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Studio lighting gear gives photographers the power to shape the look of images and video footage. Whether you’re enhancing the available light, illuminating a subject in a windowless studio, or using light fixtures to represent sunlight or another type of lighting source, you may want to consider adding continuous lighting to your toolkit.
Continuous lighting photography is any type of photography that features a constantly illuminated light source. While strobe lighting photography relies on a short burst of bright light, continuous lighting photography uses a fixture that stays on throughout the shoot.
If you’re interested in a continuous lighting setup for your shoot, you have plenty of fixture styles to choose from including LED, fluorescent, tungsten, and plasma lights.
One of the newer styles of lighting for photography, LED lights are extremely bright without creating excessive heat. Most LED fixtures feature dozens of small points of light, or diodes. While LED fixtures were once limited by an unattractive color cast, modern LED fixtures are both color-changing and dimmable to provide greater flexibility.
Fluorescent lights, once used primarily in offices and commercial spaces, also function well as continuous lighting for photography. Most fluorescent lamps or bulbs come in a long tube format, so the ideal fixture features multiple bulbs for a broader wash of light. If you’re shooting video, make sure you choose flicker-free fluorescent fixtures.
Tungsten bulbs feature a traditional filament-style design with a tungsten filament and a bulb filled with halogen gas. Tungsten lights work very well in the motion picture industry thanks to their brightness, warmer color temperature, and consistent look.
When using tungsten fixtures, keep in mind that they generate more heat than other types of bulbs and use more power.
Also found on many movie sets, HMI or plasma lights are more powerful than most other continuous lighting varieties. These lights are typically used in broad-scale professional settings because of their price point and power.
No matter which variety of continuous lighting fixtures works best for your needs, it’s always smart to invest in gear by a top name in the photography and motion picture industry. Altman, AAdynTech, Broncolor, Came-TV, and Electronic Theatre Controls are among the most reliable, reputable brands in the business.