Using strobe light as lighting in filmmaking

[Nigel]

I snuck my 4008 into an art exhibit in NYC that dealt with light and reflection.

In one room it was completely dark--You had to go through a light trap. Then about every five seconds strobes would flash for maybe a half a second. To show that you were actually in an all white room.

I shot this using K40 and my lens wide open. It looked great. That is the only time I shot with strobes. Hope it helps.

Good Luck

[Matt Pacini]

I had thought of doing this a few years ago, but discounted the idea for various reasons that I'm not sure are valid.

The great thing is, those Xenon flashes are way bright - just the thing to get a decent F-stop in Super 8, and they're pretty low power too. The light(s) could be triggered easily because most S8 cameras have the flash out for single frame shooting.

I have recently heard that there are some units that you can adjust the cycle, meaning they won't drive you so nuts from the strobing effect.

Has anyone actually tried this?

Matt Pacini

[GREATwarEAGLE]

I think I know the exhibit you speak of, Nigel.

Was this exhibit downtown, in Soho, on Hudson Street near the Holland Tunnel?
Asian artist? Took place last year, before 9/11?

[MovieStuff]

The problem is that the power required for rapid stobe applications is pretty intense, amperage wise. This may seem counter intuitive since photo flash units can run on batteries but they take a long time to cycle and the step up in voltage is tremendous. The maintain that level of high voltage continuously requires serious power. If you were plugged into AC it might not be a big deal but I also don't think there would be an advantage since you can get enough light easily with tungsten. If you were thinking portable (like out in the field) the battery array would be a ball-buster. Again, portable flash units require quite a bit of time to recycle. You would need a pretty big battery supply PER FLASH to maintain the rate necessary for 24fps applications. In fact, I would suspect (but am too lazy to do the math right now) that you would actually need more power for continuous strobing (for the same amount of light output) as for a simple continuous light source. In either case, the battery array for distant locations would be very, very heavy depending on how long you wanted the power to last.

[Nigel]

GreatwarEagle--

It was it was in I think the ABC gallery. I thought it was a great idea. Did you go??? What did you think???

[Matt Pacini]

Roger, I wasn't thinking of using one battery powered.
I was only thinking of doing it, powered by AC.

Matt

[#Pedro]

THere had been a 16mm projector that worked that way - substituting the shutter with a strobing light, electronically controlled. But they discontinued it soon after, as the lamp?s life had been rather short.
Pedro