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I’m probably in the minority, but I still like shooting continuous lighting in my home studio for photography as well as video.

I have a few reasons.

1) I also shoot video. I use a mix of Mole-Richardson and LTM Pepper continuous lights. They give me beautiful light.

2) I don’t shoot photographs or video in long sessions so I don’t worry about heat build-up from the tungsten lights. Also, my space is large enough that heat dissipates easily.

3) Since I shoot video fairly actively and I’m lazy, I have a semi-permanent set and several lights up on Matthews light stands at all times. I love Matthews light stands.

4) It’s darn predictable even if a bit dim for still photography.

5) Did I mention that the light is beautiful? These have been used to create the best in movie and TV for years.

6) I don’t have to deal with much movement in my still photography.

7) I’m always prepared to interrogate someone. 😉

A few safety notes:

I don’t deal much with child photography, unpredictable people, or the general public so I am a little less concerned, but no less cautious, about someone getting burned. It is important that anyone you may have on your set understand that tungsten lights can cause serious burns.

I never leave my lights unattended once lit.

I don’t touch them without leather gloves once lit.

I sandbag the base.

I leave plenty of head-room between lights and ceiling.

They’re great instruments. Just be careful.

George Hurrell was probably the most famous of the Hollywood movie studio photographers. He made photographs of stars usually using very contrasty lighting.

Not being a movie buff, if I didn’t know the subject in some of these pictures, I still knew that the person was a star. The person was obviously a star because only the stars had pictures like those. The style was unmistakable.

Hurrell had amazing lighting technique. His photography may actually be one of the reasons why I have a nice (but hot) set of Mole Richardson and LTM Pepper tungsten lights instead of modern, cool fluorescent lights. I use them in my videos and in my photography.

If you’re one of the five or so people on the web who haven’t managed to come across strobist.com then I’m officially telling you about it. This blog has a very large and very vocal following and deservedly so.

It’s a “must read” blog if you are interested at all in off camera flash.  One of the highlights is Lighting 101, a series of articles that get the reader familiarized with the camera, flash, and flash synchronization methods such as PC cords and Pocket Wizards.

David Hobby, the owner of the site, also has the On Assignment section which shows how he approached making several photographs.

His techniques don’t rely on using very advanced auto-everything flash equipment. Rather, he tends to rely on manual flash with remote operation.

The site is very highly recommended.

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