Kinds of lighting?

[Katy in Texas]

I'm trying to understand the discussions about lighting and the other stuff I read on the internet but I must admit I am lost. Strobes, cool lights, hot lights? What is it you normally see at a photography studio or is it a mixture of all of these? Suggestions of where to get some really elementary information so I can understand the discussions?

[jetrim]

Flashes - usually refer to the units that have a hotshoe and can attach to the top of the camera (Ex: Nikon SB900 or Cannon 580EX)
Strobes - usually refer to units that have attach to a lightstand and are fired by either a (sync)cord plugged into the camera, or a radio transmitter (Ex: ProFoto, Broncolor, Balcar, AlienBees)
Strobes can be broken down into 2 types
*heads - these plug into a central power pack, either plug in or battery
*monolights - as the name implies, these are all-in-one units that plug into the wall

Technically flashes are strobes but the different names help the reader differentiate the specific type. In most cases both can also be fired using an optical trigger (when it sees another flash go off it tells this flash to go off at the same time)

Hot lights - Typically tungsten, these are incandescent "always on" lights that because of the huge wattage required, get hot really hot! These are the oldest type of lights used.

Cool lights - These are relatively new and can be either color balanced fluorescent tubes or LEDs and offer price advantage over strobes as well as "what you see is what you get" advantages of hot lights, without the heat.

For each of these different types of lights there is a whole slew of "modifiers" which shape the light in specific ways (Ex: reflectors, beauty dishes, diffusers, snoots, barn doors, soft boxes and umbrellas) The choices are nearly endless.

You'll probably also run across the terms Hard Light and Soft Light. This refers to the type of shadow the particular modifier casts. Hard Light produces very distinct well defined shadows (like noon time on a sunny day) and Soft light produces very soft shadows (like a cloudy day). What dictates whether a particular light source is hard of soft largely boils down to the size of the light in relation to the subject and the distance it's placed from the subject. A very large modifier like an 86" parabolic will produce incredibly soft light when placed 10' from a model, but if you move it back 50' it will produce a very hard light (providing the head has enough power to throw the light 60')

Hope this helps, and if you have further questions, don't be bashful

[Katy in Texas]

Thanks so much for the explanations. I have printed this out to refer to when confusion sets in as I read more about lighting. I think I have it that cool lights would be static until I change them - With cool lights what I am looking at will be what I should end up with in the photo? With strobes do I not know what it will look like until I've taken the pic? I don't really know anything about light meters but assume you need to use it with all of these. Sooooooooooooo, do people use both cool lights and strobes together or is it one or the other for each lighting circumstance?

[jetrim]

I'm sure someone somewhere has used strobes and fluorescent lights in the same photo, but I couldn't point you to an example. I would use one or the other, but not both together. The beauty of "cool lights" is that you do indeed see exactly how the photo will look ahead of pressing the shutter, as the light is always on, and you can almost always get by with the meter built into your camera, rather than dropping a couple hundred bucks on a light meter (which is nearly a must for a beginner with strobes). Many strobes do have a feature called a "modeling light" which will help to show you approximately how the light and shadows will fall in the final image, but they really just give a rough idea. The hand held light meter will allow you to adjust the lights and camera to give the correct exposure, which you don't get to see until AFTER you pressed the shutter button.

[Katy in Texas]

Thanks so much for replying. I can see this is going to take a lot of research and study before I really understand and can buy the equipment to try it out.

[PWhite214]

I know this thread is almost a month old, but you might want to check out "Strobist" which has taught me a lot.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html


Phil

[PWhite214]

I have ordered the in-expensive setup from LS-Photo. I should have it soon, and have to have some time to experiment with it. I will let y'all know my impressions as soon as I get it set up

https://www.ls-photostudio.com/Item.asp?ItemNo=LT29