Norman products

[Andy_Pearlman]

I would use this more as an accent light (see below), something to be blended with strobe for blur motion effects, but really you can get the same thing with a couple of 500w tungsten work lights from Home Depot. Why spend all this money on "Norman" hot lights? Why start with hot lights at all? We've had threads on this before, but strobe is where its really at. The lights are cooler, more powerful, use less energy, are color balanced for most film (not that anyone here is shooting film anymore...) and color balanced for daylight if you use it for fill light, or have light coming in a window. The big thing is the comfort of the model. Hot lights are HOT - your model may squint, and may be umcomfortable, especially in a setup with multiple lights? I know it would make me as the photographer uncomfortable in about 5 minutes. Also, there is the question of gels melting, and softboxes burning. If you visit the B&H website, you'll see that they have softboxes designed for strobes only, and some designed that can be used with hot lights (usually meaning video). They will withstand the higher temperatures of hotter bulbs on for longer periods of time, and cost more than the strobe versions that have only a modest modeling light. Other manufacturers make more elaborate hot lights, with lenses, and dimmers, etc, and some still photographers use them under special circumstances, but I think they're mostly used for video. My only hot light says "Home Depot" on it.

We did this shot several years ago with one strobe in a softbox as the main light, and used a "hot light" unit with a Fresnel lens and barn doors to concentrate the light on the model's arm and head to get the blur effect. We could have used a Home Depot light with flags and foamcore to make a large snoot for the same effect. The bull graphic was added later by the client.



Regards,
Andy Pearlman
Andy Pearlman Studio

[Photomart]

I tend to shoot all my strobe shots using a WB of Cloudy +2/+3 or Shady +2/+3. it give their skin a warm look, which I can pull back on if necessary in Photoshop. The image of Alexa sitting on my stairs was shot using a Florescent +1 WB. I rarely use a Florescent WB because it typically gives everything a blue look, but since my modeling lights are very yellow, the color balance worked well.

Here's another image shot on the same stairs with the same modeling lights. For this shot I used the Direct Sunlight +3 WB -- 50mm lens, F2 @ 1/60 sec. Again, I wanted the image to look soft and warm, with a nice golden glow. Note: This final image was adjusted slightly in PS using Levels to bring the white stair rails back to their original color (they were to beige in the original shot).