Greg from Romeoville illinois Loc: Romeoville illinois

What is the difference between Flashes, speedlights, strobes, and monolights. And which do you prefer and why?

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

Flashes include your entire list. Speedlights are designed to mount on the camera accessory shoe. Strobes to me require a lamp head and a powerpack on the ground. Monolights have the powerpack built into the head and make light stands top heavy. They can be mains or battery powered.

The advantage of battery powered monolights is no cords to trip over. The advantage of power packs is that one pack can power several heads. Speedlights offer max portability. Battery powered monolights are also portable but require either an assistant or stand to hold them.

Preference depends on the project.

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

But is the light produced by them different from each other? Can you get the same results using any of these types of lighting?

Chuck

Greg from Romeoville illinois Loc: Romeoville illinois

There has to be more of a difference between them. Otherwise why spend money on something that does the exact same thing.

M1911 Loc: DFW Metromess

The stand mounted lights give you freedom of placement over the camera mounted light; plus there is a wide range of light modifiers available for them. They generally have more power which allows for different depths to be in sharp focus or not as the power is adjusted.

As an exercise, look at the ads in almost any magazine and try to figure out the lighting. Also the editorial images and the rooms in Architectural Digest. Look for the shadows they will indicate where the lights were placed.

A wedding photographer may use a camera speedlight most of the time but also may have some monolights for photographing the formal wedding party shots.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

There are lots of misconceptions and confusion about the nomenclature of electronic flash technology and many misnomers. It is not critical but for those who are not familiar with the older and current flash gear and contemplating purchasing some flash equipment, it can be especially confusing.

Most electronic flash equipment operates more or less on the same basic principles. Here are some definitions and some history of the terms and types.

STROBE: The term "strobe came into popular use in the early days when electronic flash began to replace disposable flash lamps or flashbulbs my most flas users. Photographers called these replacements for their "flashguns" "portable strobes". They consisted of a shoulder carried power pack and a camera-mounted lamp head. They operat on primary battery power which was is stepped up to high voltage within the power supply. Later on, one-piece unts were also available. "Studio Strobes" were/are more powerful and larger units, at first to replace tungsten floodlights and spotlights. The lamp heads were made in the standard configurations of their tungsten predecessors. Some units had power packs, usually, athe base of a light stand to power the lamp head atop the stand. Others had a large, even more, powerful central pow pack that connected, by means of high voltage cable to multiple flash heads. Until recently, most "studio" unts operat on household current (Approx.117 VAC), nowadays there are battery-operated models that qualify as studio equipment but can be used on locations where AC power is not available or inaccessible.

The punch line to all these descriptions is that NONE of these were actually, technically speaking, "STROBES". "Strobe" is extracted from STROBOSCOPIC LIGHTS which emit multiple bursts of light in extremely rapid sequence. Photograhiicall can be used for motion studios and special effects. They are used in theatrical special effects stage light and is used in speech instrument like automotive engine timing devices. Nevertheless, the term lives on.

SPEEDLIGHT. At one time, besides "STROBE" all electronic falsh gear were called "SPEEDLIGHTS". because of their extremely short flash durations.In the olden days. flashbulbs had a relatively long duration and action stopping ability was dependent on shutter speed. When the electronic flash is the main source of exposure, the film would only see the flas light and their duration of 1/1000 sec or shorter would freeze the action regard of shutter speed as long as the ambient lig was no factor in. In the early days, before the advent of modern electrolytic capacitors, "strobes" utilized less efficient oil-filled co capacitors at extremely high voltages in order to ionize the gas in the flash tube. Eary unts had flas duration between 1/5,000 sec. to 1/10,000+ sec. and could freeze the motion of a speeding bullet to midair, splashing water droplets and shattering glass.

Nowadays the moniker "Speedlight" has been assigned to smaller, one-piece camera-mounted flash units or off-camera lighting in the same design. The usual has no modelling lamps and average about 80- watt seconds. Some manufacturers have "branded" their small flashes as "Speedlights" but at one time that was a more generic term. Some currently available "speedlights" are simple manual units and many other models are full-featured with TTL integration, High-Speed Sync, and zoom control to accommodate the cover of a wide range and longer lenses.

