Strobes VS Constant lighting

Well, I went to a Captivated By The Light with Ed Pierce seminar tonight (ooops, last night). I have strobes for my set up but he made a good argument for constant lighting. I can see the advantages to using it. Was wondering what others thought of it. I'm beginning to consider changing over to it myself. What say you?

Both have advantages and disadvantages:
Hot lights get, well, hot.
They are less easy to control brightness wise (dimming may change the color) and modifiers must be able to take the heat.

They offer less light then a flash, so freezing motion at low ISO / small aperture can prove difficult or impossible.

If they are very bright, shooting models can be hard on the models (squinting because of bright lights).

Also, it's difficult or impossible to balance them (power wise) to ambient lighting.

One big advantage is WYSIWYG.

All in all, I prefer the flexibilty of strobes.

I use both depending on where I am & what I'm trying to do. No one solution is perfect, but hot lights are easier for sets like this:
Look at the knife & Browning threads.
FAQ - Studio Lighting

I was thinking of using switching to constants with tungsten bulbs. From what I've been reading they don't get hot. ??

Its good if you also shoot video.

I have a set of each, but I prefer strobes to hot lights. More power, better control of lighting ratios, easiser and faster to modify (ever burned your fingers on a hot reflector?), and overall more versatile.

Yes they do, but not as hot as quartz.

I agree with the More power part of that too broad statement, but not the rest of it. It's probably true for you, but not for everyone in every situation.

My problem with my strobes seems to be that I have TOO much light. lol I use softboxes as my main and fill (fill 1/2 power of the main) and a hairlight, but the main and fill always seem too bight to me. And I have them down as low as I can get them. Any suggestions for that? This is why I can see the benefit to using constants because WYSIWYG basically. Seems much easier, altho I AM starting to get the hang of strobes, but it's been a PITA to think ahead of what lighting you want for what moods you're trying to set with them.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5166817
Yes they do, but not as hot as quartz. I agree with the More power part of that too broad statement, but not the rest of it. It's probably true for you, but not for everyone in every situation.

I don't know about you, but to change the lighting ratio on my strobes, all I have to do is to move a control slider. To do the same on a hot light (unless it's a very expensive model), I've got to change a bulb or move the light (which then changes the quality of the light) closer to or farther from the subject.

PhotosByCynthia wrote in post #5166957
Any suggestions for that?

ND filters (gel) in front of the strobes.
Alternatively: ND filter on the lens.
Use as low an ISO as you can obviously.

What strobes do you use?

For anything involving people or things that move I say strobes all day. Could you do it with constant lights ? Sure but why. I do video work as well as photo and to get the same light level from hot lights you are talking about a lot of wattage and heat. Then you have to worry about safety, blowing fuses, melting your subject

However if it's something like product photography or something that doesn't move I can see that because you can always drag the shutter to get the right light level without increasing the wattage.

On a side note if you are going to use hot lights I would get the some good ones like arris or mole richardsons that way you can use all the light mods like scrims,barndoors, etc

A good strobe set up works best for me. If you get strobes that offer modeling lights that accurately adjust as you adjust the strobe power you'll get the benefit of WYSIWYG. If your modeling light accurately reflects the strobes power, there's really no benefit to hot lights other than cost IMO.

Besides what Rene said, why aren't you starting with the right exposure for the "MAIN" light & then modifying the others to work with it?

Well, that's your workflow & equipment. As for, "(which then changes the quality of the light)", I don't use soft boxes because of that 'problem'. Where the quality is critical, the lights go through a separate diffuser, or bounce off a surface like a white card, so the quality stays the same when I move the light to change the intensity.

Everyone has their own "best" method. It doesn't have to mean any one of them of wrong as long as you get the results you want?