Hey everyone, it's Rob from Hypop and welcome
back to another video.
In this one we're comparing Godox flash strobes
and LED continuous lights and their uses in photography.
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Let's get into it.
So, in this one, we're going to be comparing continuous
LED lights versus flash strobes in photography.
Now, continuous lights are increasingly becoming popular
because they're quite versatile to use for photography,
for still photography and also for film and video.
You can use them for product photography,
fashion photography, portraits,
a whole bunch of different type of photography scenarios.
Now, the great thing about continuous lights
are that they're what you see is what you get.
So, once you turn on the light
you see where the light falls on your subject
before going ahead and taking that shot.
Whereas, with flash you need to typically dial in settings,
make sure your camera settings are correct,
make sure the output of the flash is correct,
you're using a flash trigger to talk to the flash
and making sure that it's all compatible
with all your camera settings.
So, there's a lot of different factors
that you need to consider
before setting everything up for flash photography,
whereas continuous lighting, there are no triggers involved,
you can easily adjust the output of the light to suit the scene.
So, if you wanted a little bit dimmer, you can do that.
Or if you wanted a little bit more light,
it's quite easy to dial that all in.
Now, running through some pros and cons.
So, firstly for continuous lights,
the main pros are that you can use this
in photography and for video.
It doesn't matter what device you're shooting with.
You can be shooting with a standard camera,
mirrorless, DSLR.
You can even be using a phone because a lot of smartphones
nowadays have really advanced cameras.
Easy to see what you're going to get
before you're taking the shot which we already mentioned.
Any modifier can be used with these lights.
It depends on what type of continuous light you go for.
So, if you're looking at a COB light,
some COB lights which are chip on board,
they look like flash strobes
because you can mount lighting modifiers.
So some of them are Bowen's mount for example.
You can mount a soft box to it.
And that means you can modify the light.
Right now, we're using continuous light in this video.
We're using a soft box and also a grid to focus in the light.
So, we're using continuous light.
But you could also take a shot with this as well.
So, if you wanted to take a still, quite easy to do that.
For continuous lighting,
if you're using this with portrait photography,
you can allow aspects of the image to be blurred also.
So, that means if you have a model's dress in the wind,
you can accent that motion
whilst also highlighting sharp facial features.
So, really dialing in the light directioning.
So, if you're trying to point the light
and focus in on a particular aspect of the subject,
it's perfect to do that.
A cinematic look is also easier to achieve
with continuous lights.
Flash is a little bit harder to achieve those types of shots.
There's a lot of editing that's involved with flash
because of that sudden burst of light.
So, you can take your time
a little bit more with continuous lighting.
While there are some good inexpensive speed lights
that you can get.
If you're looking at lighting adding artificial lighting
to your photos or videos, continuous lights by comparison
are cheap as compared to you know flash strobe setups.
They're also easier to understand and get used to,
especially if you're just looking at a first light
as part of your kit.
Now, some of the cons include that continuous lights
are typically lower powered
as compared to their flash counterparts.
So, flashes because they're giving that sudden
burst of light, they allow for higher outputs.
So, you can see flashes
all the way up to 1200 watt outputs or even higher.
They're using that Xenon flash tube, give that burst of light.
However, with continuous lights sometimes a little less output
is good because if you're shooting subjects
that are sensitive to light.
So, if you're shooting pets for example or animals
or even children or babies,
it's good to have that softer light burst.
A lot of lights handle low light situations really well now.
So, you don't need to really increase
your ISO settings for that.
But you can still shoot really sharp images despite increasing
some of those settings with the lesser output lights.
It's difficult to use an ambient light situation.
So, if there's already a lot of available ambient light,
then you're not really going to see too much of an effect
with continuous lights.
So, that means they can't really be well used outside.
So, if you're taking this on location to a bright day,
using continuous light
you're not really going to see if any effects there.
That's when flash really comes into play
where you you can overpower the sun
with some of the higher powered flashes.
And it's a slower shutter speed too.
So, that means you won't be able to shoot at the high speed
sync type ranges.
There are some new lights, the hybrid lights.
One that comes to mind is the Godox FV200
that allows you to shoot at high-speed sync.
It's a hybrid light that's a continuous and a flashlight.
We've actually unboxed that and reviewed it.
So, if you want to take a closer look at that,
click the link up above.
But for the vast majority of continuous lights,
you won't be able to shoot at those higher shutter speeds.
Now, looking into flash strobe lights and their pros and cons,
if you're looking at flash as your first foray into lights,
it really is one of those things
that have us has a steeper learning curve.
So, using a light meter is also great.
