You definitely want strobes. I checked in my american cinematographer manual and to get an f16 at 1/50th on 100 speed film you're looking at about 3250 footcandles. That's a 5k tungsten fresnel half-spotted about 10' from the sitter. Not exactly comfortable for more than a few minutes.
For an example from the last time I shot a person in studio with 4x5 (not too long ago): Using a 1K M-R spotlight about 4 feet from the subject and a 1K M-R Softlite for a fill, using 400 film at effective f/16, I got exposures of '2 to '4. I took four shots. One of them was sharp enough for me to blow up 2x digaonally to an 8x10, and the rest had bad-looking motion blur, even when the subject was trying to stand still. This is with a 400 film, mind you. You quite simply need to throw a ton of light to work with hot lights and living subjects. You need high powered lights, and/or many many lights. I would highly prefer to use 4K or 8K lights for these situations, and double them up, even.
But nothing is ideal. You gots what you gots, and you gots to make do. To get enough light at home, you will likely pop your breakers. For a home studio-type thingy, flash has so many advantages, especially when it comes to size, safety, and comfort. From my experience, I would say that a 1000Ws pack split to two heads will fairly easily get you those apertures IF you get the lights good and close. Don't be afraid of getting your lights very close to the subject. This is a tendency that we all probably have out of respect or our subjects. I usually put mine right outside the frames of the composition unless I want the light to be coming from a smaller (thus harsher) source, in which case I will move them back. I am a fan of Dynalites, personally, but anything that works will work!
Fluorescents are fine for some things, but they are rather limiting in that they inherently provide diffuse, flat light. What I really want is something that starts with a miniature sun: a plain bare bulb that I can modify to suit my needs for the shoot. It will let you do whatever you want in whatever situation. Whoever said you need to use diffuse light to make a portrait is telling you what they think your standard portrait should look like. I hope you care enough to not make your portraits by commonly thrown about formulas and rules. What you really want is the ability to tailor the quality of light to serve your concept, not quote-unquote good portrait lighting (AKA Sears Portrait Studio Deluxe Cardboard Cutout One-Size Fits All Lighting). Personally, I use diffusion less often than any other modifier. I most often use a bounce (AKA reflection) if I want a "flattering" look. More often than not, I am just using bare bulbs and various reflector dishes and grids. This is beside the point, however. The point is that for a basic lighting setup, you probably want something versatile, not just a bank of soft fluorescent light for all purposes. You can always make harsh light softer, but it is harder, if not impossible in many cases, to go the other way.
As for the qualities of flash vs. tungsten lights....there is a lot of urban myth. Most basically: Light is light (is light is light). The differences are duration, color of light, and intensity of light, but not really quality of light. You can get nearly identical qualities of light from either hot lights or flash, so don't get obsessed with the idea that certain lights have a certain mystical look to them, etc. Just remember that tungsten lights are orange and flashes are white. That is the difference people are seeing (and it is slight), and either can be easily made to look like the other. Believe me...I had to make this godawful chart comparing a few handfuls of basic modifications of a Rembrandt lighting setup, and the whole point of the assignment was to encourage actual testing, dispel rumors, and prove that light is light is light. It all looks the same: like a person's face with a Rembrandt light on it. The quality changes based on how it is modified and where it is placed (and thus its relative size to the subject) way more than whether it is flash or tungsten. In short, you are not going to lose that magical hot light quality by using flashes. You just have to know what you are doing to some degree by using flashes instead of hot lights, and fiddle until you can manipulate the flashes to get "hot light look" you want.
As for the qualities of flash vs. tungsten lights....there is a lot of urban myth. Most basically: Light is light (is light is light). The differences are duration, color of light, and intensity of light, but not really quality of light.
I agree. Speaking as an old theatrical lighting designer here, the only difference anyone can ever really see in a photograph between various sources of light is this: Shadows from point source lights (light bulbs in whatever form they might take) diverge from the source (think vanishing points from your perspective drawing class). Shadows from the Sun are parallel. And the number of people who know this and look for it is very small, mainly people like me (grin). Most motion pictures or TV filmed outdoors augment the sun with artificial light and hardly anyone notices.
In other words, there is no difference anyone can reliably see as long as you color balance.
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Chris Klug
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Patterns of LightnDark
.......For a home studio-type thingy, flash has so many advantages, especially when it comes to size, safety, and comfort. From my experience, I would say that a 1000Ws pack split to two heads will fairly easily get you those apertures IF you get the lights good and close..........
2F / 2F offers some great advice. I do 8x10 portraits, using a Packard shutter as well as conventional lenses, and I’ve used both “hot” lights and strobe. I have found that tungsten lights make too much heat, and require slow shutter speeds which result in an occasional blur. My favorite setup is with two 2400ws packs and 3 or 4 heads, but I could easily work with only one pack. Check on used equipment—Speedotron is a great value.
i'm about to purchase a lighting setup and had a few questions i was hoping you guys could help me out with.
i have a very small studio space (1 door garage) that I'm trying to light up. in using an 8x10 camera w/packard and shooting at apertures such as F, F, F.
about how much light is needed to do head and shoulder shots given this small space?
i'm still unsure if i need continuous light or flash. if i use continuous lighting, is one K continuous head enough as the key light for these apertures?
I'm planning on doing a 3 light setup. 1 for key, 1 for hair and/or fill, and one for a background.
is one 150w tungsten enough for hair/fill? and i'm also thinking about a 150w dedolight for the background or hair. what do you think of this setup? do i have enough juice for the lighting? if not, how much more do i need?
would it be better to get flash strobes instead for more power as i don't want hot lights that are 2k and above.
sorry for all the questions and i hope you all can help me with some.
thanks for any help!
You might want to consider the Calumet Genesis 400 monolight kits. 2 true 400 watt-light second monolights with stands and reflectors. You can pickup a Genesis 200 for hair light. These are very nice affordable monolight units with variable light output. The color temp stays very consistent through the power range.
I think the Calumet Genesis offer an outstanding value for a small studio setup. The OEM is unknown but are rumored to be from an Asian source. Calumet offers good prices on light modifiers for the Genesis line at reasonable prices.
In my opinion the Genesis series light are a much better value than Alien Bees or other comparable monolights, though the AB remote triggers are a good value.
BTW, the 400 WS heads will give you enough light to shoot at apertures you mentioned.
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Don Bryant
"Photograph what you think, not what you see.
It is not a matter of quantity, but quality of light. Harsh, contrast strobes leave me wanting. I prefer nice enveloping light, regardless of intensity.
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Films NOT Dead - Just resting[/FONT]
It is not a matter of quantity, but quality of light. Harsh, contrast strobes leave me wanting. I prefer nice enveloping light, regardless of intensity.
You can take the harshest point light source and soften it into a broad even light if you know what you're doing. Almost all light sources except florescent are point sources. They are either diffused, bounced, focused, etc in order to shape them into the light type you need.
The advantage of using strobe for portraiture is obvious, it allows your subject the ability to move, and that imparts a far greater sense of animation in a portrait.
It is not a matter of quantity, but quality of light. Harsh, contrast strobes leave me wanting. I prefer nice enveloping light, regardless of intensity.
Strobes inherently give less contrast than hot lamps, so this statement makes no sense to me. As for harshness, that has to do with the quality of light you create, not with flash vs. tungsten.
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