Using daylight equivalent fluorescent bulbs

[Malkav41]

Hello everybody,
 
 Lately I've seen ideas where folks have used the screw-in type of fluorescent bulbs that are equivalent to daylight, and the clamp-on type reflectors for setting up a home portrait studio, or to just practice their lighting set-ups.
 
 The question I have is, has anyone here done something along these lines, and if so what wattage bulbs did you use, where did you buy them, and does it work relatively well, or is it a kinda so-so thing.
 
I have purchased some 100w and 75w bulbs and 2 clamp-on reflectors, which I can return if it turns-out that it's a bad idea, or that I bought the wrong wattage bulbs, and need to go lower on the light intensity.
 
 I realize that the above question is pretty dumb, since I already bought the lights and reflectors, but I decided to ask it anyway.
 
 I know it's not going to be up there with pro lighting set-ups and the like, but I'm hoping it is better than using a standard incandescent bulb that makes the model look like they have jaundice.
 
TIA,
Edward

[ImageMaker]

Unfortunately, "daylight equivalent" for your eyes, or even for B&W film, still doesn't produce a natural looking color balance with color films.  The fluorescent produces its light (and balances the color) by way of the emission of visible light by various minerals on excitation by the UV produced inside the tube (from mercury vapor subjected to a high voltage arc).  Altering the type and proportions of the minerals coating the interior of the tube changes the character of the light emitted, but it's still made up of a collection of bright "bands" in the spectrum, rather than a continuum like sunlight.  And because the eye's wavelength response isn't the same as that of film, a light that looks perfectly natural to your eye can still be very, very wrong on film.  As an extreme example, the light used in Laserium shows is a "white" laser -- a xenon laser, with emission composed of blue, red, green, and yellow in a blend that looks perfectly white to the eye (at least in a dim room), but photographs as moderately purple, because the green is rather dim and the yellow falls in the "valley" between the red- and green-sensitive layer responses of color films.

What this is all leading up to is, a "daylight equivalent" fluorescent may produce images that are seriously unbalanced, color wise, and the only way to be sure is to test it.  Worse, you may (likely will) find that color response will be significantly different between conventional C-41 and E-6 films, four-layer C-41 (Superia Xtra), and digital (maybe even between different sensor manufacturers among digital).

You'd likely find it much simpler to use halogen work light bulbs (to give adequate color temperature for "tungsten" films) and a suitable correction filter (IIRC, that'd be 80a) for use with daylight film under tungsten light.  A single filter of this kind of cheap, and tungsten lights emit a continuous spectrum that gives correctable color with all films and digital.

[Malkav41]

So basically I should have saved the money for the bulbs and the reflectors and the time it will take to return them, and just bought the halogen worklight they had, and then maybe after a while tried to find one of those halogen bulbs that is blue that I've heard about. Oh well, live and learn to ask questions before you act. And if they won't take them back I guess I won't have to buy bulbs for the lamps for awhile.

[LarryD]

Funny you should ask that this week I am shooting some slide film with the day light lamps that screw in and they are of the floresent type. I too had the same idea... I will post what I figure out.

I figure if anything they will be better for my plants

Larry

[sandeha]

Try it.   One type of neon I use works well to add a boost to dull daylight from a window.

But then, I hate the glare of halogen.  Neon is sometimes a suitable compromise for me.

[LarryD]

Everything has a use.. if you throw it away someone will make it a prize.

Larry

[Mike Kovacs]

If you're not shooting colour, fluorescent will work just fine.  I have an old lighting book from the 1940's and fluorescent banks of lights were popular because of their high light output and low heat, especially compared to tungsten photoflood lighting.

[Kin Lau]

I have a few compact flourescent bulbs at home, and they actually balance to more of a tungsten rather than daylight with my DSLR.

Whether shooting with regular flourescent or CFL's, make sure you don't have shutter speeds shorter than 1/60. Otherwise, you might end up catching the light in btwn cycles and get some weird colours.

[apocaplops]

Whether shooting with regular flourescent or CFL's, make sure you don't have shutter speeds shorter than 1/60. Otherwise, you might end up catching the light in btwn cycles and get some weird colours.

This is something a lot of people overlook, and an easy way to even out strange colors when shooting under Flourescent light. You'll still need to mess with the white balance if you shoot digital, but at least the colors will be consistent.

[josphy]

Yeah, if you're shooting b&w, then I'd give it a try.  If you're shooting digital, then you can always adjust white balance accordingly.  Either way, 100watt and 75watt don't put out a tremendous amount of light so shutter speeds are likely to be longish (1/30 maybe) and wide apertures.

One big benefit of the fluorescents would be they are very cool.  Halogen or even just regular light bulbs get miserably hot if you're trying to shoot people especially.  I have a friend that shot people with fluorescent light sometimes.  I don't think it was anything fancy...a couple of the long tubes I think...might have been "daylight" balanced but definitely nothing expensive or fancy.   Prob just from Home Depot.  The effect was just a little greenish if I remember correctly but not too much and actually kind of a cool effect depending on your style.

Truth be told, you might do better just to pick up a cheap set of strobes like the JTL brand or some other budget brand.

[Malkav41]

Thanks for the replies.
The reasons I got them were, I'm taking a photography course, and I have to take some photos using light to show shape, texture, and translucence. I figured that if they would for that, I could use them for casual portrait practice.
The other reason is, I can't afford the real lighting set-ups. Not even the JTL brand that josphy mentioned.
 
I did go out looking at the prices for tungsten-halogen work lights, but right now even they're too expensive. I did notice that Home Depot had some halogen bulbs that looked like regular incandescent ones, and thought that maybe they might work instead. I'd probably still need an 80A filter though. Huh?
 
Thanks,
Edward
 
P.S. I apologize if this post is less than intelligent.