160Ws sufficient?

Is a 160Ws monolight sufficient for starting portraits in studio and on location? Or should i go to 400Ws?

It depends on the situation, but generally a couple of 160 WS is marginal. A couple of 400 Ws would be more realistic. It can be done, but if you want to do it as a business, more power would be better.

A strobe with 400ws or 500ws maximum output is what you need for almost any sort of portrait. However, the actual

output level in usage for making single person portraits is usually about 250ws - 300ws for the key light. The

output level of secondary lights depends on the style and effects being created. It can be relatively low for

some rim light effects.

 

In my studio I have three 500ws mono lights and two 250ws mono lights. I use the Bowens Gemini Digitals.

 

http://www.bowensusa.com/

 

Some other consideration to look for when choosing studio strobes are: what is its available adjustment

increment, highest quality strobes provide 1/10 f-stop adjustment increments, cheap strobes often only a stop per

increment, which severely limits a strobe's adjustment flexibility; what kind of modeling light controls does it

have, high quality strobes have multiple options; can the strobe operate on AC power as well as an optional

battery system; some high units even have built Pocketwizard receivers; some have built-in computer control of

output levels and other attributes; there are many other features to consider, each of which effects the cost of

the units.

I'm looking at some lights, too - Alien Bees, to be specific. Should I believe their "effective wattseconds" claim, or should I go by the true number? I'm trying to decide between the B800 or the B1600 for the main light.

The guide numbers on the AB site seem to match what I've experienced with my AB 800's. So, yes, I'd believe the site.

Sufficent for what? Providing about F2.8's worth of light at 10 feet? You would be better off buying a pair of small 100 guide number shoe flashes (Vivitar or Sunpak).

One of many other aspects of strobes and output level considerations is there use with softboxes, scrims and

other modifiers that diffuse, and consequently often reduce effective output. It is also important to remember

that there is no "correct" output level for any given strobe. An output level creates a given effect that may be

either artistic or pedestrian, depending on how creatively and/or skilfully it is employed by a photographer. I

enjoy photographs that use multiple lights, often with small softboxes that apply lo levels of light to create

dimension in a photograph, as in the example below from a gallery here on photo.net.

 

One reason I own both 500ws strobe lights and 250ws second strobe lights is that I can produce very fine

gradation changes in low level light output with my 250ws lights that can be adjusted in 1/10 f-stop increments,

whereas the same 1/10 increments available with a 500ws light are proportionally twice the amount of light

because of their greater maximum range. As I noted in one of my posts above, one of the most important, and most

often overlooked features on a strobe is its ability, or lack thereof, to be perform small incremental output

adjustments available with strobes such as the Bowens Gemini Digital mono lights.<div></div>

The question about "effective wattseconds"-- ignore it. Despite what others may say, there is no standard to "effective wattseconds", so it's a worthless. The idea is that if Acme lights produce guide no. of X at 400 w/s, and Buff produces the same X w/ only 320 w/s, then the Buff lights are more effective than Acme and need to show this.

 

The problem is that the industry has never came up w/ a standard for this, and only two companies (I know of) uses it-- so... it's worthless for comparison. You can use guide numbers for a better comparison, but you should then learn how they are calculated-- truth is, at strobe level the w/s ballpark is good enough to go by. It's standard, everyone uses it, and it may not tell you how much light is being put out, but it does give you an idea that should suffice.

 

 

For the original questions, I'd not start w/ anything under 200 w/s, and that will limit you to fairly wide apertures. You'll also want a bounce/reflector if you are using one light. Maybe two for a half clam set up.

watt-seconds is the energy in the storage capacitor. W/s is watts per second gobble gook; ignore it. :)<BR><BR>Watt-seconds is the joules stored in the flash capacitor; it was a REAL engineering meaning. W/s is what marketing clowns writting flash specs write, ie BS, ie bunk.<BR><BR>Watt seconds in the flash cap ROUGHLY translates to light output; just like the displacement of an engine roughly goes up with horsepower. Here my Briggs and Stration 400cc is 11 hp; it puts out way less than a 400cc motorcycle.<BR><BR>Even a dump 60watt bulb only roughly tracks with light output; one has the reflector; the type of bulb; type of filament; color temp, voltage, globe type; etc.<BR><BR>. Roughly a 100watt puts out double a 50watt bulb; a 400 ws flash puts out 400/160 = 2.5 times a 160 ws strobe; ie about 1 stop. <BR><BR>-*Having a "feel"for the size of things matters; the larger 400 ws strobe is about 1 stop more light than a 160 ws one. Its not a worthless comparsion; but a decent estimate.

What you really need is the guide number for the two units to make a radically better comparison.WS is the energy in the flash cap; one has losses, reflector types; angular coverage, yada yada.Having a strobe settup that allows the power to be de-rated by many steps should be a goal; having several strobes, studying lighting.

Does the strobe for hairlight need to be around 400ws? Or is 180+ ws sufficient? Which is better for me? I'll be doing portraits, maybe with a key strobe, a reflector for fill and a strobe for hair light.

I have 200W - they work fine shooting portraits at around f5.6 (ISO100). I would have liked 400W however - more versatile. Softbox's and other modifiers reduce the output. I will probably buy one 400W for main use to augment my set. The digital controls on Elinchrom's are excellent you can easily dial down.