whats better to use in a studio for models? i have hair lights, key light, etc, so why use a flash if i can use continuous lights?
For models, the amount of continuous light required for full lengths would be too hot and uncomfortable for the models and tough on their eyes and make up. Flash is fast,cooler and more comfortable.
You do not have to use flash if you get the images you want to with your lights... I have prints of me that were taken with hot lights when I was a kid some... 50 years ago... Flash gives you more in focus and stops motion that longer shutter speeds you may need for hot lights do not stop. It is your choice.. try it with what you have and see if it works for you.
For clarity, strobes are actually a scientific tool that can be set to fire as many times as 1,000 fps without damaging the strobe tube. They are also used liberally by many night clubs. Electronic flash units are designed for shooting still images. There are studio flash units and small dedicated external flash units that can be used individually or in groups Continuous lights are used in the studio when shooting products or when shooting video or film. The best brand electronic flash units are the ones made for your camera by the maker of your camera. They have special patented features that allow the flash units to not only talk to your camera, but allow you to make adjustments of remote flashes from the camera. There really is no best studio flash units. They need to be purchased for the specific need for your kind of photography You can look on the BH Photo website and you will see many different brands with different type power packs and light modifiers. I use Lowel Tota-Light continuous lights when shooting products, fashion, portraits and video. They are very tough and have been dropped by the baggage handlers over the past 11 years I have been using them and they still work flawlessly The continuous lamps usually cost less than flash units (sometimes called speedlights) and are excellent lights to use when learning how to light because you can see the incremental changes as you move the lights around. With flash, you have to take photos and then guess what you need to do next Remember that you will also need a background and perhaps a light tent if you will be shooting products
For me, strobes are much better than continuous lighting. Continuous lighting gave me some good results, but it was a lot more work and I had to be much more careful. The lights were hot as heck, hard to work around, always had to shoot on a tripod, aperture had to be wide open and the shutter was almost too slow. Strobes is a different story. Much more control, not hot, rarely use a tripod, can light a much larger area with much less equipment. As far as a flash per se, I never use my flash in the studio at all. There's always a wireless trigger on the hotshoe anyway, so it can't even pop up. The only reason to use it with continuous lights is to fill a little where the continuous lighting isn't cutting it. I never did with continuous lighting. It seemed to mess things up more than it helped. If you have good continuous lighting, you shouldn't ever need it.
