This content compares strobes (flash) and continuous lights, detailing their respective advantages and disadvantages to help photographers choose the best lighting solution for their specific needs.
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today we're going to compare strobes and
continuous lights we're going to take a
look at the pros the cons of each and
help you figure out which one might be
right for your photography [Music]
[Music]
hey everybody Lindsay Adler here and I
have been shooting strobes for decades
ever since I first dipped my toes into
studio photography it's been a long love
affair with light and strobes and
modifiers but honestly for the longest
time I never even considered continuous
lights until the last couple of years
there have been so many different
improvements to continuous light from
output to price to features and now I'm
using them all the time in my work
depending on my shooting needs so today
what I'm going to do is I'm going to
explain the pros and cons of each
strobes versus continuous and then help
you decide which one may be a good fit
for you all right now I don't want to
get ahead of myself too much so let's
start with the basics and the first
question is what is the difference
between strobes and continuous light
strobes which are also referred to as
flash fire with just a pulse of light
this light is short but it's really
powerful strobes can be speed lights or
monolights or they can be pack and head
systems and this is what I've been
shooting for so many years
continuous lights are also called
constant lights and they stay on
continuously just like the name suggests
and so for many new photographers if
they're brand new to artificial lighting
this is a really big benefit because
it's what you see is what you get in
other words if you're shooting with a
mirrorless camera and you have an
electronic viewfinder and you look in
the back of your camera you can see how
as you change settings it changes
exposure how it changes the look of the
image it's just it's really intuitive
strobes however are much more
complicated when it comes to exposure
and I've actually gone ahead and left a
couple links in the description below
where I go through and break this down
and I talk a little bit about how you
can understand exposure when working
with strobes but that's not what this
video is about
now with continuous lights there's a
little bit more complication as well
because there's a lot of different types
you can have LEDs and tungsten and
fluorescent and hmis and it makes it
complicated because there's so many more
options to consider and so for that
reason today we're going to focus
primarily on continuous LEDs so you'll
remember that I said I didn't shoot
continuous lights for a really long time
and that's because they used to have a
ton of downside for example old hot
lights they used to draw a ton of power
I cannot tell you how many different
Breakers I tripped they used to
literally be hot like hot to the touch I
even caught something on fire once and
if you wanted a lot of output you had to
spend a lot of money plus there weren't
really many modifier options but in the
past several years all of this has
changed with LED lights and so that's
why I'm going to focus my attention in
this video to LEDs as we compare
continuous and strokes today's LEDs they
have a lot more output they're cooler
lights they're more affordable they have
a ton of modifier options and so they
really are a good fit for many
photographers now I definitely could
make a video that would be an hour long
on this topic and dive into every
different aspect but instead I'd rather
save you time and help you focus on the
most important comparisons like really
look at the pros and cons that will
matter to you and so this video is going
to be a little bit more concise but if
you want something a little more in
depth and you want to see continuous
lights in action I actually have an
educational membership platform called
learn plus I have a dedicated episode
towards continuous light where I create
six completely different setups and I
take you behind the scenes where I show
you the concept the preparation I talk
about styling and posing and lighting
and modifiers and much more so if you do
want something more in depth you want to
check out the link I've left in the
description for that as well okay so we
are going to dive into the pros and cons
of each of these so let's begin with
strobes one of the biggest benefits of
shooting with strobes is that you get a
lot of output for a relatively
affordable price this output is really
important for a lot of things for
example overpowering ambient light or
achieving a lot of depth of field so if
you for example shoot groups of people
you'll likely need to shoot at f11 maybe
even F-16 and strobes give you enough
output to do so if you're shooting maybe
in a really bright Studio like a lot of
window light the strobes are going to
have enough power to overpower this
window light so it doesn't affect your
image doesn't affect your exposure both
of these things are much much harder to
do with continuous lights and in order
to do it you probably need much more
expensive options freeze motion strobes
fire only for a fraction of a second
often one one thousandths of a second
even faster depending on the light this
makes it absolutely ideal for freezing
motion so if you have moving hair a
jumping subject a dancer this is all
going to be frozen in place with that
Split Second of a flash also you don't
have to worry about your camera shake or
motion blur unless there's maybe too
much ambient light in the room modifiers
this is one of the big benefits of
strobe for a very long time because
there's tons and tons and tons of
different modifiers for strokes you name
it it exists and also it exists in all
different sorts of mounts you get Beauty
dishes and soft boxes and
umbrellas and so much more but I do want
to note that in the past continuous
lights had hardly any modifiers because
they're more like movie lights and they
were very hot so it made it hard to
attach the modifiers but now the LEDs
are cool and so there's far more many
modifiers available so in the past
strobes had more and they probably have
some more modifiers still but continuous
lights they're catching up plus a lot of
continuous lights they have Bowens Mount
which makes this really easy to mix and
match a lot of different modifiers one
of the biggest downsides of strobes is
that as a content creator they cannot be
used to light video many of my most
recent commercial shoots or beauty
campaigns that I've done they've
required that I shoot Stills in motion
