jim_stewart3

<p>Realistically you want to keep your shutter speed under 250 to avoid going into FP mode as you loose so much power when you do. You are better off using ND filters to get the shutter speed where you need it. </p>

<p>I have put the manfrotto 001b nano stands under silly amounts of strain using them with brollys in wind and they never broke or bent. A much heavier grade photo shop own-brand stand I snapped with ease. I would never go cheap on a stand again and will only buy manfrotto now (think the US call them bogen?). The nano isnt that expensive.</p>

<p>You could trigger an SB600, or a Vivitar 285 with an optical slave but I don't think you can do both at the same time (unless you also added an optical slave to the SB600). The 285 is just going to sync to the on camera flash if that is in manual mode (so dialled down to minimum to minimise the influence). The SB600 gets fired in response to some control flashes and it will also do a preflash unless you are in manual mode.<br>

If you are getting into off camera flash then the SB600 is a bad buy in my opinion. It is not rugged, it loses its settings when you pull the batteries out and has no sync socket. The SB800 is a much better buy (or 900). The 285 is a solid flash for off camera (but useless for on camera). I would not be without an SB800/900 as a main flash. I would have a 285 over the 600 as an off camera flash.</p>

<p>You could trigger an SB600, or a Vivitar 285 with an optical slave but I don't think you can do both at the same time (unless you also added an optical slave to the SB600). The 285 is just going to sync to the on camera flash if that is in manual mode (so dialled down to minimum to minimise the influence). The SB600 gets fired in response to some control flashes and it will also do a preflash unless you are in manual mode.<br>

If you are getting into off camera flash then the SB600 is a bad buy in my opinion. It is not rugged, it loses its settings when you pull the batteries out and has no sync socket. The SB800 is a much better buy (or 900). The 285 is a solid flash for off camera (but useless for on camera). I would not be without an SB800/900 as a main flash. I would have a 285 over the 600 as an off camera flash.</p>

<p>Personally, for weddings if I needed a system to take to a wedding I would take the pocket wizards (old system not the TTL one unless they resolve the issues). I have used the ebay ones and they are just not reliable. I changed to the cybersync but they have let me down big time on a shoot not triggering more than a few metres. This was due to some unknown localised interference (worked fine away from the location), I would not trust them for a wedding now. I would want to test the radiopoppers. There is no time at weddings for messing about so reliability has got to be key.</p>

<p>If you are in a small space you will find that there are limitations on the modifiers you can use to light your subject if you want to keep the background really black as the light just bounces around the walls. If you use gridded softboxes, beauty dishes etc then you can get control back.</p>

<p>If the camera does not have a sync port then the simplest method is to put an adaptor on the hotshoe that gives your a sync socket, wire this to one light and then trigger the second using the in-built slave. YOu might want to progress to wireless triggers that go in the hotshoe (e.g. the alien bee Cybersync, Pocket wizards or the radio poppers).</p>

<p>I picked up a pure sine wave 600w (continuous) 1200w peak inverter from ebay for £50, batteries and charger for £50 and a toolbox to house them and my 600ws generator for £8 so you can put one together pretty cheap. To carry it I put it on a collapsing trolley because its not light weight.</p>

<p>I don't know what size studio she is going to have access too but if its small then allow for gridded sources or at least sources that can be easily upgraded. Modifiers like umbrellas in small spaces are difficult to control as light bounces everywhere. If you think its going to be small space then invest in softboxes that take optional grids (e.g. photoflex). Alien bees also do beauty dishes with grids but probably outside of initial budget. Probably want some grids for the standard reflectors. </p>

<p>Another vote for the Manfroto 026 lite tite. You might want to get a coldshoe mount that screws into the adaptor like this:<br>

http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=191888</p>

<p>The kit you linked to has a recycle time of up to 5 seconds (2 seconds someone quoted is for the smaller light). This is a lifetime, especially for 300 w/s. The little ones also only have 2 f-stop of adjustment</p>

