Electronic flash or tungsten?

If you're photographing any subject likely to suffer from exposure to excessive heat (and that includes people) then flash is a preferred choice. Not that tungsten lighting (known in the USA as hotlights) is unable to produce good quality, but it can be much less convenient to use than flash for the photographer, and because most of the power consumed turns to heat it can be very uncomfortable. This is a problem with any type of people photography; not only can the heat be oppressive, the bright lights produce a false look to the eyes because it makes the pupils contract. Tungsten lighting is however a far cheaper option than flash, and is especially suitable for some types of still life subjects so you may want to consider the various options. Quartz Halogen lights made for studio photography are the most popular, although not the cheapest option. Although they do run extremely hot, they are designed for the job and can be used with modifiers such as diffusers, barn doors and honeycombs, just like flash - but the modifiers are more expensive because they have to be capable of withstanding the heat, because of this they are far heavier too, and because of the heat you'll need to switch your lamps off and allow them to cool before removing the modifier or even repositioning the light. Various makes are available, but they are broadly similar. Redheads use 800 watt lamps and Blonds use 2000 watt lamps. There is usually a facility to move the lampholder backwards and forwards within its reflector, adjusting the beam to some extent. I?m told by Brooks that Americans don?t use the terms Redhead and Blond ? I believe that the terms originated in the motion picture industry, or perhaps it?s just that we have a more poetic language in the U.K. ? or perhaps it?s because blondes are perceived as being even hotter than redheads! Photoflood lamps are really just glorified light bulbs, 'overun' to produce much higher light output and 'whiter' light than ordinary household lamps, they are cheap compared to halogen but they have 2 major disadvantages. 1. They only last between 2 and 5 hours at full power. 2. They darken with use, this reduces light output and also changes the colour of the light Photofloods are available in both 275 watt and 500 watt versions, they are also available in both BC and ES fittings - forget about bayonet cap, they tend to fail very quickly. Both quartz and photoflood lamps can explode - always use a protective screen! A third, and much cheaper option, is a standard 500-watt quartz security lamp If you go for this option you will need to fit the lamps to a stand, for adjustability, but this is not a big problem. The only real problem with this type of lamp is that, because it is not designed for photography, the light beam is very uneven and always needs some kind of diffusion. This isn't too difficult, because all that you really need is a fire-resistant reflector from which to bounce the light. What this means, in practical terms, is that electronic flash is about the same colour as typical daylight and that the tungsten photographic lights mentioned above give off a more orange light. If you are photographing in black & white this will not matter, if you are using digital you should be able to adjust the white balance, if you are using colour negative film you should correct the colour by using a filter but these adjustments can be carried out at the printing stage instead. If you are using colour transparency film you must correct the colour, otherwise your shots will have a very distinct orange cast. In theory, you can fit a lighting gel over each light but this is difficult in practice because the lighting gels will be damaged by the heat. The alternative is to use a filter on your lens. Even cheaper are Household lamps, the light output is much lower of course, but they are usable for some applications. You'll see from the scale above that the colour temperature is even

lower, so even stronger colour correction will be needed with colour film - this will add to the problems, because the filter will reduce the effective light power very substantially. Mixing your light sources You may want (or need) to mix different types of lighting. For example, you may be using flash but you need one more light than you have, perhaps to light the hair, so you use a continuous (tungsten) light for the hair. There are two points to consider here, one is the different colour temperature of the lights and the other is the different methods of exposing flash and tungsten lighting. Colour temperature can be corrected if required, simply use the appropriate blue filter over the light, but bear in mind that this will reduce the power of the light, and the exposure will need to be longer. If you don't use a colour correction filter then the light will be warmer and this could be a problem - but a slightly warmer tone to the hair can actually look very attractive! Or you may need to use a spotlight for a still life shot, but you don't have one. A useful alternative is a still projector. Again, there will be a potential problem because of the warm colour temperature but this one is easier to fix, because it doesn't matter if you have to use a long exposure with still life subjects. Or you may want to combine studio flash with daylight. In this case, the colour temperature will be broadly similar. Getting the exposure right Bear in mind that when you use flash as the only light source, the length of the exposure is relatively unimportant (provided of course that you are using a shutter speed that ensures that your shutter is fully open when the flash fires). Because of this, when using flash we use only the lens aperture to control the exposure. With continuous light however, the shutter speed is just as important as the aperture, so the exposure needs to be measured in a different way when both tungsten and continuous light is used in the same shot. Start off by measuring the flash exposure, let's assume that it reads f8. Set your lens to f8. Now measure the continuous light source. You already know that you will be using f8 to get the flash exposure right, so you need to set the shutter speed that will result in correct exposure at f8. And of course, the same principle applies if you include a continuous light source, such as a candle or a table lamp, as part of your subject - set the aperture to suit the flash and set the shutter speed to suit the continuous light source. Alternative light sources Fibre optics (powered by flash or tungsten) can be used to place light exactly where it is needed (even inside liquids), and so can light from a laser. A torch is ideal for painting with light. These 'alternative' light sources can all produce beautiful effects with a little thought, artistry and experimentation. HMI lighting is also used in studio photography. HMI is expensive both to buy and to run and uses a lot of power. It provides consistent, flicker-free daylight-balanced light and so is widely used in movie productions. In still photography studios it is used mainly with digital scanning backs, which need continuous lighting.

Electronic Flash is more convenient than tungsten and is pretty well standard in most professional studios. There are two basic types, Generator (known in the states as pack) and Monoblock. Generator lights have most of the 'works' in a large, heavy box that sits on the floor and connects via a heavy- duty cable to the lamphead. The lamphead basically consists of just a flashtube, modelling lamp, reflector and fan and so is light and fairly cheap. Because they are light they are less unstable when perched on the top of a stand, and far better when on a boom arm. Their other major advantage is that the power adjustments are more convenient because the unit is on the floor, where you can reach it easily. Another advantage is that the slave cell is contained in the power unit and so it will usually 'see' the flash from another flash without problems ? which doesn?t always happen with monoblock lights. Most generators will power 24 heads, the better ones allow individual adjustment for power (asymmetrical), with the others the power on each lamphead is equal, or symmetrical. Monoblock lights are self-contained and all the 'works' are contained in the head.