Which power Arri's for ASA400?

[moodlover]

I am shooting in-studio portraits on Portra 400 medium format film and looking to invest in some continuous fresnels. My aperture is almost always f/2.8 since I like the shallow dof look, which also means I dont really need the overpowering of flash/strobe. I do like to gel my key light usually for a super warm look, so take that into consideration for the key light power.

I am looking to buy some used Arri's for a main light and a fill light to lift shadows, does anyone know what power of Arri I should be looking at?

 

[Bern Caughey]

Suggest providing more details.

Are you based in a country with 110V/60Hz utility frequency, or 230V/50Hz? The latter usually allows plugging in more powerful lamps.

How many amps can your studio handle on a single circuit, & how many are available?

What's your lighting style, & what shutter speed are you comfortable using. If it's hard then you can get away with much smaller units, but if diffused with large panels, or softboxes, then you'll want larger lamps, possibly with open-faces instead of fresnels.

Is your Air Conditioning strong?

On a side note: Wouldn't go too warm on the color temperature of lights when using daylight balanced Portra. Could probably get away with 1/2 CTB, but wouldn't shoot at 3200K as you'll starve the blue response.

 

[moodlover]

Suggest providing more details.

Are you based in a country with 110V/60Hz utility frequency, or 230V/50Hz? The latter usually allows plugging in more powerful lamps.

How many amps can your studio handle on a single circuit, & how many are available?

What's your lighting style, & what shutter speed are you comfortable using. If it's hard then you can get away with much smaller units, but if diffused with large panels, or softboxes, then you'll want larger lamps, possibly with open-faces instead of fresnels.

Is your Air Conditioning strong?

On a side note: Wouldn't go too warm on the color temperature of lights when using daylight balanced Portra. Could probably get away with 1/2 CTB, but wouldn't shoot at 3200K as you'll starve the blue response.

Hi sorry I didnt realize this was needed, here is the info:

- 110V, USA
- Amps well, not sure but it just has standard wall outlets so nothing too strong or bigger than 1K
- Lighting style preferred is soft, or semi-hard but definitely not hard
- Shutter speed, well anything higher than 1/60 otherwise it gets too blurry forces me on tripod (using Mamiya RZ67)
- AC is medium, so dont want to generate too much heat

Can you explain the last part and why I cant go too warm? What does "Starve the blue response" mean? I am trying to create a warm key light on model like this and even warmer like this so I wanted to make it super orange/gold.

I was thinking of getting a 650W fresnel for key light and a 1000w open face for ambient fill to bring shadows up and I can dim this to taste. I wish Arri's werent so expensive though!

 

[Bern Caughey]

Just responded to your other thread in the Cinematography forum.

Didn't realize you wanted such a warm look, so disregard my comment.

As stated in the other thread, utilize your strobes, & skip the tungstens unless your primarily interested in learning to light with constant sources, & even then first experiment with the Modeling Lights built into your strobes. Know a number of great photographers who often use just those when shooting high profile portraits, & fashion.

 

[moodlover]

As stated in the other thread, utilize your strobes, & skip the tungstens

Interesting, any good reasoning for this? I only have a single Alien Bee b400 strobe but thinking of adding another light so I can play with it. I find that strobes have such a harsh crisp look even with a huge feathered Photek softlighter and its hard to beam or focus the light once you use a large modifier. Really looking for a controlled, even beam of light creating chiaroscuro like the examples. Fresnel lights have the fresnel lens in the front which scatters the light exiting so they are generally softer than the high-powered pop of a flash that I cant stand that look of.

I am interested in creating very moody, cinematic style work. Most of the scene dark (just enough shadow detail) but a focused pop of light where I want it. Flash I find for me has been very hard to control and make look less harsh even with giant modifiers as I said.