Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
Hi all, I'm giving some serious thought to purchasing Adorama's Flashpoint II 620 strobe kit. They were written up in this month's Pop Photo magazine. I'm thinking of starting with this one-light kit (w/ a more powerful 300 w/s), as opposed to say a SP Studio Systems 2-light kit. My reasoning is I assume it's better to get a more powerful strobe? I also have a Nikon slave flash that I was going to use as a rear-shadow eliminator for portraits. This is all with the istD. Will this work? Is it best to fire the strobes with the PC terminal, or via the slave from a 280 bounced into a Lumiquest? Thanks for any suggestions! __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
Good to see you stepping out learning. With the more powerful lights you can always turn the power down as needed. But having one or two depends on what you're shooting. Having units with modeling lamps is important, imnsho. You can see more of what is going on. With one light, get a large reflector and stand to hold it. You'll need to fill the shadows. Otherwise portraits will be pretty harsh. One thing I've done is to use a tiny, tiny flash on the shoe to trigger the slaves. Cover it with tissue so that it puts out enough to trigger the slaves and fill the shadows, but no more. Any little cheapie $2 thrift shop flash will do fine. It's all light. Using the new light direct or diffused will depend on the application. Waste a few rolls experimenting, and get a book. Any of them. You'll have pleanty of fun experimenting. Enjoy. Sincerely, C. Brendemuehl 'Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.' Ronald Reagan Sent via the WebMail system at mail.safe-t.net
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
- Original Message - From: Steve Pearson Subject: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment? Hi all, I'm giving some serious thought to purchasing Adorama's Flashpoint II 620 strobe kit. They were written up in this month's Pop Photo magazine. I'm thinking of starting with this one-light kit (w/ a more powerful 300 w/s), as opposed to say a SP Studio Systems 2-light kit. My reasoning is I assume it's better to get a more powerful strobe? I also have a Nikon slave flash that I was going to use as a rear-shadow eliminator for portraits. This is all with the istD. Will this work? Is it best to fire the strobes with the PC terminal, or via the slave from a 280 bounced into a Lumiquest? This will work. I am a big fan of one light portraits. Get a reflector for fill, guaranteed you can't mess up the lighting ratio. Use an umbrella, the light is nicer than a softbox (my opinion, I find soft boxes to be rather hard, actually). Fire the flash off the PC termanal, that way you won't risk buggering up your modelling with a flash pop from the camera position. William Robb
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
I like your idea about the reflector. What size color would you recommend? Also, is there some kind of self-standing reflector these days? I would like to be able to set this up on my own, and not have somebody else to hold the reflector, iF that's possible? Also, I assume there are no voltage issues when using the PC terminal with the istD? Thanks for the suggestions! --- William Robb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - Original Message - From: Steve Pearson Subject: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment? Hi all, I'm giving some serious thought to purchasing Adorama's Flashpoint II 620 strobe kit. They were written up in this month's Pop Photo magazine. I'm thinking of starting with this one-light kit (w/ a more powerful 300 w/s), as opposed to say a SP Studio Systems 2-light kit. My reasoning is I assume it's better to get a more powerful strobe? I also have a Nikon slave flash that I was going to use as a rear-shadow eliminator for portraits. This is all with the istD. Will this work? Is it best to fire the strobes with the PC terminal, or via the slave from a 280 bounced into a Lumiquest? This will work. I am a big fan of one light portraits. Get a reflector for fill, guaranteed you can't mess up the lighting ratio. Use an umbrella, the light is nicer than a softbox (my opinion, I find soft boxes to be rather hard, actually). Fire the flash off the PC termanal, that way you won't risk buggering up your modelling with a flash pop from the camera position. William Robb __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
This one time, at band camp, Steve Pearson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Also, I assume there are no voltage issues when using the PC terminal with the istD? Nope, works fine for me. Here is an example studio portrait with the istD. This is a very simple 2 light setup with 1 stop between them to give a little dimension. I still dont like the shadow cast by the arm. http://www.wildcherry.com.au/index.php?p=photophoto_id=14 With a single light and a reflector you can do much. I use a lastolite white reflector with an arm that attaches to a stand that holds it in place. Like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=30080item=3849465532rd=1 ...Not my auction, just an example ... You can achieve much with a single light, particularly with Black and White for dramatic lighting. The addition of a reflector will get you started. A word of warning, once you start buying this stuff, you will think the price of the *istD trivial ;) Enjoy Kevin - Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
- Original Message - From: Steve Pearson Subject: Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment? I like your idea about the reflector. What size color would you recommend? Also, is there some kind of self-standing reflector these days? I would like to be able to set this up on my own, and not have somebody else to hold the reflector, iF that's possible? Check out: http://users.accesscomm.ca/wrobb/PDMLtemp/IMGP5434.jpg Caution, partially clothed girl in sensual pose alert. Sorry, it's all I have at hand at the moment. If you look to the right of the picture, you will see edge on the reflector/gobo that I made. It's just a stand made of copper plumbing pipe with gold lamé stretched across it. I use the gold side as a warm reflector, and the black side to harden shadows a bit. The thing stands somewhat over 6 feet tall, and is 39 wide. I decided the size after buying a couple of meters of fabric and letting my wife (who is much nicer than I am, just ask Tom) tell me what she needed to make it work for me. I built it in such a way that it can be broken down into a few 1 meter lengths of copper tube, and I wrap the tube in the lamé for travel. If I am using it outside, I stake the legs to the ground to keep it from travelling. It has served me well for over a decade. Total cost was about 30 dollars, most of which was the copper, which I recall was quite expensive at the time. That shot, BTW, was done with a single 400WS light and an umbrella. Also, I assume there are no voltage issues when using the PC terminal with the istD? Not that I have found so far, I've used a relatively old (more than 20 years) Norman 2000P power pack, my somewhat newer, but still 10 year old Photo Genies, and a 20 year old Metz 60CT2 plugged into the PC socket, and have taken a thousand or more pictures triggering an external flash, and a couple of thousand at least trying unsuccessfully to make the TTL behave itself. Personally, I think the concerns about trigger voltage aren't warranted. Thanks for the suggestions! It's why I'm here... really. William Robb
Re: Help buying my first studio lighting equipment?
William Robb wrote: Check out: http://users.accesscomm.ca/wrobb/PDMLtemp/IMGP5434.jpg Caution, partially clothed girl in sensual pose alert. LOL. I just love it on TV. They put that The following movie contains scenes of violence, nudity, adult matters, coarse language etc etc. disclaimer first. Which I always read as we have some really Good Stuff (TM) starting right now.
