TP: advice on a Studio Lighting setup

If you have the time, I would strongly recommend you:
strobist

no really..

Lighting 101, good source! eyes hurt now, must rest them. Will continue tomorrow for more education.

omerbey wrote: If you have the time, I would strongly recommend you: strobist no really..

Best viewed in Firefox (doesn't work with IE and not grfeat in Opera but perhaps should have reloaded as a blog).

Edited by brettania - 24 April 2007 at 22:47

Matt,
Shoot through vs Reflective would also make a difference in what's being photograph. If you are taking a large group type shot, the Reflective umbrella is more efficient because there is less light loss, and you get a wider spread of light. I've normally seen shoot-throughs used for one or two people/small group Portraits. They function like a softbox, not as efficient as softboxes, but cheaper too.
If looking for good portable strobes, "Alien Bees" makes some really good, and cute(colorful) ones. They are the same company that make "White Lightning" strobes. Alien Bees have now come up with a 'Ringlight' strobe that is like a macro flash only for portraits, and you can have different attachments/covers on it for different shaped catch-lights in the eyes of your model. Check them out...
Alien Bees
as with most studio strobes, preeettty pricey.
One more thing before I forget, and that is that I know that a lot of people say that with digital now you can adjust your strobes by taking test shots with your camera like they used to with Polariods, but I find a flashmeter really cuts down on the set-up time.
You can also find systems that have a main controller that you plug your strobes into and is controlled from that one box. Most of these are heavier and more cumbersome to carry around and set-up, but I would assume faster to set-up because you can control your flash ratios from the control box. Just flip the swith to 1:1 or 1:3, etc, etc. Just some other things that came to mind.

Lionel

Edited by LTTay - 25 April 2007 at 22:55

Scott,
Yes, from my personal experience with and around the Alien Bees units(don’t own them but have friends that own and use them), and used two in a class I took, they are pretty well made, solid and compact. I don’t get paid for them by the way, just letting you know what I’ve experienced.
I asked that/your question to my Instructor and was told that it’s a common question that’s hard to answer. This is because it’s like comparing Apples to Oranges. Watt-seconds/Joules is the measurement of potential energy stored in a flash units capacitors, while “guide numbers” are derived from the actual output of the flash unit (guide number is a numerical representation of that flashes light output for use in calculating your f/stop ie. guide # over distance' = f/stop).
On top of that, there are differences in how efficiently a flash head & pack or monolight converts their potential energy stored in the capacitors to actual light output. Then of course you get the fact that different reflectors influence the intensity of light.
The Silver or White "umbrella" reflector spreads the light over a wide area while a narrow angle reflector/Softbox concentrates the energy into a much narrower area of illumination.
As far as I know there is no industry wide standard for this, so different manufacturers have different standards of measurements for both these figures. I think just from seeing it used practically, the 400WS does have a higher Guide Number than a 5600 HSD. I’ve seen the 400WS used for groups of 10-12, and it seemed OK, but then you might consider your surroundings too whether it would absorb the light or help reflect it. I’d say to be comfortable, if you can afford it, get the 800WS, but like I said, I’ve seen 400WS used to get groups 10-12 people pretty comfortably.    Again, 400WS with a large(32” to 40”) Silver umbrella will give you quite a bit more light output compared to 400WS with a 36”x36” softbox. Hope that helps a little if there are any experts on this please do chime in. I’m no expert, just sharing my experiences.

edited for some spelling and grammatical errors. LOL!


Edited by LTTay - 26 April 2007 at 19:38

You're welcome, Good luck on getting the Bees, I think they are cool, and good luck in that wedding. I always think Weddings are fun, but I've never been the contracted/"Pro" Photographer but once, and it still turned out OK. LOL!

Await your report -- the price looks right.