Studio photography: Strobes vs continuous lights

[achee]

Hi all!

What's the difference between shooting with studio strobes and continuous lights? I'm familiar with using studio stobes through soft boxes and umbrellas, but I've never tried to use continuous lights in a similar way.

I'm guessing the most significant differences are:

Strobes:
- Much much brighter,
- Aren't so hot
- Use less power (for the output).

Continuous lights
- Don't limit your shutter speed,
- It's easier to see what you're going to get,
- Don't require triggering.

Anything else significant? So, is being much brighter (and thus allowing more freedom to choose optimal camera settings and overcoming ambiant light = more control over lighting) the only thing that affects the resulting images?

I'm just curious. I think that practically all studio work is done with strobes, so I'm just wondering why.

Andy

[kiwi]

Another couple of things, colour balance with continuous lights is a tricky art, and the fact that someone is looking at a bright light prior to the shutter going leads to a very small iris and typically unflattering catchlights

[James T]

What Kiwi said. + you need very nice gels for continuous lights so they don't melt.

[darkbhudda]

Strobes freeze the action. You can do some interesting things with long shutter speeds and strobes. You do have to wait for them to recycle though.

[Bennymiata]

Having done lots of sudio work myself, the more light you have, the better the pictures will be.
The brighter the lighting, the lower you can set your ISO to get smoother and less grainy images.
Once you've got your set-up right, it's easy to get the right white balance whereas with continuous lighting, the light can change after having the lights on for a period, and as you aren't getting as much pure light with continuous lighting, clothing and other things that can reflect that light back into the camera can alter the white balance settings.
While flashes and strobes can be pretty harsh, umbrellas, soft boxes etc can soften the light very well.

Many models hate being under continuous strong lighting too, and with some jobs, they may have to stand there for some hours too.