high) double head units,
and four floor stand type 500 each single units. In my mind I
compare this to the Bee system at $493 for two strobe umbrella
reflector type lights and I can't help but feel I'd get better
results with the cheaper lighting, especially if combined with some
soft boxes..
Looking forward to any input and advice..
BKKSW
