the difference between continious and strobes

[germacran]

hi
from long time i want to ask a few questions :
what is difference between continuous light and strobe light ?
why the strobe light only freeze action although it is 600 watt and continuous also
600 watt
is the difference is duration of light in flash is fraction of second and in cont it is light all the time?
what is best flash hot shoe such as (canon , sigma , etc) or strobe head such as elinchrome and others what is strongest in light ?
i am waiting for your answers
thanks a lot

[Don Hoey]

Slightly puzzled by your reference to both lights being 600 watt. What lights are they ?

Generally continous light requires a fairly long exposure time so there is a limit to it being able to freeze action. Flash on the otherhand is of extremly short duration, 1/1000 sec or less regardless of the power of the flash unit ( Guide Number ). Flash does not generate heat so can be used closer to the subject but is necessarily more expensive than continuous lighting.

Whats best ............ well that depends on what you are lighting. The advantage of continuous is that you can see how the light is falling on the subject whereas with flash it requires some experience to be able to visualise its effect. Depending on the subject matter heat generated from continuous may be a significant problem but there are a number of cooler running lights out there. When it comes to strobes then studio jobs like Elinchrom give fast recyling times, bigger flash tubes so a bigger light than camera flash units. The downside if you are looking to freeze action is that they are comparitivly slow burners so regardless of output you are looking at a flash duration something in the order of 1/700 sec. Hot shoe types start with a duration of around 1/1000 sec going all the way through to action stopping numbers like 1/41600 sec at 1/128 full power.

Whats the best hot shoe flashgun ............ higher specs cost more so only you can judge which is the best. A good equal in quality to any camera manufacturers units is METZ.

What is the strongest light ........ well that will be from a studio strobe like the Elinchrom RX1200 at 1200 Watt secs. Serious light for serious money.

To be able to give any other clues we really need to see what you are doing but there is nothing in your gallery.

Don

[Don Hoey]

OK, I have found a link to your Flickr gallery in another thread. Link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40564739@N08/

Now you need to give a clue as to what lighting setup you are using. None of those shots require seriously high powered lights.

There is a load of info in the Flash forum, with behind the scenes threads showing lighting arrangements and the kit used that may be of interest.

Don