strobe vs. continuous lighting?

If shooting models indoors in a studio, would you rather shoot strobes or continuous lighting and why?

id choose strobes

strobes are daylight balanced, provide more output for faster shutter speeds, and stay cool
continuous sources get very hot and are much weaker in output

Strobes. I can hand hold the camera and not worry about camera shake. Strobes give you an effective shutter speed in the thousands of a second range. Continuous lights give you whatever shutter speed you set your camera to. Try lighting a scene with enough light to shoot at 1/500 sec or faster and you'll melt your models.

thanks for the info. When shooting with a large softbox, are photographers still using strobes?

Ditto. Plus most studio strobes have modeling lights if you need to see an example of what you're shooting. Plus you're not going to cook your models.

RyanM wrote in post #6156727
thanks for the info. When shooting with a large softbox, are photographers still using strobes?

yes

They call them HOT LIGHTS for a reason. I'll use strobes, thank you.

RyanM wrote in post #6156727
thanks for the info. When shooting with a large softbox, are photographers still using strobes?

I have a rather large softbox that I use quite a bit...even outdoors if it's not windy. I used the softbox as the key light on this shot.

thanks for the info. much appreciated

Strobes. You don't want your models feeling warm under that continuous light, do you?

I like 'hot lights' though use them mostly as I'm generally also shooting video. I admit I tend to range at around ISO 400 to 800 but on the 5D or 1DmkIII that's no problem. I'm getting in to flash but it's a taste thing I guess.

Recent examples using two 500w lights.

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I use strobes and continuous lights. I wouldn't want to be without either!

I love the results I get from low apertures, medium ISO, and continuous lights. Much easier than trying to throttle down a 800ws strobe to allow shooting at f1.2 to f2.8 range and still get the light quality I want, and incorporate the existing available light.

But most of my commercial work is best shot with strobes as it allows higher apertures, fast flash duration, easier color correction, etc. Because of the amount of power available, you can overpower the existing light so its not an issue, and then create your own lighting setup, even in the bright sun. So its more flexible which is important for commercial work.

Both have specific advantages and disadvantages, and I wouldn't want to have to do without either. I have complete setups for both Tungsten ad Strobes.

I'm fortunate that I have both strobes and continuous lights available to me. I own all my strobes for my still photo business but I also work for a video production company so I have access to all the lights there as well. There are times when I prefer continuous light, such as doing product shots, but for people shots, I prefer my strobes.