How to add modeling light for hotshoe flashes?

I can't afford studio monolights. I've got 2 flashes, 580ex and sb-25. They are

usually mounted on a stand with umbrellas. Obviously hotshoe flashes aren't

modeling lights (580ex doesn't count). Are there some cheap alternatives to add

modeling lights? Such as spotlights from hardware store? Or Wal mart lights?

Thanks

You already own most of the "cheap alternative". Check out this site, , for some unique and creative ways to acheive various results with flash. The cool thing is that the author is an experienced photojournalist who learned "field" techniques to acheive studio style lighting for lots of situations. Being a photographer, he's also a sucker for "cheap alternatives" (aren't we all?). My partner who shoots events with me is currently using these techniques alone. I own and am learning monolights, but am learning these techniques as well. If nothing else, it's a really entertaining site. Well, maybe only for geeks like me. Anyway, check it out. You may decide against monolights all together.

Why can't I say w w w . s t r o b i s t . c o m ?

I have rigged up some modelling lamps using cheap spotlights.

 

They consist of a modified lamp-holder and a GU10 lamp, although I expect with the different US voltage they will have a different code.

 

They are a very small 240v, 50w sealed halogen lamp and reflector and are available in 25, 35 and 50 degree beam angles. (These equate very roughly to a flash zoomed to 70mm, 50mm and 35mm). Admittedly the 50w output isn't particularly bright, but it is sort of proportional to the output of a small flashgun which is useful if you're mixing it with larger studio lights.

 

As a word of caution, it will not reproduce the exact effect that the flash will give due to the lamp being on a different axis and having a different light spread but it is close enough to give you a starting point when it comes to positioning your flashes.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Matt<div></div>

A problem with the posted solutions:

 

If you are using two identical flash units and identical lamps for home-made modeling lights, you can do fairly well as long as the beam width of the modeling lamps approximate that of the flash units.

 

HOWEVER, if you have different flash units and apply the same modeling lights to both you will have a problem. That problem is a mis-match between the intensity of the various modeling lights and the intensity of the flash units they "represent".

 

The purpose of modeling lights is to see how the shadowing of the subject will be affected by positioning and intensity of the flash units involved. This is particularly critical for shots using multiple flash sources. It's very hard to judge, for example, how much one flash will affect shadows created by another. That's what modeling lights are for. If the modeling lights do not represent the relative power levels of the flash units, they are essentially useless.

Thanks for the responses. I'm just doing some really basic portraits with the 2 lights coming from left and right of the subject. If I decrease the power of one of the flash, so the 2 flashes are uneven in power, I think it will create shadows nonetheless.

sean i second the s trobist site... maybe they blocked it through excessive use? lol

I use two 580EX flashes with umbrellas for a basic setup when I'm shooting weddings and the church won't let me or there's no room to set up strobes. I bought two rock-climbing head lamps and mounted them on top of the flashes with Velcro. It works pretty well.