There are two main types of lighting you can use in a studio. They are the
continuous or tungsten and flash. The use of continuous lighting in a studio
environment is more traditional. It is inexpensive compared to the electronic
flash and easy on your pocket. Unlike a flash light, you can clearly see where
the shadow falls or where exactly the light falls.
Tungsten lighting got many disadvantages too. The main one is the heat it
produces and sometimes it is even considered to be intolerable. The color of the
lighting is more yellowish and as the filament in the bulb burns as time goes
by, the coloring gets worse. This cause problem if you are using slides to
shoot. If you are using print film, this can be corrected while printing. So
does if you are shooting digitally. You may need to modify your camera with a
filter fitted to your lens or use a tungsten balanced color film. Another way of
getting out of the situation is to shoot in black & white.
The heat produced while using tungsten is the heat it produces. This heat can be
very uncomfortable and the brightness may make your model to close the eyes. It
will reflect directly on the photos shot by you. You might have seen several
photos where the individuals close their eyes or shrink it. This is all because
of the trouble caused by the lighting arrangement.
The second studio lighting is the
electronic flash. Most of the studio cameras are fitted with an on-camera
flashgun. It makes it difficult to know what exactly the lighting effect will be
on your subject. This problem can be solved by using a modeling lamp. The lamp
will be low-powered so it will not produce unbearable heat or brightness. It is
placed exactly in the centre of the flash tube so that the light it produces is
the same as that of the flashgun. This gives an advantage of choosing the exact
angle and be sure about the quality the flash is going to give you. The flash
light being stronger than the low-powdered modeling lamp, the shadows tend to
get darker and the object will be lighter.
The flash light is more consistent. It has no problem of burning out as it ages
and is more balanced to daylight. You do not need to use a filter for your
camera lens and it is easy on slide film or print film. It is something
preferred by the professionals mostly.
The amount of power given out by modern flash units is very high. It is measured
in watts/second or joules. The advanced technology makes the
studio lighting systems much simpler and especially makes the studio flash much more effective. There
are a lot of accessories to choose from which will give you the exact results
you want. Before buying, conduct a good research about the product you are to
purchase so that you do not fall on the wrong hands.
