Monolight starter kit

<p>I have been trying to learn as much as I can about lighting the past couple of months through all these posts. I have posted a few questions to clarify all the different opinions too. I have now settled on getting a monolight to start with. I have been looking at kits because I want the stand and umbrella included. I read through the studio guide and it stated that serious photographers start with 2000 watts seconds. As I was looking through adorama I got to about the 1200 watt second range that's in my budget. Would I be able to do portraits with a 1200 watt second monolight with umbrella kit? I noticed that just about everyone here likes alien bees equipment. Looking on adorama I was interested in the Flashpoint II 2420 Monolight Kit, 1200 Watt Second, One Monolight Kit with Stand and Umbrella. What would be the drawbacks of this equipment? Would I be able to get away with a 900 watt second? I also have a reflector that I plan to use. I am mainly interested in photographing babies and small children with the occasional small family. I also saw that monolights are plugged into the wall. Can you use battery packs with them too?<br /> </p>

<p>There's a guide on PN that says that you need 2000Ws? Hmmn...<br>

Maybe it's a very old article and the writer was assuming that everyone uses a medium format film camera (at least) shooting slow slide film and using a very small aperture...<br>

<a href="../learn/lighting/choosing-studio-lighting/">This article</a> is more up to date and you'll see that I suggest no more than 300Ws for the average home studio and the average subject.<br>

As for choice of brand, I think it's fair to say that Alien Bees are popular among beginners and have a very loyal customer base. I don't think that even AB themselves claim that their products are high quality or that they produce consistent colour temperature, but for portrait type shots, these things are far less important than for some other types of shot. AB certainly seem to be a much better buy than most budget kits available in the U.S.</p>

<p>Hi Lisa,<br /> 2'000 w/s is completely unnecessary for your purposes and this will open up many other options for you. It would be worth stating what your budget is as a guideline for respondents? 250 or 500 w/s is plenty for photographing individuals or small groups of people at close range. Going above 1'000 w/s is necessary for lighting in large studio spaces, with large modifiers that eat up loads of light, outdoors to overpower bright exterior light, situations when the lighting has to be some distance from the subject, to obtain very small apertures on large and medium format cameras etc. It sounds a really long list but I use 500 w/s heads for most of my lighting and it is fine. If you are using a digital camera, increasing your ISO from 200 to 400 makes very little difference to the picture; buying a 1'000 w/s light costs a fair amount more than a 500 w/s head, so which is the better solution? I would say the former.</p>

<p>You can buy batteries for some mains studio lights. The Alien Bees that you mention and Bowens' Gemini range accept an accessory battery system: the Vagabond battery for Alien Bees (it will work with many other makes) and the dedicated Travelpak for Bowens. Other batteries are available to power a range of lights (the Flash Feeder for example) but these can be expensive.</p>

<p>Hi Lisa! Since I've responded to some of your other posts and know what type of photos you want to do, I can tell you that 2000ws is WAY more than you need! I have two White Lightning 640ws strobes, and I could light pretty much anything I do with them! I doubt I'll ever use them at full power. You could start with something like an Alien Bees B800, which is 320ws, and be able to do smaller portraits (1-3 people or so) with a reflector easily. For larger groups, you could use two of those lights, and down the road add a third to round it out for a hairlight or background light and you'd have a great setup.<br>

As for stands, I tell people this all the time and I'll say it again...kit stands are usually junk. They're usually very lightweight and should be set aside to hold reflectors and things. Don't skimp on your stands! You're holding up some expensive equipment (and eventually modifiers and things that you add), and you want them to be stable! Umbrellas are a great way to start if you're on a budget for modifiers. As for lights, look for brands that have plenty of modifiers available, like Alien Bees/White Lightning, Elinchrom, Bowens, etc.<br>

I can say, as many others do, that Buff (the Alien Bees people) has amazing customer service! And a 60-day money back guarantee on their lights. You can plug them into a regular household outlet, but personally if I went up to three lights I'd get a battery pack so I don't overload the circuit or have a zillion cords all over the place, especially if you have children around.</p>

