Studio power packs

[RaymondC]

<p>Hi, just curious to know. The packs are typically 1200, 1600 etc. The heads can output a lot more power (some of them). Unless one have multiple packs. Most people don't use the them at full power then?</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>I don't think any flash system is designed to be used regularly at maximum settings; occasionally, yes, but not all the time. The recycle time gets longer if you employ the full flash energy than e.g. 1/4 of it. I don't normally use any of my flashes above 200Ws (I have 400Ws and 500Ws units).</p>

[brian yarvin]

<p>Ray, some people need more power, especially for extreme closeups. But the most powerful designs date back to the time (ending about ten years ago) when it was common for commercial still life shots to be done on large format film. If you were shooting a can of tuna with an 8x10 camera and filling the frame with it, you'd stop down to f64 and then have a bellows extension factor of many more stops. You'd need lots of flash power for that!</p>

<p>Today, most people would shoot that same product shot with a full frame digital camera that's a couple of stops faster and requires far less bellows draw. Even in those extreme cases, I don't use more than four or five hundred watts per pop.</p>

<p>Different gear, different needs.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

At full power? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I used to own and use in the 1990's , a 5000 w-s and about 5-6 2400

w-s Balcar packs and maybe a dozen Balcar heads. This was when I was a lot of interior architecture on 4x5 film and

blending the interiors with sun lit exteriors and making the photos look "unlit". Some of the exposures required building

up exposures by making around 20 1/125th second exposures at f/22 and f/32 on a single sheet of ISO 100

transparency film.

 

I also know photographers who shoot automobiles and have multiple heads in large light banks like the Chimera Lighting

F2, with each head connected to its own 2400 or 4800 w-pack.

 

I still use high power pack and heads at or near full power, when I have to light up large spaces. Other times I'll use them

at less than full power on portrait shoots because a 2400 w-s pack at quarter power recycles a lot faster than a 640 w-s

moonlight at full power, and it's always better in commercial situations to have more energy (w-s) that you might need

than to not have it when you need it - it simply gives you more options.

[brooks short]

<p>I have 3-4800ws and 3-800ws Speedotron Power Packs and use the 4800ws packs everyday. I sometimes use them at ful power when I'm pushing light through a large soft box AND a 1-stop diffusion panel at the same time and need to shoot at f/32 on a FF DSLR. Or when I'm pushing light through a 13" Fresnel spot or 3" optical spot containing a cookie.<br>

The shot below is an example of using a soft box through a diffusion panel to soften and enlarge the light source.</p>

[brooks short]

<p>I have 3-4800ws and 3-800ws Speedotron Power Packs and use the 4800ws packs everyday. I sometimes use them at full power when I'm pushing light through a large soft box AND a 1-stop diffusion panel at the same time and need to shoot at f/32 on a FX DSLR. Or when I'm pushing light through a 13" Fresnel spot or 3" optical spot containing a cookie.<br /> The shot below is an example of using a soft box through a diffusion panel to soften and enlarge the light source.</p><div></div>

[michaelmowery]

<p>It all depends on what your shooting. The packs and strobes are tools designed to meet the needs of a wide range of photographers not just the ones on this forum. Usually one selects a pack that has more power than what you normally use just in case you need it. There is also the physics of light fall of based on the distance of your lights to subject or object that you are shooting. More light is needed when shooting at low ISO and when depth of field is a priority. Some photographers require Multi shot exposures meaning they pop the flash multiple times in one frame to gain more exposure and depth of field.</p>

[studio460]

<p>Certainly different applications have different requirements, yet there are still many applications which require a ton of power: High-numerical aperture studio photography can soak up a ton of light, and daylight exteriors still require a lot light, as do extra-large sets.</p>

<p>The cool thing about the decreased popularity of pack-and-head systems (in favor of monolights) are the incredible discounts this has made possible on the used market. A while back, I bought a 4,800Ws spot-projector from a rental house and needed to find a power pack to run it. I found this 2,400Ws Speedotron pack on eBay at a great price: I only paid $150 for it! It's cosmetically pretty good, and still works like a champ:</p>

<p><img src="http://studio460.com/images/Speedo2401A-1C.png" alt="" width="700" height="466" /></p>

[rico_tudor]

I need the full range of my main studio pack. Head shots at ISO 100, f/5.6 and a Profoto Magnum (13" dish) for key requires the minimum 9J. Generating ambient fill in my (white) shooting space with a bare bulb requires the full 1200J, and also for certain inefficient modifiers like the ProBox (a small rigid box) and tabletop apertures.

[ian_casement]

<p>It would be fair to say that power packs don't always get used at full output, but they do often.</p>

<p>Photographers who shoot with pack and head systems generally don't only have just one pack they have enough to shoot the majority of their work and will even mix various outputs of those to suit their requirements. My personal setup contains 6k, 3k, 1.5k packs then 1k, 800, 500, 400, 200 variants and they get placed/swapped to suit their capabilities. I would say that the 6k usually gets used at full power.</p>