Just a comment, the Vivitar 283 only has a GN of 120 in their advertising. Real world GN confirmed many times via flash metering, and results with slides is 80. Point that into an Umbrella and you have maybe a GN of 25-30. With my 200WS Normans I get an honest GN of 160, pointing them into 36 inch umbrellas I can get 10 feet at f5.6 (GN 56), or so, in living room sized rooms. ASA 100, so probably could get f/8.0 at ASA 200. For portraits you are probably working at 5 feet or so, hence my previous comment that 200WS would be adequate (assuming the the strobe has low power provisions) for the type of work Dave was talking about. I do believe that with dogs and such you would want more DOF than for people shots too so you are not going to be shooting at f/2.8.
I will stick with my comments that 200WS per light is great for small location work, and that 400WS per light will work for most commercial location stuff. If you need more than that, you probably already know exactly what you are doing, rent a couple of 2400WS Speedotrons (the commercial photographers best friend) <grin>. BTW, modeling lights can be rigged to most any strobe. All you need is a small flood light rigged to point the same direction as the flash unit. If your lighting needs to be more detailed than that you are probably better off working with Fresnel hot lights. -- graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" ----------------------------------- Brian Dunn wrote: >> What I found was the smaller flashes just >> didn't have enough power. > > Silvered umbrellas help a bit ( Photogenic Eclipse, I think they are > called... ). I get around F8 at ISO 200 with two silvered umbrellas at a > resonable working distance for small groups. GN 120 flashes, Vivitar 285 > HVs. Recycle time and the need to change batteries every now and then are > still issues, though. For location work with monolights, you might want to > invest in the monolight system's big battery pack units to avoid running > cables to an outlet ( if there is one ), and possibly tripping breakers if > everyone's on the same aged circuit ( photog lights, video lights, DJ system, > etc. ) > > > Brian > > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