<p>I agree, 2000ws is a little extreme. Personally, I am going to be running two 400ws heads for environmental portriture. I would say, for what you are after, two to three 400ws or greater heads would be ideal. If you need more power later, you can always get bigger lights. The smaller, older lights will be used for fill/backgrounds/others and the larger lights for main/key lights.</p>

<p>As for battery power, well, there are many options. You have units like the Alien Bees vagabond, which are basically a car battery with a sine invertor. You just plug your monolights in and operate as normal. Otherwise, there are dedicated battery/head combos, such as the Hensel Porty or Elinchrom Rangers. I personally am going with the Elinchrom Ranger Quadras (arrive today/tomorrow!). They are small, light, easily packed and carried.</p>

<p>I like battery powered because you can position them anywhere and not have to worry about a power source. Personally I am running mine as 1 head per pack, so this also keeps things easy to hide.</p>

<p>This is all very good information and is giving me a good idea of what I need. I have decided to start with a 300 w/s and if I need more power then I will add another light. I figure anything is a step up from just using my hotshoe flash. I was going back and forth with setting up a flash or getting a monolight and I really want to start practicing with monolights. I was looking into kits and I am still thinking of going with a 300 w/s monolight kit.<br>

I saw a good tip from Devon that kit lightstands are junk. I am planning on using that one with my reflector and buying a sturdy one to go with the monolight. I just need to look into reflector brackets now. Any good brands to recomend or tips on those?<br>

I would also still like to use my hotshoe flash to bounce. To use the hotshoe flash and monolight together what would you recomend as a trigger?<br>

Thank you all for your help!</p>

<p>Not all kit light stands are junk - it depends which makes you buy.<br>

If you want to use your hotshoe flash and a studio flash together then all you need to do is to trigger the hotshoe flash using any radio trigger that will connect to it, and use the flash from the hotshoe flash to trigger the studio flash</p>

<p>I can't remember which speedlight you said you have, but my SB-600 doesn't have a PC port, so for mine I'd need the adapter in order to put a radio receiver on it. Other speedlights already have the port built in. If you go the Alien Bees route, they sell all of that, so if you got Cybersyncs to trigger your monolights, you'd want a receiver for each light, including your speedlight. You'll need to set all of your lights manually.<br>

For light stands, I love the Avenger one I just got. It's incredibly sturdy and pretty heavy.<br>

Oh, and if you do end up getting Bees, they offer a discount on any accessories you get at the time you buy your lights. I think it's 5% when you buy one light, 10% with two lights, etc. I've heard their stands aren't the greatest, but I like my folding softbox alot!</p>

<p>Check out Calumet's house branded gear. I have used one of their older lightstands, and it was really well made. I also used one of their reflector arms, once again, well made. Not sure who they buy them from, but they are just one of the larger manufacturers rebranded as theirs.</p>

<p>You doubt you could stay in the same room with a 1200 wattsecond monolight. :) Probably the 2000 watt seconds was a power pack, to be shared by 4 or 5 lights (and all of them turned way down). If you use an old view camera with lens at f/32, you may need that.</p>

<p>I use Alienbees B400 (160 watt seconds) at about 1/8 power in Large softbox for close portraits at about f/10. ISO 200. Softbox may be at about 30 inches, and a fill umbrella maybe at 5 feet. </p>

<p>At full power, one B400 160 watt second monolight will do f/8 in a white umbrella, fabric at ten feet for groups (ISO 200 again). Indoors, how much more power do you need? I also have two B800 (320 watt seconds) which have to be at 1/16 power for close portraits above, so I relegate them to background and hair light use, where I can put grids on them to knock them down some.</p>

<p>If you have a ISO 200 camera, look for about 150-160 watt seconds. More than plenty for the living room. You will have to turn it way down.<br>

If you have a ISO 100 camera, maybe look at 320 watt seconds (to be the same).</p>

<p>ISO 200 160 watt seconds is exactly equivalent situation as ISO 100 320 watt seconds.</p>

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