I know nothing about lighting for photography purposes, but photography is my wife’s hobby, so I agreed to research the subject.  She would like some artificial lighting for taking pictures indoors because the lighting in our house isn’t exactly ideal.  Our inside pictures typically have strange shadows or incorrect renderings of the actual colors because of our inside lighting.  My basic goal is to identify a good starter kit.  Anyway, I spent a good chunk of the morning and afternoon researching the subject as a complete “noob” and like any technical subject, it is replete with jargon.    I’ll try to break down some of the terminology for clarity.

There are two main types of lighting:

  1. Continuous lighting -  This is what you’d expect.  An unbroken, always-on light source like a household lamp.
  2. Strobe lighting - This is flash photography.  A high amount of light output is delivered in a very short period of time.

Continuous lighting

Continuous lighting comes in several flavors, which are:

  • halogen - hot, bright, short bulb lifetimes
  • fluorescent - cooler, less bright, cheaper
  • incandescent - cheap, standard light bulb
  • HMI - best, super expensive

In a studio set, a photographer using continuous lighting often has a key lamp and a fill lamp.  The key lamp is responsible for the main lighting, whereas the fill lamp is used to cover lighting gaps.  The positioning of the lamps is important from a composition standpoint because it determine how any shadows will appear on the subject.

Strobe lighting

I understand how a flash bulb that snaps into a camera works, but I was curious to figure out how a photographer times a separate strobe lamp to coincide with the actual taking of a picture.  Well, it turns out that there are serveral methods by which this is commonly done:

  1. The strobe may have a built-in optical sensor that detects the flash on a camera firing and subsequently fires itself.
  2. The strobe may be connected to the camera via a cable.
  3. The strobe may communicate with the camera via infrared.

Arguments

Photographers appear to endlessly debate the merits of continuous lighting versus strobe lighting.  Many people prefer strobe lighting for human subjects, but others also make arguments in favor of using continuous lighting.  It is worth noting that some amount of continuous lighting is present in any location, whether it is natural light or ambient artificial light in the area.

Commonality

Whether one choose to go with a continuous or strobe setup, there are some common factors that are worth noting when choosing a kit:

  1. Color temperature - sunlight is about 5500K (kelvins)
  2. Intensity - the amount of watts a lamp can deliver
  3. Portability - can the kit be moved easily?
  4. Accessories - umbrellas, softboxes, and similar accessories are useful for modifying the light.

Conclusion

I haven’t decided which kit to go with yet, but at least I have some basis by which to judge them now!  As with most purchases, my goal is to figure out what kit will give us the most bang for our buck.  If you have any specific recommendations, please send them along.  Thanks!