Understanding what camera settings
to match the different settings
on your flash is really important also.
But the great thing about flashes
and some of the pros include
that you can freeze and capture movement at a very fast pace.
Your flash durations as well as matching it
with your high speed sync. You can do all that with flash
whereas with continuous lights, you can't.
And if you want that sort of that high glossy
sharp kind of look, this can be achieved with flash.
It's something that continuous lighting can't achieve
because it's not as strong.
And strobes have an immense amount of power
when used correctly. So, which is very useful
in getting rid of ambient light outside.
So, if you're taking a light on location
and if say for example, it's just a really bright day,
it's high noon and you want to overpower
that sun and control all the lighting in your shot,
it's a lot easier to do with flash
because you can overpower the sun
at some of those higher output ranges.
So, you're looking at 600 watts and above.
So, that means you can control all the lighting factors
for your shot too.
Now, mastering flash is really one of those things
that once you do that,
you really have control of all the different aspects
when taking a shot for photography.
So, despite there being a really high learning curve,
it really is good to sort of jump into it
and master some of these important settings
and important features for flashes.
It's also really super easy to modify,
especially because a lot of the flashes have Bowen's mounts.
So, regardless if you're using a little speed light
or a flash strobe,
one that's a portable flash strobe,
if you're using a speed light they come with brackets as well.
So, you can actually mount these to a light stand
or you can purchase an optional bracket
where you can mount a lighting modifier
to modify a speed light or a flash a small light
and be able to create different lighting effects
and types of looks with a single light.
So, you don't need a super, super powerful light.
You can use a speed light, something that you can mount
directly on top of your camera and then shoot it off camera.
So, an example of this would be in a wedding
where if you're shooting behind the couple for example.
I've seen this shot quite a few times
where they would position a light
behind the couple in a low light scenario.
It could be even be a rainy day and have the light
flashing behind either subject or behind the couple.
And that way they can modify the light
and perhaps they're using a little snoot
or maybe they're just going with the little diffuser
that's on the front of the flash.
It's a lot easier to modify lights
regardless if it's a speed light or a big flash strobe.
And also you can shoot at lower ISO
because of that output.
That means you're shooting at typically ISO100
or you can achieve those lower ISOs,
and that means sharper images.
Now, some cons for flashes include
that it's hard to see
what you're going to get from your shot.
The lighting situation is always changing.
Especially if you're shooting run and gun, outdoors,
if you're shooting an event or a wedding.
It's great to have some features in flashes.
So, they now have inbuilt TTL modes.
So, that's through the lens metering.
So, that means it's adjusting
based on the available ambient light.
So, they do have those features to compensate for this.
But it is still hard to see what you get
before actually taking the shot.
So, sometimes you have to take a few test shots
or familiarize yourself
prior to going on to your big shoot
to know how the light will direct itself.
Really mastering the light output
as well as the modifiers is important to this.
It's also just a harder platform to learn in general.
And you also have to sync the device
or the flash to the camera.
So, you have to use either a sync cable
or you'll be using a wireless flash trigger.
Now, they're a lot more inexpensive,
the wireless flash triggers.
So, they start at about $70 or so.
Usually, a lot of the flashes have inbuilt receivers.
So, they talk to each other quite easily.
But overall once you get past that learning curve,
flash photography really does produce great results.
So, as you can see, continuous lights are perfect
to use in photography as well as for film.
So, if you want a light that's versatile,
one that you can use in multiple scenarios,
continuous lights are something to consider.
Now, what we've done is taken a few example shots
with two different lights here.
The first one is a continuous light.
This is the Godox SL150W Mark II.
So, this is traditionally a video light.
It's an LED continuous light. It has a Bowens mount.
And what we've done is mounted a 120cm octagon soft box
onto the light.
And we're keeping the same position
facing into the subject. So, into the model,
diagonally facing into them with the same lighting modifier.
Here, we've taken a shot with a continuous load.
So, we'll throw that upon screen now.
Now, the next shot here is with a flashlight.
So, this one here is a flash strobe.
It's the Godox QT602M. It's a 600 watt flash.
So, essentially it's a stronger light.
It's much stronger than the SL150W continuous light.
But what we've done is maintained the same position,
the same lighting modifier,
it's all pretty much the same conditions.
And we will dial in the settings of the flash to match
so it doesn't overexpose obviously or underexposed.
But we'll just use the same sort of positioning
so you can see the differences
between a continuous light photography shot
and a flash photography shot.
A special thanks to Daniel from Innkeeper Studios.
Feel free to follow them @innkeeperstudios
on social media. Thanks for watching.
Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.
And we'll see you in the next video.