Strobe setup

[ed_ramos1]

I'm trying to invest in an inexpensive strobe system, I'll basically

be shooting portraits, I was at my local camera shop, and they

recomended a novatron fun kit, is there someone who has used them,

or are there others that are recomended. I've been checking ebay for

some of the kits that are available, but i'm not sure about them.

I'm willing to spend up to $800.00 any input would be greatly

appreciated.

[steve_levine]

Low WS kits have very limited uses.You will wind up having to shoot wide open with fast films.With flash,it is better to have power & not need it.

[perry_coodin1]

For that kind of money (perhaps a few dollars more) you can get two excellent strobes of 500ws each - Photogenic 1250's. They are usually available in a kit with stands and umbrellas. Check out B&H. I use these and they're great. I'm also told that Alien Bees are very good and a few dollars less, but haven't used them myself. (Google alien bees lighting to get their website.) Two strobes and a reflector will get you pretty far in portaits.......Perry

[luis_cota]

I would go for Alien Bees over Photogenic (having used them both, I find the Alien Bees units to be more compact and more flexible). If you can afford to spend a little more, get a two-light kit of Calumet Travelites, www.calumet.com . Excellent equipment, reasonably priced and a large amount of professional accessories for when you decide you need them.

 

- Luis

[jim_sanders]

I thought about Bees, but finally went with Photogenics because I thought the build quality was a little higher. That being said, I spent a little more for 2 PL1250DRs than you are talking about.

 

Here's a thought though (one that I'm considering).

 

B&H has a kit of the Photogenic AK320 StudioMax II lights, which are supposed to be about 320 WS. Build is not as nice as the bigger Photogenic lights, BUT they use all the same accessories/reflectors at the rest of the Photogenic line. You can get a single AK320 with an umbrella for $229 or you could get a kit, which has two lights, two stands, two umbrellas and a case to carry everything for $585.

 

I'm considering getting two AK320s (one to use as hair light and one for background light) to go with my PowerLight 1250DRs.

 

Has anyone actually touched or used the StudioMax II (AK320 or AK160) lights that could comment on them?

 

Thanks!

[timberwolf1]

Firstly, lets talk about your power needs. If you are using 160 ASA Portra rated at 125

ASA, then you will need only 200ws into a softbox to give you a reliable f5.6. For a

hairlight, you only need 25 ws and 50 ws would be very strong. So this is what it

looks like:

 

Softbox or umbrella 100-200ws for a F5.6 at 125 ASA portrait Head and Shoulders

Fill light 25-100ws (or just use a reflector like Flexfill)

Hairlight 25-50ws

Kickers 25-37ws

Background 25-50ws

 

So, if you get a light for the softbox which is 400ws, you have room to play with your

distances to the subject. Look at my portfolio by clicking on my name to see some

examples.

 

If you are using Digital, you would be using a F4 due to the smaller size of the "film"

chip, and therefore you need even less power than shown by 1/2.

 

So, what it comes down to is that the main light and fill are about equal in power, and

the hairlights and kickers are about equal. The background light(s) could be the same

as the hairlights if you use two of them.

 

My preference would be to cover the low end with a variable voltage unit, like the

Alien Bees 400 unit. This is a 150ws unit that goes down to about 10ws. There are

other choices out there, but few that will go variable voltage to such a low end,

reliably. It uses a "tickler" circuit to make sure the bulb will fire at 10ws.

 

The recommendations of "having enough power" are really invalid to you. These

come from wedding photographers who want to use their lights to light up a group

photo of 25 on an altar. This isn't you. However, 2 Alienbees will do such a group

at about f5.6-f6.3 with asa 100 film.

 

I wouldn't worry about "build quality". But if you want toughness, then get a Norman

or Speedotron unit. These are tough. Toughness is more of a function of whether the

unit is a capacitor multiple unit or a transformer unit. The CM is more tough.

 

For you, you would be just fine to get 2 heads with a used Speedotron Brownline 400

or 600 unit (604) and stick that into one or two softboxes. But for the hairlights, I

like variability, and still I would go for the Alienbees 400 units to cover the low end

gracefully.

 

You see, you can have too much power and not be able to gracefully powerdown to

the point you need. The concept of "having enough power" does not apply to

portraits kickers, hairlights, and background lights. Only the light that you bounce

from the umbrella or stick into the softbox is truly the "power light" Here you do not

need variabililty of the voltage variable kind. You can select a position on the main

light, adjust your f stop on your camera then variate the hairlights to a fine degree.

 

There are always ways of spending huge amounts of money. I thought I would give

you some pointers on homing into a solution for what you actually need.

 

Timber