Lighting

[KEVINRAY]

Question for you all....

I'm about to buy a lighting kit for my Canon 10D. The question that I have is...Should I buy a continuous lighting kit or a strobe lighting kit? I'm going to be shooting alot of Candids and Portraits. What is the true difference between the two setups? The kit I was looking to buy was the Lowell 2-pro light kit.


Thanks
Kevin

[chris.bailey]

I would go strobe rather than continuous for run of the mill portrait work for one simple reason, they do not get hot. I know that sounds silly but if you have a small setup like me, hot lights would be just that, HOT.

I have a four light Bowens setup (main/fill/accent) with various brollies and soft boxes and have nothing but good to say about it. I would not really want less than four lights even though I will sometimes choose just to use one. Yes it is not WYSIWYG but having shot under hot lights once or twice, models hate hot lights.

[scottbergerphoto]

IMHO Strobes. No heat, Less chance of fire. Easier to use if you decide to use a film camera (heaven forbid).
Scott

[Yance]

I have a pair of Lowel Omni lights and they don't put out much output but they do put out alot of heat. Not good for indoor work in smaller rooms. Stick with strobes if you can afford some decent ones.

[robertwgross]

I have several 500-watt quartz worklights set up in a small studio, which is otherwise unheated. The heat never seems to be a problem, because it is all right next to the cryogenic cooling plant.

---Bob Gross---

[KEVINRAY]

can anyone suggest a good strobe light kit for under $500?

[flyfishnj]

I have SP Studio Systems Excalibur set (2 SP1600c with stands and umbrellas). Not your most powerful monolights, but the price was right and seem to work for my application. BTW all these guys talked me into Monolights - Safety was the biggest concern

[westfalcon1]

White lightning and Alien Bees are both fantastic units and single monolights are less than $500 for most of them. They are super reliable and the best customer service around( I don't work for them!!!).

[Vegas Poboy]

I would agree on the Alien Bees, waiting on my tax return to get mine. I have not yet heard anyone complain about quality or service.

[edistophoto]

JTL has a few kits out for less than $500 USD. Have used their equipment for over two years now without any poor results. Definitely use at least 3-4 strobes for portrait work

[MediaMagic]

I have Alien Bees strobes. Excellent. The kit I bought though was way more than $500. But you could get one strobe for that. Unfortunately, you need at least two and preferable at least three for good results.

I also have the JTL everlight kit (continuous lighting). It is also great for the money and I have hundreds of excellent portraits using this kit. This kit contains three 500w lights, softboxes, air coushioned stands and a case. The kit is $499.95 from adorama... see the link below. One caveat, if you want to go brighter than 500w, adorama advertises a 1200 watt bulb for the everlight kit, but, on the side of the light housing, it shows 750w as the brightest bulb to use. Well, refusing to heed the logic of an inanimate light trying to inform me of what it COULD handle, I tried using the 1200w bulb for the main with a 500 as a fill (that's almost the perfect 2.5 to one ratio, and since adorama advertises it for the everlight kit, it *seemed* like a good idea at the time) and smoke started appearing and the light shut down. Luckily no damage to the light occured, but it certainly was *not happy* witih the 1200w bulb. SOOOO, be sure to pay attention to the markings on the housing that show 750w as the most powerful bulb it can handle.

http://www.adorama.com/JTELK.html?searchinfo=jtl%20everlight&item_no=3

If You are going to have more money to invest in lighting soon, go for the strobes, but if you need to make the best pictures you can with a limit of $500 that will have to last you a while, I'd recommend going with the continuous lighting kit.

David[/url]