Continuos Light Options

[russellsnr]

Hi, I want to try some continuous light photography in and outside of a lightbox/Cube like this one.

Also looking at something like this for the light source.

with


I have umbrellas and soft boxes already so no new ones required.
What I need is some guidance on the electrical side of things,
Are the holders the same across the board so you can use differant light wattage in them as I see some of the bulbs are rated at 45W some 135W and some at 150W
Electrics I no nothing about
Many Thanks
Russ

[Rob Ekins]

What I need is some guidance on the electrical side of things,

Are the holders the same across the board so you can use differant light wattage in them as I see some of the bulbs are rated at 45W some 135W and some at 150W

Probably not,
Are the lamp bases the same? Perhaps... but that does not mean that the cables attached to them can transfer more current if it is available where you are.

Give us a look at what you actually want to purchase and I am sure we can help

[george013]

The holders have a name for their screw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw.
You can use any lamp with the same screw. However you have to be carful for the load of the lamp. That shouldn't exceed the max. allowed load of the fitting and the wiring.
The load is measured in Watt. When using a led, you will have more light with a lower load.

George

[ionian]

I would imagine the light fittings are rated to a certain wattage output (because of heat more than voltage, although these new bulbs chuck out far less heat than the older style). I have this sort of set up with 80w bulbs, and I checked the fitting to see if it mentioned a limit - but mine are cheapy-cheaps and have no guidance unfortunately.

[Inkanyezi]

I would think that with this kind of bulb, you could use any available wattage.

To get the correct colour of the light output, the bulb should have free air circulation around it. It needs some warm-up time before reaching full output and correct colour - about three minutes mostly.

Whenever there is a wattage limit for a lamp holder, it mostly is for the heat dissipation. Then it might be good to know, that the kind of bulb you show has a luminous efficiency of about 50 %, so the heat that goes into the lamp holder is only half of the lamp wattage. Incandescent bulbs however, with a luminous efficiency of 2 % or less, are a great deal hotter. The wattage figures that might be given are for incandescent bulbs, which are heated with almost all the current that goes into it.

The only precaution I would think of with this kind of bulb, is that it modulates the light with twice the mains frequency, 100 Hz for Europe. Shutter times should preferably be at least two cycles of the modulation, to avoid exposure banding, i.e. about 1/50 sec. Longer if convenient, but no shorter.

These bulbs have roughly the same light output per watt as good LED bulbs, about 100 lm/W.

[george013]

I would imagine the light fittings are rated to a certain wattage output (because of heat more than voltage, although these new bulbs chuck out far less heat than the older style). I have this sort of set up with 80w bulbs, and I checked the fitting to see if it mentioned a limit - but mine are cheapy-cheaps and have no guidance unfortunately.

It's about temperature and isolation. But when you want to buy a lamp, you must know the fitting thread.
In the above link it's said that the common E26 fittting in the US are limited to 300W. Power input.
It's like a chain: not stronger as its weakest element. Many times the wires and mostly the connections.

The rendement of an ordinary light bulb is about 5-10%. So 90-95% is heath.

George

[NorthernFocus]

Interpretation of the above for "non-electric" type is that if you use a bulb like the one in your pic (i.e.CFL) then as long as the threads on the bulb fit the socket you'll be OK with any of the bulbs you listed on virtually any fitting you find. As already mentioned those type bulbs (CFL) need warm up time of 3-5 minutes before they reach rated output.

[chauncey]

I use those light sources with anything that plugs into them...might advise the kind that accept dimmers.

[russellsnr]

Many thanks for ALL the replies I think I no where i'm going now.
Russ

[rpcrowe]

Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs are of a very low wattages and I don't think that there is one produced which would be of too high a power to use with virtually any socket.

I have a four fluorescent bulb softbox that I use for video work and I can plug it into any household wall socket.

The CFL bulbs, while fine for shooting inanimate objects are, IMO, not particularly good for shooting live subjects because generally, the shutter speed is to slow to stop even minimal subject motion or you need to boost the ISO for a faster shutter speed.

I use a pair of inexpensive studio strobes to light objects within light tents. The flash has a modeling light, so it is also WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) lighting. I use the smaller strobes because they are smaller in size and more readily stored in my hall closet on relatively lightweight stands. I have larger more powerful strobes but, these are stored in less accessible locations.

However, as I mentioned above, either continuous lighting or studio flash will work just fine for inanimate objects. I would shoot in RAW (which I always do) and I would include a white balance target, such as a WHIBAL Card http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/ to ensure that my white balance is pretty well correct. The only time that I would worry about a more exactly correct white balance is if I were shooting products that needed exceptionally correct balance - this is often deals with the packaging of products. As an example, you would want the red of a Coca-Cola package to look exactly like it does in real life...

BTW: many photographers look down their photographic noses at light tents but, these are a very quick way of lighting numerous items, such as shooting a large number of items for sale on eBay. It is usually easy to get a blank white or completely black background when using a tent because of virtually shadow-less lighting. My tent has several background sweeps of black, blue, white, and gray colors. More can be fabricated very easily using relatively small pieces of colored fabric. I also use white and black vinyl bases if I want to add reflections...

[Saorsa]

I like the new LED bulbs. They actually state the color temp of the bulb which is handy for matching and they avoid the Flourescent Flicker.

[russellsnr]

Hi, sorry to bring this one back up.
After looking round for light bulbs I have come up with two options but one I need to import the other not so.
The question is does anyone no if the light output not in power but shape from inside a softbox would be affected by the shape of the bulbs? I can only get the spiral ones local.
Thanks
Russ

[Inkanyezi]

Hi, sorry to bring this one back up.
After looking round for light bulbs I have come up with two options but one I need to import the other not so.
The question is does anyone no if the light output not in power but shape from inside a softbox would be affected by the shape of the bulbs? I can only get the spiral ones local.
Thanks
Russ

The shape should not be influenced, although using a reflector lamp inside a softbox may cause the central part of its area to become brighter than the outer regions. However radiation from the softbox front never is completely even, it is always somewhat brighter in the centre. For photography, minor differences are not important, and we might prefer smooth falloff toward edges of the softbox area.