What Bulbs do you use for Continuous Lighting?

I am trying to figure out what bulbs to use for continuous lighting setup. I thought this was going to be easy, just get some 5500k LED corncob style bulb and be done with it. Those bulbs get horrible reviews! They are quite exspensive and do not last long. The bulbs will either go into soft boxes or behind umbrellas and used for product photography.

 

So please tell me what has worked well for you, I appreciate any help.

Derek

Are you absolutely committed to continuous light? I've shot products for many years with studio strobes with modeling lights that give a good idea of what the lighting will look like in the final image. Buff/White Lighting X series flash units have served me well and aren't horribly expensive. Decent studio flash has accurate, repeatable color rendition and obviates most camera shake/vibration problems as well.

I simply use daylight (blue tinted) bulbs in gooseneck lamps. With digital color correction these days this works for ordinary subjects in my table-top light tent.

For film and for critical color work, real photofloods are better. They are expensive, hot, and short-lived, of course.

I use a pair of Lowel V-lights with their dimensionally challenged GDA halogens. They're very much like any other 500W halogen found in work lights and such, but a fraction of an inch different in length so as not to be interchangeable. I also use 200 or 300W clear glass bulbs from the hardware store in cheap reflectors, or 100W equiv CFLs for small products. I was looking at some used studio strobes but am still confused by the various trigger options.

In ye olden dayes, the choice was between 'overrun' 3400 k photofloods, and 3200 k studio lamps that came in wattages of 275, 500 or 1000 w. They all ran horrendously hot, burned out or blackened after a few days use, and were costly, generally a pain and a hazard to use. So I don't know why anyone would want to go back to that.

 

I've used 'curly-whirly' CFL lamps and am not impressed. However, domestic 'daylight' LED lamps appear to have few drawbacks. The CI isn't perfect, but they're far better than compact-fluorescents. So not sure which 'corncob' LED lamps are getting poor reviews.

 

That said: Studio strobes are definitely the way to go IMO. Even cheapo ones of 200 or 300 Joule rating will offer much more useable light, together with better colour rendering than any tolerable tungsten wattage, or LED or CFL option. In a Bowens-S fitting they'll also allow a wider selection of modifiers.

I was looking at some used studio strobes but am still confused by the various trigger options.

What's to confuse?

You fit a radio trigger to the camera, and receivers to the flash-heads. Provided you've remembered to switch them all on, and of course taped all the channel selectors in the same position, you're good to go. Cheap or expensive radio triggers - makes very little difference.

 

It only becomes confusing if you demand automatic or remote-control of the flash output from the camera.

I use LED light panels with variable color, ranging from 3200 to 6000K. It's easy to match window or ambient light by eye, or using a color meter. They're rated at 1500 lumens with a 60 degree spread, powered by a 12 VDC supply, or two video batteries. Two of them will fit in a used laptop bag.

 

They put out more than enough light at 12' for video. I haven't had much luck using strobes for that.

I use LED light panels with variable color, ranging from 3200 to 6000K. It's easy to match window or ambient light by eye, or using a color meter. They're rated at 1500 lumens with a 60 degree spread, powered by a 12 VDC supply, or two video batteries. Two of them will fit in a used laptop bag.

 

They put out more than enough light at 12' for video. I haven't had much luck using strobes for that.

 

Yes, me too. But am not big on lighting. I am mostly available light. But if needed I use a few panels. Sometimes I've used a flashlight for a spot.

soft boxes or ... umbrellas ... for product photography.

Like others said before: I'd go with affordable strobes anytime. - If things have(!) to be continuous, for reasons far beyond my understanding, I'd go for damn bright panels instead of modifiering a dot sized light source into something bigger.

Straight fluorescent tubes would be the "classic" starting point but I suppose you 'll find decent LED based panels offered by motion picture industry caterers but price tags might be "nasty" or worse.

The stuff I am doing with continuous light is not color sensitive. So yes I take the freedom to dabble with any inexpensive crappy light source at hand. But: For correct color reproduction I fear strobes are unbeatable. They are also the only light source I am aware off that permitts handheld product shooting in a studio. At least to me it looked as if the compact 3 dimensional stuff I had to shoot, would benefit from a small aperture's DOF. - I shot @ f16 on APS-H (the client didn't demand high resolution).

I was looking at some used studio strobes but am still confused by the various trigger options.

You need one radio trigger, connected to something serving as a main (spill) light and if it is your studio and you have continous light down far enough to run sync speeds of /125 or 1/60sec, why not get everything else triggered via optical slaves by the before mentioned main-"spill" light? You could even trigger the main light via an optical slave.