Flashlight for lighting portraiture?

tmamer

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Oct 26, 2012
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looked around but can't find a definitive answer to what flashlight would work best for replicating what you can do with a speed light. ideally it would be a step-less power, focusable, tungsten or "daylight" balanced.

what would you use?
 

AnAppleSnail

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Speedlights are very bright. Below about 1/20th of a second you're looking at impractical outputs. With lightpainting any old light will work. But for model-friendly exposure times you need big lights. Up close I find that 1500+ lumens is adequate. Don't worry about the cct unless you're mixing light sources. Then they should closely match.
 

tmamer

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Speedlights are very bright. Below about 1/20th of a second you're looking at impractical outputs. With lightpainting any old light will work. But for model-friendly exposure times you need big lights. Up close I find that 1500+ lumens is adequate. Don't worry about the cct unless you're mixing light sources. Then they should closely match.

Thanks for replying!

I'm not really wanting to light paint, but up close portraiture is what i'm thinking.

honestly i saw this:

Lowel GL1 Power LED Specifications
• Dimmable focusing LED fixture
• Dimming Range – 5-100%
• Color Temperature – 3000K
• Color Rendering Index – 90
• Focus Range – 5:1 (approximate)
• Output Reading at 5 feet, full spot: 398-foot candles
• Output Reading at 5 feet, full flood: 73-foot candles

on the net, and thought that it was basically very good flashlight. so i started looking into high end flashlights, and that led me here. the GL1 sounds like it is going to sell for "under $800"

i'm thinking there has to be and led flashlight already on the market that can match this for specs, if not features, yet be much more cost effective. yes?
 
Last edited:

AnAppleSnail

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Lux are more helpful than footcandles. A foot-candle is about 11 lux, or lumen per square meter. Of course, without a width of the stated spot then there's no indication of total output. However, we're looking at

4378 lux on 'spot' (About like an LED mini mag lite, with a bigger spod) on 'spot' and,
803 lux on 'flood.'

In actual photography where you 'develop' the exposure (RAW digital or darkroom film), I find CCT to be very easy to ignore. Mixed CCTs are a bear, though. So as long as you've matched things, you're golden. If I can't match, I target a 4000-4500K CCT to have a nice medium value. Some LED lights emphasize that they "Do not shift CCT" or "Do not use PWM," but the CCT shift in LED lights is pretty small, and if PWM is high enough it won't matter to the exposure.

tl;dr, you want a big *** zoomie flashlight, or a bare-emitter model. It won't match a speedlight, though.
 

tmamer

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
15
Lux are more helpful than footcandles. A foot-candle is about 11 lux, or lumen per square meter. Of course, without a width of the stated spot then there's no indication of total output. However, we're looking at

4378 lux on 'spot' (About like an LED mini mag lite, with a bigger spod) on 'spot' and,
803 lux on 'flood.'

In actual photography where you 'develop' the exposure (RAW digital or darkroom film), I find CCT to be very easy to ignore. Mixed CCTs are a bear, though. So as long as you've matched things, you're golden. If I can't match, I target a 4000-4500K CCT to have a nice medium value. Some LED lights emphasize that they "Do not shift CCT" or "Do not use PWM," but the CCT shift in LED lights is pretty small, and if PWM is high enough it won't matter to the exposure.

tl;dr, you want a big *** zoomie flashlight, or a bare-emitter model. It won't match a speedlight, though.


This is certainly not tl;and i dr. :)

no, this makes sense. i know perfectly well that there is no flashlight that can match a speedlight. I have 2 good speedlights i am happy with. So yes, I want the biggest *** zoomie flashlight our there. Preferably an LED one with very even spread, as well as both zoom, and stepless power adjustment. and that for maybe $200. tall order i know, but there it is.

So lets have some links, or brand name/model numbers folks.:twothumbs
 

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