Jump to content

What's the diference beetween this lights?


Recommended Posts

  • Premium Member

The barn doors on an open faced unit like that are mainly just to reduce side spill and give you something to clip a gel to. Useful for bouncing or going through a diffusion frame, though even with those barn doors you may get side spill that needs to be flagged or blackwrapped.

 

A fresnel lens makes the beam more focused and even from edge to edge so that a barn door actually can be used to create a soft cut on the light. The light from the fresnel creates a cleaner shadow. It also allows a spot to flood design for the unit. So if you are doing much direct hard lighting, then fresnels are useful. See:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

If you need something to start I'd recommend redheads. Also come with barn doors but as been said they are useful only to put gels and diffusion on. They are relatively cheap and powerful tungsten lights. Usually come 800w as a kit bulb but you can change it for something like 250w, which can be used for backlight for example.

I'll be using those to light my first feature. I did some tests and from what I can see they are useful lights. Although get hot, very hot.

 

The main difference between those and the ones you showed (security lamp) on picture is that redheads have even reflectors inside, which gives you a bit more sharper shadow. All those little bubbles you see around the bulb will give you nothing more but trouble.

Edited by Vadim Joy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Hey Bill, this reminds me of another conversation. We could have a poll, such as...."by default, what are the first two lights that someone starting out should aquire?". Does this forum do polls?

 

LOL...not really sure. I think an earlier version of it may have, but I don't know if this one does.

 

Tim?...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...