Spiderlites offer flash alternative for photographers

— -- Prominent photo bloggers have been raving about the Westcott Spiderlites for quite some time, so I decided to take a good look recently.

The Spiderlites, aimed for photographers and video makers, offer a flash alternative — a continuous light source with a soft, window-light look on your subject. Unlike traditional hot lights — which are color balanced for tungsten, the Spiderlites give you a choice. You can plug in either tungsten or daylight balanced lightbulbs, sold in packs by Westcott. With the daylight bulbs, you won't have to worry about color balance issues, since cameras tend to be balanced for daylight.

The Spiderlites are not cheap. A TD3 kit with three bulbs, light stand and a softbox starts at just over $400, while the bigger TD6 (with six lamps) sells for just over $1,000 with the same setup.

In the online lighting demo videos by bloggers Scott Kelby and Terry White, the Spiderlites look terrific — my question isn't just how good are they — I also wanted to know how tough they were to set up. And as a video maker who is constantly on the run interviewing folks at their offices, in their homes, on TV studio sets and at conventions — could I drag these lights with me and set them up quickly?

The answer: no.

The Spiderlites offer beautiful light, but are not designed for mobile. It sounds silly, but it takes time to plug in 12 light lamps every time you put it back together and set it up again. And you have to hope that one of the lamps won't break en route.

The Spiderlite is a great accessory for the home studio though.

Indeed, Westcoot says its target audience are new photographers setting up studios who don't want the hassle of big strobes, pros as well as the emerging video market.

With continuous light, you don't have to waste as much time doing setups and test shots to guess how the flash will perform. What you see is what you get.

I used the big daddy TD6 Spiderlites, which, based on the package Westcott sent me (with light stands, a grid and a big honking case) comes to $1,800.

I found that 12 potential lamps (from the two units) in my little garage cast way more light than I actually needed. With the Spiderlite system, you can run two lamps, four lamps or all six at the same time. With the ability to shoot in low light with amazing results on the current crop of digital SLRs, I did fine with just two lamps.