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Unplanned casual outing; strobist - you use light stands etc often?


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Thought I pop this on the casual section since it's more about casual use rather than specifically about lighting.

 

I've done this hobby for 15yrs, OK, I mostly do scenery type, I know just 2 or 3 maybe 4 others who have a strobist light stand a brolly and or a small 60x60 softbox. I doubt they use them awfully much. How often do you guys use them and how often is it for unplanned shooting?

 

I don't have people who say, hey let's go to the gardens and shoot some portraits, with friend's parties they just go there and cook together or share a meal together or at the beach, enjoy a BBQ etc .. so it's not like any need to have you set up your light stands at the corner of the room for some portraits or likewise over there when we are at the botanical garden or that beach.

 

Prob the more repetitive I use them for is just for other people's passport photographs - yeah ... lol.

 

:)

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It takes a lot of planning to use light stands outdoors. They're unstable on soft and uneven surfaces, and in the lightest breeze unless carefully leveled and weighted with sandbags. Add to this an umbrella or soft box, and the effect of wind is multiplied. Indoors, in most houses anyway, you don't have enough ceiling height to deploy strobes adequately. Even indoors, a strobe weighing more than 2-3 pounds needs a heavy stand to reach 8 feet or more. Light stands are too willowy.

 

You don't need studio lighting for passport photos. A neutral background and a shoe mounted flash are sufficient. I even do that for myself, using a radio remote (or iPhone) to trip the camera. I can even preview the composition in the iPhone, and review the results. For small stuff, for sale on eBay for example, I use a 30" Light Box and desk lamps. They're easy to set up and fold into very small packages.

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You don't need studio lighting for passport photos.

 

Yep I know that. Pharmacies can do them with a point and shoot camera :)

 

I and others at the camera club got them because the light modifiers give soft very portrait quality light and with grids and stuff we can shape the light. To make better use of our cameras. We get nagged by others to take their photographs. Obviously people relate to photography with wedding photography and portrait photography. Even if I had all the equipment including 600W heads I just won't use them outside or indoor much, indoors maybe occasionally doing my own hobby stuff with products, since most people won't have the patience.

 

With a tripod one can still get a travel tripod and still take the same images outside. I guess with that regard, we are using our cameras more to their abilities. But yes, still those out there that take a night shot handheld of landscapes. I can understand night portraits but yup ...

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I thought about building a Strobist travel kit. Except for the camera+lenses, it should easily fit into an athletic bag.

But I would end up scavenging the kit for gear as I need it for other shoots, so I never did. Another project that died.

If you can keep the kit intact so that it is convenient to use, then USE it, it would work.

I assembled my kit each time I've had to use it.

 

To me, a light stand outside is an accident waiting to happen. Even if it isn't windy, I've seen the wind suddenly pick up with no warning. So you need an assistant holding the light stand. And forget any kind of modifier (umbrella or softbox), that would just be a sail in the wind and be even worse.

 

Indoors with no wind, not a problem.

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One could put everything inside a suitcase and wheel it around the CBD right ;-) Even some tourists so that occasionally while out shopping.

 

Three lights, stands and modifiers require a case closer to the size of a coffin. I divide things up for easier carriage. Stands I use only collapse to 48" or so, and umbrellas take another soft case or bag. Three lights fit in a Lightware case about 48"x15"x15".

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Three lights, stands and modifiers require a case closer to the size of a coffin. I divide things up for easier carriage. Stands I use only collapse to 48" or so, and umbrellas take another soft case or bag. Three lights fit in a Lightware case about 48"x15"x15".

 

Haha .. yes the big lights take up space. The cheapish at least aka first timer strobist equipment light stands are pretty compact they fold down enough to put inside a suitcase. Measured mine, the stand and brolly are both 26 inches.

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Three lights, stands and modifiers require a case closer to the size of a coffin. I divide things up for easier carriage. Stands I use only collapse to 48" or so, and umbrellas take another soft case or bag. Three lights fit in a Lightware case about 48"x15"x15".

 

Most of my initial purchase of Norman gear came from the same photographer, and he'd put together two 3-light kits in cases about the size you describe. He had reflectors, grids, umbrellas, and small stands in those. There's no space for power packs, though, and of course the big light stands and soft boxes stay outside the cases.

 

I bought another Norman kit along the way that had 3 heads, a bunch of cables(splitters and extenders), some modifiers(no umbrellas) and a more recent fairly compact 2000 w-s pack. It came in an absolutely massive semi-soft-sided case. My main car is on the large side of mid-size(Lincoln MKZ) and that case took up most of the width of my back seat when I brought it home. I didn't measure but I'd guess that to be over 5 ft. long. At least it wasn't as bad as the time I had a Besseler 23C riding shotgun in my MGB with the top down and the lamp housing well above the top of the windscreen. That one got some funny looks on the way home.

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Ansel Adams is said to have remarked, "Anything further than 100 yards from the car is probably not photogenic." On my part, with regard to strobes outside of a studio, the best lighting is environmental ;)

 

Yeah with that heavy view camera, I understand his statement.

I am in a similar situation, with a bad back. I cannot carry a heavy kit more than a hundred or so feet from my car. I would need a 4-wheel cart/wagon to pull the gear on.

So for me, the shoot point is close or the gear is light or it does not go.

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You can produce very good outdoor results using a smart shoe flash for fill only. I set it for -1 to -2 stops compensation, which lets the sunlight do its job. Furthermore the flash is so brief, that a set of AA batteries can last for hours. If you use a flash bracket to hold it directly above the lens, it produces no visible shadows in the background. I use an RRS folding flash bracket, which is minimalist in design but very sturdy and quick to assemble. Most of the time it's not necessary, unless the background is in shadow or filled with people (e.g., a reception or event).
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