Use
fluorescent lighting for large format professional digital photography?
Fluorescent
lighting is cool, and does not melt your subject, does not wilt
the photographer and assistants, and does not upset the digital
system. CCD scanning cameras are sensitive to heat.
Videssence
provided a complete set of studio lights and we tested them for
six months in our studio (at that time on location in Guatemala,
Central America).
Now
we are testing at our studio in Essen, Germany. Videssence lights
are available for Europe but are not as common here. At Photokina
we did not see a stand for Videssence, but we did find a
large and impressive stand for Balcar as well as for another
company featuring fluorescent lighting, Fotoleuchten
Grigull.
Of
the lights that I inspected at Photokina '98 in Cologne,
Balcar and Fotoleuchten Grigull seemed to have a better
mirror system. This means that more light reaches your subject.
In digital photography, because of the heavy filters on the lens,
you need every extra unit of light that you can generate. Video
and television cameras don't need much illumination. At Seybold
'99 (San Francisco) Balcar lights were used in the booth of Calumet
Digital Solutions. North Light fluorescent lights were also used
there, for the display of the capabilities of the Better Light digital
system.
At
DRUPA trade show Balcar lights were used by Creo to demo
their digital camera. Balcar lighting was also used at the
Sinar booth if I remember correctly. In other words, professional
photographers who can afford the best opt for Balcar lighting.
In the USA Balcar lights are distributed exclusively by Calumet.
Most
of these fluorescent lights were originally made for TV studios,
indeed Videssence lights CNN and probably more than half
the TV studios across America. This means that the fixtures were
originally designed to hang down from the ceiling. If you have a
portable studio working on location then you need to be sure to
obtain alternative solutions to holding the lights. North Light
appears to have developed an outstanding system of holding the fluorescent
fixtures in a manner that makes it easy to arrange the lights in
a whatever position you desire.
If you want contact Balcar directly, via e-mail: sales@balcar.fr
A
nice feature of fluorescent lighting is that (for digital
photography) they can be mixed with traditional halogen tungsten
lights. This is because your digital camera can balance to a
gray card even if sun light is mixed in with all your other lighting
types. I am not sure I would try this for a million dollar assignment
for a color management ad poster, but for normal photography it
is impressive how digital cameras balance for lighting mixtures
that would never be possible if using traditional film. Equally
obviously, you get better light balance if you stick with one system
of lighting.
On
the subject of lighting, be sure to use Rosco filters if
you need to tweak your color temperature (review on www.maya-art-books.org)
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