Vid lights for stills?

[sharky60]

Thoughts on using video lights for shooting still shots? ...

 

[Barmaglot]

I use a pair of Archon D36V lights for stills. In daylight, they provide adequate illumination at up to a couple feet of distance, but not much more than that. Sample with one light:

Two lights:

Besides the lack of range, they require quite a bit of caution in handling to avoid shining them at other divers, plus they tend to scare away the fish.

 

[Hoag]

By using video lights (instead of strobes), a number of factors come into play. Some of these are good. Some of these may limit your success.

Please keep in mind, that I offer the following as my opinion not as hard facts.

Pros of using video lights:

• If you turn them on as you reach depth and leave them on, then they are always ready when you want to take your photo. There is no waiting for them to recycle. You can snap away to your heart's content, or even run your camera on its fast drive setting shooting several frames per second potentially without wondering if your strobes have recycled or not.
  
• You don't have to worry or be restricted to your camera's "Flash Sync speed". Many mirrorless cameras have relatively slow Flash Sync speeds, often around 1/160th second. Since you would not be trying to synchronize your shutter to a strobe, you can run with a higher shutter speed (within limits).
• You will always know if your subject will be lit by the video lights. You will see what is being lit by your video lights and can quickly and easily adjust them to ensure that your subject is lit by them. This can prove tricky with strobes.
• By constantly lighting the area where you want to take a picture, autofocus should react quickly in most cameras.
• If you hit the water planning to shoot exclusively still photos, but at some point in the dive get a subject that would make an ideal video subject, then you have the right gear with you.

Cons of using video lights:

• If you turn them on when you reach depth and leave them on, then you run a fairly good chance that they may interfere with the lighting in somebody else's shot or get in somebody's eyes at some time during the dive.
• Exposure (especially if you are shooting in manual) can be a little more difficult.
  
  • To freeze a quickly moving subject, you will need to use a fast shutter speed and will not be able to rely on the flash of a strobe to freeze the subject. A fast shutter speed will result in less ambient light in your image and will have to be compensated by adjusting the aperture (which will then impact on your depth of field) and/or your ISO (which may introduce unwanted noise into your image). You will have to experiment to see what works best for your equipment. For many strobes, the flash duration is 1/1000 second or faster and they are able to effectively freeze a quick moving object.
• Video lights tend to have a significantly lower light output than strobes. This means that while the effective range of strobes is generally around 4-5 feet, you have to get even closer with video lights. This will likely have little or no effect on macro or close up shots, may reduce their effectiveness on wide angle shots (capturing the colour inside a swim-through for instance). In general, you will likely have to get closer to your subject with video lights than you would with strobes.

Although you didn't ask, what I tend to do is if I plan on shooting video, then I take 2 small video lights and my GoPro. If I plan on shooting stills (which is the vast majority of the time) then I take a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera which I shoot in manual with a pair of strobes which I will set to TTL.

I hope this answers your questions or at least gives you something to think about. Again, I don't claim that these points are the 100% solution, only that they are an informed opinion.

 

[tbone1004]

Strobe vs Video Light for Still Photography

some good info at @Bobby 's site on using his video lights for stills

 

[sharky60]

talked with some of my Pro buddies ... strobes for stills, lamps for vids.

 

[npole]

Thoughts on using video lights for shooting still shots? ...

You can .. and if you do also videos, it's acceptable (more if you do more videos than pictures like me..).
But they are noway comparable, a flash (even a cheaper one) produces an instant considerable bigger amount of illumination that no video light can provide.
To be short: if you do most still.. go flash without thinking more than 1 second at it (and eventually buy a cheap light if you do macro.. for the focus if anything).