ghetto lighting - tensor lights

[crockny]

Is a tensor light a good light to use for ghetto lighting? I live in a studio apartment and have used all my money for the camera and lens (and I want more lenses) ... just starting to work inside with a tripod and very new to lighting ... a friend has a tensor floor lamp to give me - do I want it for lighting?

someone else said to get a "daylight lamp"???

Any other suggestions or should I suck it up and buy a speedlight? I can't think straight!

[RLucas]

IMO, it depends on what you want to do. You can really use any light you wish, but there will pros and cons for everything. The tensor light may give you some interesting shape to the light, but you ss will be painfully slow, and/or your ISO will be really high.
I have just gotten in to the wonderful world of ocl myself, and have been doing a lot of experimentation with my "ghetto" setup, which consists of two clamp lights fitted with 25w Ott cfl bulbs. I have been using t shirt material as diffusers, and carboard boxes as barn doors. I have also used a cut off plastic cup as a makeshift snoot. It's fun, but very cumbersome. I do like using the continous lighting, because it helps me model the light so I know exactly where the shadows and highlights will fall. I did it just to see if this is the direction I want to take my photography, before I dropped a lot of coin on proper equipment.
Feel free to check out my stream if you want. Most of the latest photos are sp's done with just those lights.