Halogen VS floodlights

[OceanRider]

Does anyone have any experience with Halogen lights VS PhotoFlood light bulbs for portraits? The halogen ones are the kind you buy at Home Depot, they come 500w, 250w & 150W.

Specificly, which type Halogen or PF taker a better picture? The Halogen has a much better life span (1000 hrs) vs PFlood, but are they better quality? If so what kind of wattage would I want?:rolleyes:

Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

Joel

[robertwgross]

You posted a question, and then you wait a few days before you give up. Some people only read here once per day or less.

I've only used one type, so I can't give you a comparison.

If I had to guess, I would guess that photofloods are somewhat more consistent with color temperature.

---Bob Gross---

[cmM]

one thing I know for sure, halogens will get hoooot ! I mean really hot. I think floodlights are better as far as heat goes.

[robertwgross]

I agree, halogens get hot.

In the winter, I easily heat my unheated garage studio with four 500-watt halogens. In the summer, I would not want to think about it.

---Bob Gross---

[OceanRider]

Thanks guys for all your relpies. But do you think they (H) take better pictures? I find the photofloods are a bit to "warm" in terms of look of the skin (bordering on yellowish). How could I correct this I wonder. I thought the halogens might have a brighter, more nature look (like the sun) I wonder if 500w would be better for the main and a 250w fill. Any thoughts?

Joel

[cmM]

you can correct it by custom WB (or shooting RAW)

[Jon]

Photo-grade halogen lamps will be less subject to aging (most incandescent lamps will shift toward the red end of the spectrum and suffer a fall-off in intensity as they age) than "normal" photofloods, but should be normalized for the same colour temperature. Off-the-shelf general-use halogens like you referred to will be a crap shoot for temperature matching, especially if you use different wattage lamps. They will, however, like photo-halogens, maintain a steady output better throughout their life. But high-intensity incandescent lighting of either kind will produce a lot of heat you'll have to deal with.

[wwinn]

If you really want to check out some cool continuous lighting try HMI lights. this web site has a lot of information on them:

http://sell-it-on-the-net.com/online_store/alzo_2000_cool_lite_kits.htm

[Longwatcher]

Does anyone have any experience with Halogen lights VS PhotoFlood light bulbs for portraits? The halogen ones are the kind you buy at Home Depot, they come 500w, 250w & 150W.

Specificly, which type Halogen or PF taker a better picture? The Halogen has a much better life span (1000 hrs) vs PFlood, but are they better quality? If so what kind of wattage would I want?:rolleyes:

Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

Joel

I have used home depot lights, then photo hot lights and now I use studio stobes.
I liked the results from my home depot lights, but they did give a yellow cast to the pictures. This could to some extent be corrected with photoshop, but they worked even better in conjunction with a 550EX flash which tended to give a blue cast by itself. The color results of the two together was very pleasing (at least to me). I never really cared for the photo hot lights I had.

Just my experience,

[OceanRider]

Those HMI lights look good but I am on a budget. I am really getting frustrated. My tungston's look to "yellowish" or "warm" and once printed, they looked WAY to warm, unacceptably so. I am trying to get a nice portable portrait set up going and cant seem to get anywhere. I have read everything. If Tungsten has been used by pro's what did they use? I got a 20D and it AWBs so that should not be the problem. Should I be using 2X 500w instead of the 250w's? The price is right with Tungsten but that colour!

[robertwgross]

This is exactly why they invented custom white balance.

Also, you can "fudge" the custom white balance to make it more pink or more blue or anything.

---Bob Gross---

[charlesu]

Here is what you need. Spend the $99 and quit worrying about white balance forever. Just get it right before you take the pictures.

http://www.photovisionvideo.com/target.html

[OceanRider]

Still trying to understand WB, very confusing.....thanks for the tip.

Joel