Continuous vs Flash

[HillPhotos2009]

What's ya'lls take on continuous vs flash lighting? I don't know much about lighting but I need to get a new set of lights. I'll use the lights primarily for weddings but I want something that I can also use for still life photography, because I've been having a lot of fun playing with still lifes.

[DigMe]

I'm not real educated on the continuous but I simply cannot imagine them providing the amount of lighting that you'd need for your wedding usage.

brad

[Tom]

Continuous for video, strobes for photo.

Go through Stobist to learn from the ground up how to use flash.

Strobist: Lighting 101


Then you will be able to decide what to get and how to get it.

[tukaniray]

^^ Agree ^^

For a wedding, I would recommend the strobes. I assume you are thinking about them for the reception part.

Continuous would annoy the people at the reception, and the flash is more off/on.

There are continuous that would give you enough light, but they are quite a bit more expensive than buying a couple of strobes or flashes to trigger wirelessly.

-Ray-

[bargarbutt]

Flash unit vs. continuous light for portrait photography?

[tukaniray]

^^ Stephanie stated mainly for weddings.

-Ray-

[HillPhotos2009]

I just want to use them for the between ceremony & reception shots. All the weddings I've shot have had special lighting during the receptions and I don't like ruining the mood by intermittently burning the guests retinas. I've been using my hotshoe flash and thats just not enough by any means.

[tukaniray]

Have you tried dragging your shutter a bit to have the Flash give more light to your shot?

You should try several little speedlights around your area that you are shooting. I have done that a few times that create some great photos.

-Ray-

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by HillPhotos2009

I just want to use them for the between ceremony & reception shots. All the weddings I've shot have had special lighting during the receptions and I don't like ruining the mood by intermittently burning the guests retinas. I've been using my hotshoe flash and thats just not enough by any means.

The bounce is definitely your friend, although I shot a reception in what was more or less a brick cave. I had to use a bounce card of Sto-fen since the ceilings and walls were all very dark bring and just swallowed the light.

[HillPhotos2009]

@Ray - thats a good idea. I just watched the Rachel Lacour video and she does the same thing so she gets movement around the subject but freezes her subject. I'm going to play with that a bit with my kids tonight.

@Keith - I'm a fan of bouncing. I use paper though. Usually a business card because people will ask to have it and I use different color papers too.

[groovyone]

Just make sure to set your flash to REAR or whatever the Canon option is. The reverse blur is freaky if the flash fires first.

[HillPhotos2009]

So are Speedlites on tripods the cult favorite or do people like a variety of lights for receptions?

[Tom]

Speedlights are probably the easiest and cheapest. I use a combination of speedlights and Elinchrom Quadra depending on need.

[saifmaster]

The interfit strobes are a good way to start.

Amazon.com: Interfit INT182 EX150 Mark2 Umbrella Softbox: Electronics

Amazon.com: Interfit INT182 EX150 Mark2 Umbrella Softbox: Electronics

[Tom]

Here are the things I started out with about 2 years ago: STROBIST® MPEX

And I started with Strobist: Lighting 101