Halogen worklights for portraits?

[Drea K]

I've read on several sites that decent portraits in a home studio can be done with halogen worklights. Seems to good to be true, since you can pick those up at any Home Depot for dirt cheap. So, who needs Alien Bees, etc....? That said, is there anyone who has attempted this and if so can you post your photos? I'm a very new photographer and a "starving" nursing student. So, no fancy lighting for me right now. LOL. If worklights actually do the job, then I'm heading to Home Depot ASAP!!

[RLucas]

As a matter of fact, they work very well! The big drawback for them is the get VERY hot!
A pro about them, is that they stay on all the time, so you can experiment with different positions, and see in real time how it affects your subject. It's a good cheap way to start with using lighting. You might want to pick up one those silver colored car sun shades as well. They make great budget reflectors!

[Benji]

I see this exact same question asked over and over again on the photography related websites I visit. So do they work? Yup. Are they safe? Depends on what you call "safe" and on what you are photographing. As mentioned above these lights get VERY VERY HOT. A 500 watt halogen bulb reaches nearly 1000 degrees farenheit within a few seconds after being turned on. Imagine you or a client accidentally bumping into one of these and knocking it over. How long would it take a 1000 degree object to burn skin? Skin burns at 130 degrees and ignites at 480 degrees. Image a mother backing away from her infant after posing it for you and bumping into one of these lights and it falls onto the baby. I hope you carry several million dollars of liability insurance because you will need it.

I suggest NOT using them for portraiture, and I also suggest checking with your insurance company about coverage when you are using them to photograph other things.

Lastly, they are not as photographically bright as one might think they are, and when you add in a diffuser to make the light soft enough to use, you will need to use a long shutter speed, a high ISO and a large aperture.

Benji

[LeeR]

I agree with those who have already weighed in that Halogen can work well though they do get very hot and great care should be taken. (They also produce light that is very close to daylight in temperature.) There is one other advantage that has not yet been considered. One of the skills every photographer needs to learn is the ability to see or sense the quality of light. People who have a lot of experience will tell you there is a kind of light that is nearly magic; everything you shoot looks good in this light. It is that kind of light you are trying to duplicate in the studio. Once you master this, transitioning to a strobe system is much easier because you already know where your lights need to be to create the light you want. True, high-end strobe systems have lights that will give you a preview of what you are going to get, but it is not quite the same. There is something to be said for mastering fixed lights before progressing to more sophisticated systems.

[mitchcook]

I would consider these kinds of lights to be very bright. I use them lots for working on cars.
If you are using them inside a room for portraits, you could always bounce one off the ceiling, and one off a wall to the side, and it will make the light a bit more soft?

Yes, they do get hot, but that does not mean that you can not use them. Buy a set and practice away. With the prices they can go for when they are on sale (and the fact you don't even need to purchase a separate stand or anything), they will provide you with a lot of experience for a small price!

[sk66]

The heat really is the problem.
You can't readily use light modifiers with them (snoots/ diffusers etc) as the modifiers can catch on fire. You don't want to put them too close to a wall/ceiling or carpeting....if using a stand it should be fine as long as you are a couple feet from a wall/ceiling (bouncing the light).
And last, with a couple of those on in a smallish room both you and the model are going to get very uncomfortable quickly...And the model is going to be in a pool of sweat in short order. Makeup/Hair looks bad quickly when the model is sweating.

[Car2n]

They are not suitable for photography. Period.
They are hot and the light they give off is crap.
Waste your money if you want to but I'm telling ya.

[Drea K]

I'm not at a point where I have clients per say. Photography for me is a hobby right now. I would like to be able to do our own family portraits at Christmas time, shoot friends, etc... So, that is one reason why I don't see a point in spending a lot. I have been looking at speelights. Specifically the Vivitar 285hv. And maybe hooking that up to a shoot through umbrella, then hanging a 150w worklight over head for a hair light. Still cheap, I know, but I'm not actually trying to make money with this right now.

If the work lights are a bad idea, can anyone suggest a better starter set up? Under $100?

[Duane]

Some lights will give you a better picture than no lights. I don't think I'd go out and buy halogen lights for photography, but I'm happy to play with the ones I've got.

As for spending less than $100, ebay will be your friend, I just picked up an old but extremely effective canon pro flash for less than $50, The down side is no TTL metering but a few experiments and I was getting some decently exposed images.

[Benji]

Originally Posted by Duane

Some lights will give you a better picture than no lights. I don't think I'd go out and buy halogen lights for photography, but I'm happy to play with the ones I've got.

As for spending less than $100, ebay will be your friend, I just picked up an old but extremely effective canon pro flash for less than $50, The down side is no TTL metering but a few experiments and I was getting some decently exposed images.

Duane,

Good for you. I'm not sure why so many people are afraid of used stuff on ebay. EVERY time I have purchased something on ebay that was not as represented or didn't work, I got a full refund. EVERY other time the item worked perfectly. I have purchased in the past couple of years, about five used A/C powered studio flash units and all of them have performed flawlessly.

Ben