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03/27/2007 12:51:35 PM · #1 |
I'm looking into continuous lighting to make shooting action shots of ballet easier (studio action shots). The stuff I've been looking at is florescent because I don't want to run into heat / sweat problems.
My question is, how much light (power) do I need? How do continuous lights compare to strobe lights? Would I be able to get a fast enough shutter speed with this stuff?
2 examples of what I'm looking at:
Westcott Monte Zucker Deluxe continuous lighting kit
or something like this Lowell Scanles Florescent light body with speedring
Any thoughts or ideas? |
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03/27/2007 01:32:17 PM · #2 |
I'd say buy one of each, then send them to me to test for you. I'll send you the better of the 2 and keep the other. HAHA. Actually, I have no clue, but I am wondering the same, because I don't like trying to figure out exposure with the strobes, but much much cheaper.
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03/27/2007 02:20:26 PM · #3 |
From the looks of these, they don't seem powerful enough, and too expensive. The powerful continuous lights will generate a lot of heat. You're better off getting strobes. Even 1000W lamps will not get you a high shutter speed for what you're trying to do.
You can look into buying two 800W/s strobes or something similar. |
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03/27/2007 02:22:30 PM · #4 |
I think ignite is correct...
you're going to need a lot of juice to get even close to the results you'd get with modest strobes.
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03/27/2007 02:32:26 PM · #5 |
My problem with ABs is the recycle times. When doing jumps etc. I need to get to as close to 5fps as I can.
I don't think heat would be much of a problem since they are compact fluorescents.
The Lowell Scanles Florescent light puts out 9600 lumens. Anyone know how much a typical flash put out? |
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03/27/2007 02:45:34 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by Megatherian:
My problem with ABs is the recycle times. When doing jumps etc. I need to get to as close to 5fps as I can.
I don't think heat would be much of a problem since they are compact fluorescents.
The Lowell Scanles Florescent light puts out 9600 lumens. Anyone know how much a typical flash put out? |
There is no direct conversion between Watts and Lumens, but as listed, the AlienBees 800Ws models put out 14000 Lumens. I still think the strobe will put out a LOT more light than the flourescent.
Edit : Just for comparison, my tiny flash on my camera on full power is much more brighter over a distance than the 1000W tungsten light I have.
Message edited by author 2007-03-27 14:49:50. |
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03/27/2007 02:54:31 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by Megatherian:
I need to get to as close to 5fps as I can.
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I doubt you'll find a flash that cycles that fast anywhere.
However, when you see specs for strobes, the recycle time is typically for a full power flash, where the capacitor circuit essentially dumps its entire charge and has to completely recharge again. If you use a lower power setting, the capacitor will not fully discharge and it will not take as much time to recharge, or even need to be fully recharged to fire again. Also, as a bonus for you, on low power, the flash durations are typically much shorter than the fastest shutter speed you will ever be able to get using continuous light.
You'll need a lot of those CF units to get a reasonable exposure. |
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03/27/2007 03:35:40 PM · #8 |
| Ok, an AB400 puts out 7000 l/s - can someone explain the difference between that and a 9600 lumen continuous light? Will the AB really be brighter? Are they measured on different scales or something? |
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03/27/2007 04:17:28 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by Megatherian:
Ok, an AB400 puts out 7000 l/s - can someone explain the difference between that and a 9600 lumen continuous light? Will the AB really be brighter? Are they measured on different scales or something? |
Like I said, Lumens and Watts are used by these companies for marketing purposes, which in reality are not interchangeable terms. Nevertheless, Lumens is an instantaneous unit of measurement, which means that a 320 watt-seconds strobe will be outputting something like 3200000 Lumens for the duration it is on, which would typically be 1/1000 of a second. Again, we have no way of determining how many Watts leads to how many Lumens; this is just a rough estimation.
In the real world, a 7000 Lumens strobe will destroy the 9600 Lumens continuous light. |
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03/27/2007 04:43:07 PM · #10 |
Here's a page that gives the equivalent lumens for different types of incandescent bulbs. 9600 lumens is roughly equivalent to 4 150W incandescents.
You can simply get 4-150 W bulbs and see if that's going to be enough.
Given your need to freeze motion, I seriously doubt it. |
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