Hardly any photographer does not dream of a dream job as professional photographer or of his own photo studio. Thanks to the price development over the past few years even amateurs now come a little bit closer to this dream. The selection of special lamps and accessories is quite extensive and one can easily lose track.

Just the question of whether one should use permanent light or a flash and which power would be sufficient may be a task for a whole evening. At this point we would like to give you some assistance to fund the right equipment.

Which types of studio lights are there?

There are two types of studio lights. First of all the permanent light and second the typical studio flash. At the beginning permanent light is the more favourable variant, not least because you do not need an external manual exposure meter. The classical studio flash equipment is the most flexible type of illumination. Here you can choose from a almost inexhaustible selection of light controls and fixtures.

Permanent light

Daylight
Our product range contains three versions of permanent light. The most popular one is the Daylight. They are fitted with energy saving lamps and are available with power ratings from 150 – 1750 Watt. They only get hand warm and are ideal for heat sensitive articles, like in food photography. The energy consumption is very low. Unfortunately you can only change the light power by switching illuminants on and off. The selection of light controls or Softboxes is very limited. Daylight is particularly suitable for product photography, but also for baby photos. Care must be taken that the illuminants are not disposed of with domestic waste. The colour temperature is around 5000 – 5400 Kelvin (daylight colour temperature).

Quarz light
Quartz light is excellently suitable for video shoots or as stage light. The colour temperature is around 3200 Kelvin (artificial light) and the power can be infinitely controlled. Because of the high temperatures, light controls cannot be used, except the walimex barndoor fixture and a Beauty Dish. This type of illumination is mostly used as floodlight.

Floodlight
Floodlights, as one can already assume from the name, serve the purpose of illuminating large areas. Here you can choose from two types. On the one hand the energy saving variant with fluorescent tubes and on the other hand LED lamps. The LED variant is almost flicker-free and therefore excellently suitable for video tasks. Fixtures or Softboxes can unfortunately not be attached. The product comes with a diffusor.

The studio flash

This type of illumination offers an almost unlimited selection of light controls and therefore represents the most flexible solution in photography. Compared with permanent light, the light power is higher and infinitely adjustable, but a manual exposure meter like the walimex Sixtomat by Gossen is required to adjust the light power among each other. 

When working with studio flash equipment you still need a reflex camera. The flashes are optionally triggered by connecting the camera by means of a Sync Cord or a radio remote trigger. The radio remote trigger is the better option, because in this case the danger or tripping over cables hanging down is only very limited. Various Softboxes create different light atmospheres. In portrait photography, for instance, an Octagon box is most suitable because of its design. With this box you can do the magic trick and create a beautiful round accent light. A Striplight is a popular effect light, because it allows you to create a really soft stray light. It is also used in portrait photography. 

You can create a very nice effect light by attaching a honeycomb It is mostly used in portrait photography as accented hair light.  

The background and its suspension

One must generally consider whether work is to be carried out portably or stationary in the own studio. 

The portable background system
Tow lamp tripods and a cross-bar (telescopic or 3-piece) represent the scope of delivery of this set. It is quickly assembled and easy to transport. It is therefore very well suited for mobile photography or for a living room that has been converted to a studio. The portable background system is therefore suitable for all situations in which you need to be mobile or a permanent stay is ruled out. The disadvantage of this set-up is the fact that the spreading distance of the legs obviously occupies some space, which may possibly be needed otherwise.

The stationary background system
This stationary background system can optionally mounted to the ceiling or the wall. As it is fitted with a Velcro system, it is a relaxed way of unrolling or rolling up the background rolls. Changing a roll does not take any time at all and up to 5 different background papers can be fastened to a background system. These may obviously also have electric draw-in. For a stationary studio this is the best possibility of a background suspension.

Backgrounds

Here we differentiate between two types. The classical paper background on the one hand and the fabric background on the other. The fabric background has a very small packing dimension, a low weight, but one decisive disadvantage – unfortunately it is in most cases not crease-free.

The paper background is rolled up on a cardboard core and comes with a packing dimension of up to 3.56 m. This is surely quite unsuitable for mobile use, but still surpassed because of its smooth surface. Since it is a sole consumable, torn or soiled parts are just cut off and more paper is simply pulled off the roll. It is available in different colours. It is the classic in any studio.

Bron: walimexpro.de