nolaguy Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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markd61 wrote:
The problem with hot lights in an interior setting is that they require AC service. Can be OK in some cases but one is still running cords here and there. In addition older homes have few outlets and iffy power. Blown breakers are not unusual for higher wattage lights.
The last issue is heat. Years ago I worked in photo lab when a local photographer came in with a box of 4x5 for processing. He was a bit down in the mouth and I asked him how things were going. He replied that the shoot the night before of a very high end home (~$5M) had been going well until they noticed in a Polaroid test that a light in an adjacent room had gone out. When they went in the room to check, they found a 1000W light was burning a pie-sized hole into a custom couch. Apparently the assistant had not secured the stand with a sandbag and somehow the stand had fallen over. Suffice to say the conversation with the client had not gone well. I made a mental note to myself that if I ever found myself in that situation I would use flash.
Now my main business is architecture and interiors and I DO use gelled flash. While tungsten light sources used to blend very nicely with the practicals on location, the adoption of varied lighting technologies such as CFL and LEDs of various origin and WB mean that no longer is true.
The other reason I will use gelled flash is for speed. Ten years ago I could take my time setting up a room and testing and re-testing. Now the clients expect the job to be done in the time it took to make one view.
:/....Show more →
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Paul_K wrote:
Apart from the possible AC and heat issues mentioned, also keep in mind that tungsten light also has a color temperature of between 3200K and 3400K
While unlike the film days switching color temperature on the camera itself is no problem with modern DSLR's, the mixed color of the two light sources can be when you are shooting an interior in color during the day, with daylight at 5400K coming in from the windows, and your lamps much more yellow at 3200-3400K.
If you dial in 3400K on your camera. the daylight coming in from the windows will get very blueish, and with 5400K on the camera the interior lit by the lamps will be very yellowish.
You can of course put 80a filters on your lamps, but that will also block part of the output (basically working as a blueish ND filter) and when shooting with mere 200W lamps that may very well be a problem ...Show more →
Mark, Paul, thanks a lot for your comments - I sincerely appreciate you taking the time. I am indeed concerned about all the points you both address but even so, it's useful to read over your specific admonitions. A year from now I could very well be shaking my head wondering what in the world I was thinking.
I already deal with the color temperature issue shooting properties and it's a nuisance to be sure. I think I mentioned in the other thread that I don't currently light the real estate stuff but between the daylight spill and the newer technologies people often have mixed in with incandescent, it's often all over the place already. Clearly if I get serious about bumping the real estate work to the next level it's going to involve a combination of continuous and the Elinchroms and/or SB's. I'm not at all sure where this may lead.
The architecture stuff is interesting, but the driver for me right now is the portraiture. In a sense it's a throw back to younger years when (whether I was photographing or illustrating) I was lighting subjects (or self-portraits for school) with desk lamps or living room lamps. The whole wysiwyg thing - and the very interactive feel of adjusting lights while looking at the subject, not the LCD or laptop... it's just been tugging at me for a while now.
We'll see where it goes and again, thanks so much to taking the time to offer your help. I so appreciate it.
And Mark, one immediate goodness is I redirected 7% of the budget to more sandbags.
Regards,
Chuck
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