Lighting

Continuous lighting

Continuous lighting refers to lighting equipment that stays on after its turned on. in that sense, continuous lighting is rather like an ordinary electrical light; you flip the switch on and you have light until you flip the switch of again.

Advantages of continuous lighting

• One of the primary advantages of continuous lighting is that its simple. you can very clearly see exactly how the light plays on the subject of the portrait. The shadow, the highlights, and the tonal distinctions are really visible. you know what your getting and that makes adjustments in the lighting much easier. This also makes continuous lighting fairly easy to learn to use as it takes less trail and error to determine the best settings for the individual situation.
• In addition, unlike with strobe lighting, there is no cycling time when using continuous lighting. Nor is there any concern about triggering issues, which may occur with strobe units. once the light goes on, it stays on until you turn it of.
• A final advantage, especially to the beginning portrait photographer, is that continuous lighting equipment is generally less expensive. This makes continuous light an attractive starting point in developing your studio.

Disadvantages of continuous lighting

The disadvantages of continuous lighting are mostly confined to the tungsten lamp. because the lamps stay on during the session, tungsten units can produce quite a bit of ambient heat. The amount of heat produced by tungsten lamps can make them difficult to work with. Not only are they hot to the touch, the heat can also have a deleterious effect on lighting accessories (diffusers, umbrellas, and so on). In addition, the heat can be tough on models; posing for any length of time under hot lights can be very tiring.

Tungsten lamps also pose problems with white balance. That problem can be corrected through the proper use of the white balanced function on  your digital camera or through the use of filters. But its generally considered best to avoid a problem rather than have to correct it.

Tungsten

As mentioned before, tungsten lamps put out an excessive amount of heat, making their usefulness limited. The subject cannot be placed very near the lamps. Tungsten bulbs generally have an operational life of only about 30-100 hours and consume a great deal of electricity. The light emitted by tungsten  bulbs is bright, but it requires an adjustment in your cameras white balance in order to produce colours accurately. Finally, tungsten filaments have been known to leave a slight residue on the inside of the bulb, which gradually turns the light more yellow. They are, however, the least expensive form of continuous lighting.

   Fluorescent

This is one of the 'cool' forms of continuous lighting. Photographic fluorescent lighting offers bright flicker-free lighting with true daylight colour, so you shouldn't have to adjust your digital cameras white balance. These are energy-efficient lamps, consuming less electricity and having an operational life of approximately 10,000 hours. They are significantly more expensive than tungsten lamps.

Hid

This stands for high-intensity discharge. These lamps are very bright. The light is generated by an electric arc being transmitted through various metallic gases, such as sodium vapour, metal halide, or mercury vapour. They create more light than fluorescent lighting but generate less overall heat.

Studio strobe lighting

Strobe lighting is also called flash lighting(time based). Strobe flash units are similar in concept to the electronic flash on your digital camera. These are sophisticated electronic slash units, for more powerful and far more versatile than the flash on your camera. Portraits may be taken with a single dedicated strobe light or with multiple units 'slaved' to a master control either through the use of a sync cable or a wireless control. When you press the shutter release, the lights fire.

Advantages of strobe lighting

• The most obvious advantage of strobe lighting over continuous lighting is that strobes never get hot. Strobe lights are more energy efficient as well because the provide lighting only when triggered; they don't place a constant demand on electricity. In addition, most strobe units offer some level of variable output, while continuous lights are generally limited to being either on or of.
• Strobes can emit a great deal of light in fraction of second, often more light than that provided by many forms of continuous lighting.
• Another important consideration to the portrait photographer is that the immediate burst of light from a strobe unit freezes motion. This increases the odds of capturing a sharp image, which can often be difficult when photographig children, pets, or an animated pose.

Disadvantages of strobe lighting

• The formost disadvantage to strobe lighting, especially for the amateur- enthusiast portrait photographer is the expense.
• in addition, because the lights fire so very quickly and so brightly, you cant always easily determine if one or more lamps have failed.
• finally, the fact that strobe lighting isnt on all the time makes it slightly more difficult to know exactly how the light plays on the subject. To determine if the lighting provides the desired  effect, you have to either make some test exposures, and examine them, or use a modeling lamp. Again, the inclusion of a modeling light increases the cost of the lighting system. The types of strobe lighting are in the 'monoblock' section.

Monoblock

A monoblock, or monolight, is a type of self-contained studio flash unit in which the flash head and power supply are enclosed in the same box and are generally powered by AC current rather than battery packs.