Modeling lamps?? Dumb question

When I have been looking around online to purchase a monolight I have noticed that

they come with a modeling lamp or modeling light. Isn't this just another bulb within

the monolight or on the stand that lights the subject before the strobe fires?

Or is this actually another lamp/unit with its own stand and all?

Thanks

Matthew,

It's not a dumb question.

Modelling lamps are built into the flash head, as close as possible to the flash tube (which provides the actual light used to provide the exposure).

The function of the modelling lamp is to give an indication of the effect that you'll get when you fire the flash, e.g. it will show more or less exactly where the flash will fall on the subject, the direction and density of shadows etc.

Because the modelling lamp is very low-powered compared to the flash it doesn't have any effect on the actual exposure, provided that normal shutter speeds are used.

Some flash heads take ordinary household-type tungsten bulbs and others take much brighter halogens. Brighter is better.

Hope this helps

Remember with Halogen. Brighter is better. And costs more. And no touchy touchy with your finnieys (aka fingers). But these are the only real downs. Go with the best you can afford. This is, after all what will be showing you what your camera, then others will see.

Happy flashing!

Further to the excellent information above:

In some units, the modeling lamp can track the power setting of the flash. This means as you turn flash power up, the modeling lamp gets brighter, and vice versa. The best flashes allow you to set whether the modeling lamp is full-on all the time, tracks the flash power, or is off. Sometimes you will want the modeling lamp off once you are done setting the light, so as to reduce heat (e.g., in a softbox or whatever).

In some monolights, you can set the modeling lamp to turn off after the flash fires and stay off until the flash is recharged, at which point the modeling lamp comes back on again. Some people find this to be a very handy feature.

In general, brighter is better. But if you are using a camera with a slow sync speed of 1/60

or so, ou may want to go with a lower power modeling light (100w) or turn them off before

you shoot.