PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY.com

Some time ago, I was laboring over a big decision: strobes or hotlights? After a great deal of research, I came to the conclusion that, for me at least, hotlights are the way to go.

Why? First of all, “hotlights” are always on. Unlike strobes, they offer a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach to lighting. And since I work in television news, the choice seemed natural. This is not to say that hotlights are better than strobes - they aren’t. They each offer different advantages and from what I’ve read, many photographers use both.

But I’m starting out with this studio lighting thing. A newbie, if you will. While I’ve certainly used flash, a full light set is pretty much a new thing for me. And since I’ve wanted for some time to work my way toward doing portraits professionally on the side, I decided to bite the bullet and invest.

Which hotlights did I choose? Westcott’s TD5 Spiderlights.

I’ve had a fair amount of experience shooting with them now and here’s what I’ve learned.

First of all, the lights are great. I own both the halogen and fluorescent bulbs. The halogen bulbs are incandescent and therefore quite a bit warmer (both literally and in color temperature) - 2800K using five bulbs. The cooler fluorescent bulbs generate near-daylight color balanced at 5500K. These bulbs don’t generate much heat and, in my opinion, offer a great deal more flexibility when shooting on location. Still, if you buy these lights, it may be a good idea to invest in both sets of bulbs. Not inexpensive, but worth it.

The TD5s can also be equipped if you want to with four studio strobes and a modeling lamp. This fact alone I think offers tremendous flexibility for anyone who buys these lights. You are not “locked” into using hotlights all the time. Should wish to switch to your strobes (purchased separately) - go for it!

Each of the TD5 Spiderlights has three different “on” switches mounted on the back. With all three switches lit, you’ve got all five bulbs blazing. That’s a lot of light. But should you want to back off a bit, flip one or two of the switches off. Again, this is great control and it allows you to control and while a bit less able to be fine-tuned than studio strobes, I found it more than adequate in getting the look I wanted.

The soft boxes are great - lined with silver as you can see in the image above. They main silks are easy to mount and the TD5s have a second silk you can monitor which sits farther inside the soft box, closer to the bulbs. I didn’t play with this much, but I imagine if you really wanted the softest light possible you could mount both silks. I’ll have to mess with this feature some more and see what a difference it makes: two silks, one silk outside, one silk inside, no silks. Again, lots of options.

Now the big question. And I assume this is the question everyone has before they purchase a set of hotlights. Will there be enough light that I don’t have to raise the ISO or open the aperture too wide? The answer is yes. I shot mostly with my Canon EF IS 70-200mm L f/2.8 lens and had absolutely no problem achieving f/5.6 or f/8 at ISO 100 or 200. f/8 I think is really the ideal aperture for many portrait situations since it offers just enough focus on the subject while letting the background still go soft.

In the image here, which I shot at f/5.6, the models mouth falls somewhat out of focus, which doesn’t both me, but f/8 might have been a better choice.

What I discovered using the TD5s is that while they are fully “powered up” with all five bulbs running, there is absolutely no shortage of light. But in my experience, if you start backing off on your key light by flipping those switches, you may run into trouble trying to keep the aperture, shutter and ISO where you want it. I recommend leaving all five bulbs on for your key and simply repositioning the light forward or back to control its intensity (although moving it back does slightly increase the sharpness of the light). That way you can save most of the switch-flipping for your fill light.

Ultimately, I consider these things quirks with no real negative impact in practical terms. The overall advantages of these lights are terrific and the ability of hotlights to let you see what you are shooting before you shoot it is huge.

In short, I couldn’t be happier.

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