Hotlight Vs. Strobe Lights in Photography Lighting

Series Summary

Photography is an art of making pictures by exposing film or another medium to a timed flash of light. The basic equipment used for photography includes a digital or mechanical camera equipped with a flash and film or a memory card. Mastering the art of photography is a technical and challenging experience. One has to learn how to focus the lens, control the aperture of the lens, filter the light, the importance of the focal length and the duration of the exposure among other things.

In this free video series, learn how to begin your own home photography studio. Our expert, Erin Neumeyer, teaches you lighting tips for your photographs. It's clear to see that lighting is extremely important to photography. With the right photography equipment, you can make professional pictures with ease! Learn how to use hotlights, mono lights, and more. Also, learn how to position lights for professional photography. If you are looking for camera flash advice, Erin covers tips on how to use flashes on your camera. So, what are you waiting for? Start learning about this art today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Erin Neumeyer for Expert Village. I am a photographer living in Venice and I have been practicing officially my business for over two years now, I specialize in head shots and portrait photography. Today I am going to talk to you about setting up a basic home studio. So there is a couple of different lights that you need to consider when you are setting up a basic studio. Now there are often referred to as "hot lights" which is usually tungsten or strobe or flash which are typically a cool light which means that your model isn't going to be heated up by the, the light. Now I don't really have a studio hot light, so when I want to do something like that I'll just use a floor lamp and put, as you can see in this particular one I have a daylight bulb in there and you can buy these daylight bulbs for five dollars at your local camera shop, they do get rather hot so you need to make sure that you are careful if you are handling it, because it heats the metal up. Now this is a strobe light, it is by a company called Alien Bees which does not sell through resellers so sometimes they can be a little they can be a little bit more affordable, they ship direct to the client. Now the strobe has, is great, you can buy them in several different power equivalents and how much power do you need really depends on the size of your studio and the kind of subjects that you are shooting. I prefer to shoot with strobe and I like it because it can stop action and it is great, it just also makes, has my studio has a really great feel to it when I have got the umbrellas and soft box on there but the hot lights are fabulous, especially if you are going to shoot still life or things that aren't affected by the heat."