compact fluorescent question

Hi, I want to set up a cheap lighting system for my camera. I don't have much knowledge or time for portrait photography, but I am interested in getting into it. I don't want to spend alot of moeny of a strobe system right now because of my lack of knowledge and time. I read that fluorescent lighting is not good for photography becasue of something with the changing of the color at high speeds. I was thinking of using compact fluorescents full spectrum, the spiral ones. Do the same problems with reuglar fluorescent bulbs apply to compact fluorescent? If so, are there any other cheap ways to light a scene?

Thanks

The only way to know about the CF bulbs is to try it. Get a single bulb and take some test shots at various shutter speeds, making sure that there's no other light affecting the test subject. Working in close and/or using some home-brew white (white cardboard?) reflectors to focus all the light from the single bulb onto the test subject will overcome the minimal light problem (the need for wide-open lens aperture).

You will have to select a white-balance setting that matches the light source. That could be a little tricky, depending on the color qualities of the light from the CF bulbs.

I heard that the light spectrum of fluorescents is incomplete with spikes. Is the same true of compact fluorescent?

Yes. They're still fluorescents.

Thanks for both your quick responses.

Not as bad as standard shop lights though, by any means.

The so-called full spectrum fluorescents aren't nearly as "spiky" as standard fluorescents. Or at least the spikes are in better places. I've used the old style full spectrum tubes with Kodachrome and gotten decent color. Never tried it with compact fluorescents.

They still lack magenta and have a slight green cast, although it's much better than you could correct film for with filters. For casual snapshot uses, it's acceptable, but it's not perfectly correctable.

This was shot under an ordinary household CFL, and is the original without correction, shot JPG with a lowly Canon G2...

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For starters, when shooting with florescent light, try to have daylight balanced bulbs if possible (6500k). Also keep in mind that a florescent bulb operates on a 60hz cycle. Shooting with a shutter speed faster than 1/60th isn't long enough to catch the entire cycle. That's why the images usually have multiple color casts such as purple and green and it varies from image to image.

The following few images are part of a florescent head shot series I'm doing.

f/3.2 @ 1/60th

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OK, rather than starting with a JPG file, I decided to approach this a bit more professionally and scientifically...

Shot with 20D as a RAW file, 20W household CFL at ISO 1600, at 1/50 f/4.5, daylight WB setting, at about 40" from the bulb in a hanging ceiling fixture (not photographic fixture with reflector)...