Question about Studio Kit

Hey Guys,

I'm currently in the process of making myself a decent studio setup. I have been

shooting film/video for several years now so I purchased an Arri kit a few years

back. This is the exact kit:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/173608-REG/Arri_571891_Softbank_IV_Tungsten_5.html

Has 2 Fresnel 150, 1 Fresnel 300, 1 Fresnel 650, 1 Arrilite 1000 plus all the

bells and whistles.

Would you guys recommend using this for my photo studio set also? I mean I paid

good money for it so if I could get 2 uses out of it that'd be great.

They obviously don't match the Kelvin of strobes. BTW I only have 1 canon

speedlite as of now. Any recommendation on additions, setup, etc would be

awesome. So really what I'm asking is if it was yours would you use it and how

would you set it up.

I'm planning on using the studio for portraits, product photos, lots of white

seamless shots, that sort of thing.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Stephen,

there is no right or wrong, really, however you do happen to have the industry

standard "best" fresnels on the market, thus, it is purely an aesthetic choice you

have to make.

as you know, continuous uses more power and is hotter to work with. then also there

is the fact that strobe is more inherently likely to freeze movement, whereas you

may work with lower shutter speeds with continuous (or rather, the light is not

coming from a short burst of light).

I have kind of just slid back to continuous, partly to contain costs between film and

photo kit, but also because i often work with more than one camera, and flash

synchronization becomes difficult or very expensive. But I also couldnt afford the

Arri heads, and went for theatrical equivalents.

if you want to do white blowout backdrops, you might want to mix the two. you could

get something like a pair of Elinchrom D-Lites, maybe 200w, to blow out the

background. Doing this and illuminating the subject with continuous can create some

wonderful qualities, also, as one light freezes, and the other doesnt (and they are

different colours).

good luck,

t

My standard advice for people who want to use tungsten light is the same as the 'Advice for gentlemen contemplating matrimony - DON'T' :-)

But your Arri kit will be fine for still life shots, especially as you have most of the modifiers you need, and as long as you don't need to shoot items that will be damaged by the heat.

But strobe is the way to go for pictures of people, the heat, the effect of the bright lights on pupils, fire risk and the need to let lights cool down before you change their position will all work against you.

<cite>My standard advice for people who want to use tungsten light is the same as the 'Advice for gentlemen contemplating matrimony - DON'T' :-)</cite>

<p>

But about half of all marriages are successful, if you define success as "ending in death instead of divorce". If you define success as "enriching the lives of both partners and leading to everlasting happiness that exceeds the expectations going in", the odds are considerably worse, I suppose.

<p>

Even so, I think the odds are much more in favor of long lasting perfect marital bliss than being satisfied with hot lights for portraits. I don't know any portrait photographers who use them, for the reasons given here and in many other threads on the subject in this forum.

Thank you for the replies. Would any of you be kind enough to offer up some suggestions on what I should get first?

I mean I can use these for the time being and slowly replace pieces.

Think I could get away with buying a nice (somewhat inexpensive) strobe for my key, reflector to fill, then use the Arri's to light the background and hair for the time being?

BTW the studio is air conditioned so the heat isn't half bad.

Best bang for (little) buck is Alien Bees, which have been in the market for around seven or eight years, and have a good reputation.

http://www.alienbees.com/

Biggest knock against them is the puny 150W quartz modeling lamp.

Great, thanks.

Just ordered a B800 and a speed ring to fit my chimera softbox. (Alien green ;)

Definitely a great price.

Think what I'll do is get another for a head lamp in the future and 2 constant fluorescent lights for backgrounds. My local camera store has decent ones for $160