Continuous -vs- Strobe

[isaiahbrink]

Originally Posted by jimmyd

Fluorescents, like KinoFlo's products, are great. Modifying for "softness" isn't a big deal as they are inherently soft. They can be a bit difficult to control as they scatter the light widely. But you can use them with grids and, of course, flags can be a great help too. With Kinos or other fluorescents, you'll be shooting at high ISOs, with wide apertures and slow shutters. You'll probly start seeing photographers shooting with LitePanels as that technology migrates from film and television production to still photography.

Just curious Jimmy, I'm used to using modifiers like snoots and barn doors, of course with the normal "hot" lights. I imagine since like you said, they are naturally soft, one wouldn't need a soft box, diffuser, or the like, but would you be able to use some of the old standards like a snoot or a barn door? Oh, I'm probabbly wrong, but when you mention I have the pic in my head that they are the normal long tubes we are used to seeing in buildings and what not. Are CFB's (compat flourecent bulbs) availble with the daylight balance?

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by isaiahbrink

Just curious Jimmy, I'm used to using modifiers like snoots and barn doors, of course with the normal "hot" lights. I imagine since like you said, they are naturally soft, one wouldn't need a soft box, diffuser, or the like, but would you be able to use some of the old standards like a snoot or a barn door? Oh, I'm probabbly wrong, but when you mention I have the pic in my head that they are the normal long tubes we are used to seeing in buildings and what not. Are CFB's (compat flourecent bulbs) availble with the daylight balance?

The fluorescent lights (FL) are not "inherently" soft. It's just that many of the commercial lights from places like Kinoflow are large panels and by the very nature of what soft light is --- a larger light source close to the model --- they give softer light. If I had an FL light that was 10x10 inches in size, and I took a strobe of 10x10 inches in size and they both gave out the same exact power at a given distance, then they would both have equal softness (all things else being equal).

The CFB bulbs are available in all sorts of balances. You can get various temperatures and/or daylight balance. The actual bulbs are sometimes the long tubes you mention, or the ones that look like they are a bunch of twisted coils. It is these latter types that are being used in some of the light modifier options I talked about in some of the PhotoVision videos. The tube types are more along the Kinoflow model which creates a large panel.

You can now get FLs that are equivalent of 250 to 500 watt Photo Floods that give off almost no heat. So you can start ot use them for projects where flash was needed before (to keep the model from melting).

Cheers,
rfs

[RobArtLyn]

Originally Posted by isaiahbrink

Are CFB's (compat flourecent bulbs) availble with the daylight balance?

N:Vision CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps is the correct term) are available at Home Despot, um, Home Depot, with a color temperature of 5500K and a CRI of somewhere around 90, I don't recall the exact figure. There are also other options.

[RobArtLyn]

Originally Posted by R_Fredrick_Smith

So you can start ot use them for projects where flash was needed before (to keep the model from melting).

There is a scene from an old Jerry Lewis movie where he plays a studio fashion photographer constantly distracted by interruptions while the two models are forced to wait on set in their pose under the lights. Their condition deteriorates greatly as the scene continues. I can't remember the name of the movie.