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Marvin Mattelson · 08-06-2002, 11:08 AM

Alicia,

I use strobe lights manufactured by a Japanese company called Comet. They are very compact and are professional level quality. The power pack is the Comet Cb1200-iii Ultra Cmpct 1200ws Pk. I have two Comet Clx-25 Mini-g 2400ws Flash Heads. They are distributed by Dyna-Lite an American company.

They are extremely small and lightweight as compared to almost any other strobes. Since I use two lights (one main and one fill) this setup is extremely flexible. Depending on how I modify the light (softbox, reflector, umbrella or diffuser) I can recreate many types of lighting effects such as daylight, north light sunlight etc.

I like the powerpack and separate heads over the monolights which have the powerpack built into the head because there is much less of a chance of the light falling (less weight) and easier adjustment, since the pack can be placed near you. However you do need a special meter, a flash meter, to measure the light with all flash units. The cost of all this equipment is between $2000 and $2500. It seems pricey but working from good reference material saves a lot of time, and time is money.

You can, however, take excellent photos with much more economical equipment. The advantage of the strobes is that you can get greater light output without melting your subject. Sweaty subjects are not so ideal to paint. More light means greater depth of field (more things in focus) and the chance to use a finer grain film (more detail.)

In the past I have run one-day photography workshops demonstrating the procedure and, more importantly, explaining the photographic process in layman terms. The result is knowing how to take high quality photo reference on a consistent basis. If enough people were interested I would be happy to do this again.

The problem I see demonstrated both here and in the forum, as well as in all my years of teaching, even photos that look beautiful are not necessarily adequate in terms of recreating how the eye sees.

I am enclosing a recent photo I have taken for an upcoming portrait. In addition to what you see here (a hastily made preliminary print) the negative contains great shadow detail, which I can access by making lighter prints. I'll post the painting when I finish it.

I hope this is helpful.

08-06-2002, 11:08 AM	#14
Marvin Mattelson SOG Member FT Professional '04 Merit Award PSA '04 Best Portfolio PSA '03 Honors Artists Magazine '01 Second Prize ASOPA Perm. Collection- Ntl. Portrait Gallery Perm. Collection- Met Leads Workshops Joined: May 2002 Location: Great Neck, NY Posts: 1,093	What I use Alicia, I use strobe lights manufactured by a Japanese company called Comet. They are very compact and are professional level quality. The power pack is the Comet Cb1200-iii Ultra Cmpct 1200ws Pk. I have two Comet Clx-25 Mini-g 2400ws Flash Heads. They are distributed by Dyna-Lite an American company. They are extremely small and lightweight as compared to almost any other strobes. Since I use two lights (one main and one fill) this setup is extremely flexible. Depending on how I modify the light (softbox, reflector, umbrella or diffuser) I can recreate many types of lighting effects such as daylight, north light sunlight etc. I like the powerpack and separate heads over the monolights which have the powerpack built into the head because there is much less of a chance of the light falling (less weight) and easier adjustment, since the pack can be placed near you. However you do need a special meter, a flash meter, to measure the light with all flash units. The cost of all this equipment is between $2000 and $2500. It seems pricey but working from good reference material saves a lot of time, and time is money. You can, however, take excellent photos with much more economical equipment. The advantage of the strobes is that you can get greater light output without melting your subject. Sweaty subjects are not so ideal to paint. More light means greater depth of field (more things in focus) and the chance to use a finer grain film (more detail.) In the past I have run one-day photography workshops demonstrating the procedure and, more importantly, explaining the photographic process in layman terms. The result is knowing how to take high quality photo reference on a consistent basis. If enough people were interested I would be happy to do this again. The problem I see demonstrated both here and in the forum, as well as in all my years of teaching, even photos that look beautiful are not necessarily adequate in terms of recreating how the eye sees. I am enclosing a recent photo I have taken for an upcoming portrait. In addition to what you see here (a hastily made preliminary print) the negative contains great shadow detail, which I can access by making lighter prints. I'll post the painting when I finish it. I hope this is helpful. Attached Images __________________ Marvin Mattelson http://www.fineartportrait.com [email protected]