at the same time I wouldn't have time to
switch over between the two plus I want
them to look the same and so if video is
an important part of what you do or
maybe you're thinking about venturing
into video strobes are just not going to
be a good fit if you are new to shooting
with strobes exposure is very confusing
for example your shutter speed does not
affect strobe exposure at all you just
have to make sure your under your sink
speed and also when you're changing your
exposure you can't preview in the back
of your camera it doesn't look it
doesn't look like that doesn't work like
that so it is a learning curve but as
mentioned I've got some links in the
description below to help you out with
that all right so I've mentioned the
lack of video capabilities and the
learning curve for exposure these are
two major difficulties but there are
some other considerations so for example
with strobes you have to buy triggers to
fire the strobes it's another thing to
purchase also sometimes if you're in low
light situations like on location and
you want to balance the strobes with the
ambient light it's really difficult to
turn them down to low enough power now
if you're mainly a studio shooter that's
probably not something you have to think
about alright so now we're going on to
take a look at continuous lights we've
already talked about video and the fact
that this is one place that continuous
lights really shine with social
platforms favoring video we've all
become so acutely aware of the
importance of creating motion content
furthermore many of my clients they love
the flexibility to be able to capture
Stills and motion at the same time and
so continuous lights are perfect for
this this is the only way to go if this
is important to you because they stay on
continuously with no pulse of light
certain continuous LEDs allow you to
change the color temperature of the
light this is referred to as bi-color so
what you can do is you can change the
color from tungsten to Daylight and
everything in between with an exact
Kelvin temperature this is great because
you can balance it with other lights in
the room or maybe bounce it with the
ambient light and you can do so
precisely some continuous lights allow
you to dial in the exact Hue and
saturation of the light you don't need
gels and you can get the color exactly
how you want it so for example I've been
using the Nan light pavotubes a lot in
my creative work because I love the
color control that they allow as I
mentioned before with continuous lights
exposure is so simple it's as simple as
looking at the back of your viewfinder
so what you see is what you get which is
the same ways you would shoot with
natural light there's just no learning
curve output is the really big downside
of shooting with continuous lights
they're a lot less powerful when
compared to their strobe counterparts
and by the way let me just tell you
about something kind of confusing 200
watt continuous light does not have the
same power output as a 200 watt second
strobe it has to do with sciency things
of how they measure it but basically the
200 watt strobe is so much much much
more powerful than the continuous 200
watt so to get extremely powerful
continuous lights you have to spend more
money or maybe get into hmis it's going
to be much harder therefore to for
example overpower ambient light in the
room or if you want to shoot with a lot
of depth of field you definitely need
more power which means more expensive
lights so speaking of ambient light this
is definitely another potential downside
of shooting with continuous lights it's
because you have to be aware of any
ambient light in your space because it's
going to affect your exposure and image
so overhead lights that will affect it
window light nearby a lamp in the corner
all of this is going to show up now that
being said you can turn this into a
benefit into a positive when you take
continuous lights on location because
you can then purposely try to integrate
The Continuous lights with the ambient
they'll work together more seamlessly
all right so in order to freeze action
with continuous lights you have to use a
faster shutter speed and of course this
is possible but you have to consider
your camera settings so I've already
mentioned that with many continuous
lights especially the affordable ones
they have less output and so in order to
achieve a faster shutter speed you will
probably end up shooting at really wide
apertures or really high isos this also
may be possible because a lot of our
cameras can shoot at higher ISO
capabilities or you'll have to spend
more money for the higher output
continuous light so you have options but
it is more difficult now on a similar
note you have to pay attention to camera
shake and potential motion blur when
shooting with continuous lights for
example you have to pay attention to if
your subject's moving too fast or maybe
your shutter speed's a little bit too
long or maybe if the way you're holding
your cameras a bit unstable you're much
more likely to get soft images due to
shake if you're shooting with continuous
lights wear strobes they're going to be
much sharper it allows you to freeze any
motion into place alright so we have
looked at the pros and cons of both
strobes and continuous lights and the
question is which one is better
and the thing is there is no such thing
as better honestly it depends on which
is right for you and your shooting needs
for example I shoot with Pro Photo d2s
all the time but then I'll also grab my
nan light 720bs for commercial work it's
not about what is better it's about
which is better for the needs of what
I'm creating so to simplify this if you
need more output like a lot of depth of
field you need to freeze action strobes
are probably the right choice so for
example if you shoot groups or maybe you
have to overpower ambient light
regularly then strobes are the right way
to go for sure but if you need video
capability or maybe you like the
Simplicity of just seeing the light then
continuous light is going to be a great
fit for you I hope this has helped you
to navigate the difference between
continuous lights and strobes remember
light is light you can make beautiful
images with either of these but you have
to know how you shoot what you shoot and
what tools what techniques what
capabilities service your needs as a
photographer all right guys if you want
to see some of the gear that I
referenced in this video be sure to
check out the links in the description
below and of course if you want to pick
up some gears visit adorama.com thanks
everybody and see next time [Music]
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