It seems that nowadas, the term "Strobe" refers to more powerful portable units, mostly with the shoulder of belt carried power pack with larger on and off-camera lamp heads and more versatile features such as interchangeable reflectors, user changeable flash tubes, bare bulb operation, and some have modelling lamps. These are battery-powered and can be used on household current with adapters. There are only a few manufacturers that still offer these unts, Lumadyne and Quantum are popular domestic produced products. Godox/Flashpoint have a few nice models at reasonable prices. Theseslig can output 100 to 400 watt-seconds and some have e more with add-on modules.

MONOLIGHTS: These are self-contained studio-type flash units that are comparatively compact and very versatile for in-studio and on-location applications. There are many makes and models currently on the market. Some are simple and require manual exposure management others have full TTL integration dedicated to various camera models. Monolights are available in a vast range of power outputs from 100, to over 1,000 watt-seconds. Soe can be powered down as little as 25-watt-seconds for selective focus control at wide aperture and just a "wink" of fill-in light".

BIG STUDIO POWERPACK MODELS; this used to be the mainstay of many studios, especially in the commercial fields. They involve a fairly large and heavy power pack with multip high voltage outlets that connected, via cables, to multiple lamp heads. or very large ligt bank, softboxes or big lamp heads sometimes cammed Northlight's, Hazy Lights, Slylighters, etc. Because the light in some of these lamp head designs is heavily diffused, extremely high power is needed to compensate for the loss of effective power. Some of the unts pack 2400 or 4800 watt-seconds. These systems are made by manufacturers like Speedotron, Profoto, and a few others.

The specifications can be somewhat confusing for the uninitiated buyer or user as well. Watt-Seconds are not LIGHT volumes, they are an electrical value that experienced users can mentally convert to their own usage requirements. The real technical specs should be BCPS or ECPS, those are Beam Candle Power Seconds or Effective Candle Powe Seconds. Many current manufacturers d no longer include these specifications but they are the mathematical bases for GUIDE NUMBER establishment. I'll have to prepare a write-up on all of this. It is not terribly critical in the purchase of a Speedlight for an occasion or casual use or as a fill source for natural light work. If you are completing a more sophisticated setup, it pays off the be familiar with all the nitty-gritty.

As for the exact names, types, etc, there are some definite guidelines but for some areas, many of the terms have been interchangeable or colocalized. I hope this helps but even with my name- My parents called me "Edward" who were angry with me, my friends and young relatives call me "Eddie", My drill instructor in the army called me stuff I can't write here, and my wife preferred "Ed". Folks who are afraid of me call me Mr. Shapiro, My preset preference is, as the adage goes."call me whatever you want and fits the occasion or mood, just don't call me late for dinner"!

Greg from Romeoville illinois Loc: Romeoville illinois

I will never call you late for dinner. That gives a wonderful overview of this section. Now on to different colors produced by the bulbs and then add filters.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Thanks! What would you like to know about "bulbs"? Flash tubes, colour temperature, white balance, special colour effects? Let me know.

Nowadays, most digital cameras have auto and custom white balance control., there is very little need for on-camer colour correction or conversion filters like back in the film days. Even with certn discontinuous spectrum available light sources like many fluorescent, sodium and mercury vapour lamps, etc., that all were very problematic. with colour films, can be easily addressed with a custom whte balance setting.

We can still use a certain filter over an electronic flash unit or lamp head to match with an odd form of available light when the flash is used for fill or to augment existing light. We can also filter flash unts to match in multiple lighting setups where colour balce between units is critical. Some units of different makes and models have slight differences in colour temperature and in some older units, the colour temperate will fluctuate with changes in power settings. Theatrical gels can be use to create special color effects.

Greg from Romeoville illinois Loc: Romeoville illinois

I wonder if you put all of your knowledge that you have shown, when you will put out a book?

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Thank you for your kind thoughts. I don't think a book is in NOT the cards, as they say!

There are no hidden secrets in practical or applied photography. All the info is out there, for the taking, in books, magazines, online, and of cour informal education classes and seminars.

As for light and lighting, these and the sky have been around much longer than all the newfangled gear. Seems peop are all preoccupied with equipment. Of course, photography is a craft that requires equipment, but oftentimes the simple stuff works best in the hands and eyes of a photograher who can SEE light. Any book that I world write would probably be boring in that there would be little reference to complex technology.

Time is an antoger factor. Although I am an old guy with a gray beard, I am still working and an hour per day of screen time is all I can do. A book would require much more downtime. Unfinished symphonies are popular- unfinished books- not so much !