First strobes. Studio or compact ones?

[immfocus]

Hello.

Id like to upgrade my hotlights I use for object photography. They havent enough

power to shoot people and also they arent too combortable because of the hot.

 

As I am not a pro I cant go for a very expensive equipment so I thought in two

options.

 

Compact flashes with radio triggers (as the strobist way). Dont know if its

enough power to shoot group of people.

 

Studio strobes (I heard Alienbees is a good option). It isnt very comfortable to

go outdoors with this strobes and a powerkit. Is it? What about power

recomendation for these strobes? 400, 800, 1000 ws?

 

Im quite lost.

[craig_shearman1]

I highly recommend the strobist approach, which certainly can shoot groups if done right. If you can work successfully with strobist gear you can easily move up to studio strobes later and use many of the same stands, umbrellas, etc., and have the portable gear as backup and as your set of portable equipment for outside shooting. I highly recommend the Vivitar 285HV, which strobist has a review of. Highly verstabile flash for only $90.

[craig_shearman1]

BTW, no need for radio triggers in the studio. Just run a PC cord to the first unit and optical slaves on the rest. Can't understand why almost everyone on this forum seems to think they need a $300 PocketWizard to set off a flash.

[joshroot]

A lot can be done with TTL strobes (strobist type approach) but the fact of the matter is that serious product photography is done with serious lighting. You will not see a set of TTL flashes doing the work in a professional product photographer's studio.

 

But TTL flashes are easier to transport, quicker to setup, and are lots cheaper. And as I said, there is plenty that you can do with them.

[brucecahn]

Though I rarely use flash anymore, I switched from Speedotron Blackline to Visatec monolights years ago. The monolights have a lot of advantages. If one breaks it does not disable the whole system. They are easier to carry, cheaper to buy and replace. And no black boxes on the floor to be in the way. The biggest advantage is that the power output is consistent and very efficient, getting more illumination out of less power. And yes, I do product shots for my camera store ads with them.

[immfocus]

I heard not every Vivitar 285HV work well... What I dont whant is to spend the money twice.

How much ttl type flashes will you need to have plenty of light to shoot 3 o 4 person full lenght portrait?

 

I have 3x 1000w continuous quartz lights and they dont give me enough light for a headshoot. I must go to ISO 400 to reach f5.6 and I cant deal with the results.

[Paul Lewis1664881697]

The reviews on B&H Photo's site for the Vivitar 285HV are not very positive. I'm assuming that these were a new version of those old models?

[immfocus]

I find that ebay shop Gadget infinity has many of these vivitars. Anyone owns any (with canon cameras)

[gholston_matt]

I personally like the Nikon Speedlights, much more useful and affordable than the Canon units, and not much more expensive than the Vivitar or the Sunpak... The best IMHO are the SB-800, SB-80DX, and SB-28DX in that order... Some folks also like the SB-26 & SB-24 but they are not much cheaper these days, so I go for the top line models...

 

All of the good Nikons have PC Sync ports and most have built in optical triggers and other useful features...

 

RMG

[craig_shearman1]

I have three Vivitar 285HVs ranging from five to 20 years old, and a very similar Vivitar 283, but not one of the new low-sync voltage version that came out in the past few months. I can't speak to the new one, but the old versions were absolutely rock solid. You could almost hammer nails with these things. They were the standard workhorse of almost every news photographer and many wedding photographers until TTL and other sophisticated automation came along. As for hot lights, Ivan if you're using three 1000-watt units and not able to light a headshot, maybe you're doing something wrong. Yes, you need to use ISO 400 but that's a standard speed, by no means high on a current digital SLR. How far back are your lights, and are they in umbrellas or softboxes? 5.6 is probably about the right aperture also, so you can drop the backdrop out of focus, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

[immfocus]

Last time I shot with hotlights was with soft boxes very close (clampshell setup). Noise rally starts to disturb at iso400 in dark hair in my camera (400d) and at f5.6 with a canon 50 f1.8 I cant get the back part of the hair in focus (almost with autofuocus or quick manual focus)