Advice on Lighting setup video & Photography

[Marc Lucas]

Looking for a solution to use for video and photography. I'm used to using a three point light setup with cheap LED panels and but I want to advance in my setup. I'm beginning to more forward in the photography world as well as vide production so looking for a solution that will cater for both. It was suggested a while back that if I wanted to get into photography the way to go is to go down the continuous lightning route. That, of course, is a personal choice and many would argue that strobes are the way.
I was looking at something like this for the video work http://www.prolightdirect.co.uk/dedo-2-hard-heads-1-soft-113.html but is that going to be suitable for studio or location photography work?

I know its a very broad subject but some pointers as to which way to go would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Bruce Watson]

Looking for a solution to use for video and photography. I'm used to using a three point light setup with cheap LED panels and but I want to advance in my setup. I'm beginning to more forward in the photography world as well as vide production so looking for a solution that will cater for both. It was suggested a while back that if I wanted to get into photography the way to go is to go down the continuous lightning route. That, of course, is a personal choice and many would argue that strobes are the way.

If your strobes can handle a 1/30 second recharge cycle then maybe they could manage the frame rate for video. I'm betting not. And if they could, there aren't any video cameras out there with a strobe sync.

So if you want lighting to be used for both video and still photography, your only practical choice is "continuous" lighting. Note that most "continuous" lighting isn't actually continuous. All discharge lighting (HMI, fluorescent, LEDs, etc.) "flickers" (has a frequency beyond which you should expect artifacts in your image captures). For electronic ballasted HMI and fluorescent, the practical limits for frame rate and shutter speed can be reasonably high, but may top out at what still photographers might consider low shutter speeds (depending on the equipment, say 1/240 second shutter speeds).

I'm just sayin' that within limits you can use video lighting for still photography, but in general you can't use still photography strobes for video.

 

[Marc Lucas]

Thanks for the reply Bruce. My first reference to the continuous/strobe statement was regarding the route that most still photographers go down. I am fully aware that you don't use strobes for video work.

 

[Bruce Watson]

Thanks for the reply Bruce. My first reference to the continuous/strobe statement was regarding the route that most still photographers go down. I am fully aware that you don't use strobes for video work.

Well, it's sometimes done in high-speed filming. Special case though and almost certainly not what you're after. Still...

 

[Norman99]

LED lights are becoming very popular as lighting for both video and photography. Photographers know the value of using video lights for photo use. They offer dramatic constant lighting and shadow control that cannot be matched with the electronic flashes in set-up and operational speed. With camera sensors being so good upwards of 1200 ASA and minimal grain, photographers now have a new approach to lighting techniques and the results are nothing short of amazing. For video use, LED's are the preferred choice in portability, battery run time and durability. That technology has seem great improvements just within the last year. Although many manufacturers have not yet upgraded to the most recent offerings of LED emitters in their units, there are many that have, and offer higher brightness as well as high Color Rendering Indexes as well. The flickering or banding issues that are often talked about are the result of the Led's dimming circuitry that uses the conventional PWM or PULSE WIDTH MODULATION to control the apparent intensity of the led emitter(s). Problem is that most PWM circuits were not designed for high shutter speeds in video use as the frequency of modulation is very low and interferes with high shutter speeds of 1/120 sec. ( 120 frames per second) or faster.
By adopting a much higher modulation frequency in the driver circuitry will result in the elimination of flicker and banding. Unfortunately few units use that design. I myself use 3 very small battery fed extremely bright LED lights that have a custom driver for non flicker video. the LED's are custom fitted to TIR optics and have 3200K and 90 CRI index. Just to point out that high quality LEDs are available and custom built units are the only choice when none other are out there.