<p>If you are using it with a light meter then the flash needs to be in manual mode. the manual setting you choose will change the resulting F-stop. Once chosen then meter. On the sekonic the shutter speed will have no bearing on the flash reading. It only has an effect on the ambient. If the ambient is forming part of the exposure then changing shutter speed will change F-stop as you are changing the ambient portion but not the flash. If you are in a dark room then you can set the shutter speed to whatever you want and the flash exposure will not change.</p>

<p>In programme mode, set colour depending on what aperture you want and set camera to match.</p>

<p>I will let you know where I am:<br>

In low light then I use hot shoe flashes with either brollies, a medium photoflex softbox or a broncolor beauty dish (with custom mount). Hotshoe flashes are really limited in output in proper daylight but if they are close enough sometimes you can get away with modifiers. Sometimes the only way to get the output is using them bare. The beauty dish is a newer addition and is a bit more wind resistant and quite efficient. Brollies are quite susceptible to wind. The softbox eats quite a bit of light but is good indoors and probably better wind wise than the brollies. I use the cybersync transmitters. They have been ok but completely let me down last week (I suspect due to a local interference source as they worked fine again when I got them home). Carrying this lot is normally a photo rucksack and either a long roll bag or a Cymbal bag with dish in it.<br>

In high ambient conditions I have picked up an inverter for my old profoto acute 600ws pack. If I had the cash then a acuteB 600 would be prefered as its loads more portable but my set up does allow me several heads. Again I use this setup with a broncolor beauty dish (I have a profoto mount for it as well as the speedlight). Carrying this lot means a collapsable trolley + rucksack with camera<br>

Examples hot with speedlights, bare flash early on progressing to the softbox:<br>

http://www.dazedproductions.co.uk/events/2009/3-March/LTR/index.html<br>

Profoto setup with beauty dish:<br>

http://www.dazedproductions.co.uk/events/2009/3-March/alba/index.html<br>

Speedlights with Beauty dish<br>

http://www.dazedproductions.co.uk/events/2009/2-February/Waterloo/index.html</p>

<p>You certainly could do it with flash in the evening. You will need to control the spill if you do this though or you might catch bits of the passers by with the flash. Flash will need to be off camera and I recommend that you use a grid or a snoot on it. You won't get a noticable ghost if the background is a bit below the subject in terms of exposure.</p>

<p>I have a medium photoflex softbox that I can use with hotshoe flashes but I rarely use it outside, its a bit too big and it takes too much effort to set up compared to a simple brolly. It also isn't really bright enough for use in daytime but OK for evening/night. I use it more indoors. I used to use brollys but have since moved to using a 20" Broncolor beauty dish with custom mount. Its more resistant to the wind! Umbrellas are a good place to start, they are simple and cheap.</p>

<p>My understanding is that you either need to buy the grid reflector, the New standard reflector or the grid and filter holder, none of which are not cheap options. I bought some honeycomb from these guys http://www.saxonpc.com/honeycomb-cells-for-photography.html and am taping it into the standard reflector.</p>

<p>I dont know what light modifiers you are using but another approach is to use gridded lights. I just have a home studio at the moment (my living room) and the only way to keep control of backgrounds and prevent light bouncing around the white walls is to use gridded and snooted sources. I use gridded softboxes, reflectors and beauty dishes. </p>

<p>Acute 2 AC pack will do modelling lights so will work indoors but you will need a pure sinewave inverter or generator to use it in the field.<br>

Pro7B pack has 100W max modelling lights (that don't stay on permanently) so its really not a studio pack but will work well in field. 7B2 might be closer to doing what you want as it can run 250w modelling lamps that I believe can be on all the time (it is of course more cash though)</p>

<p>You have had a lot of good pointers so I am not going to answer generally, but I will answer your query on softboxes. The main advantage of a softbox (or octobox) (especially in the kind of compact space you are working in), is that you can get grids for (some of) them to control the spill. This will give you a soft light that you can keep off the background if you need to, while brollies spill everywhere. At some stage you might want to try a gridded box, but as others have said, start slow and learn what you have and the more you learn, the more you will learn what you need. Of course if you want a high-key setup with a gridded box then you are looking at using separate background lights but you can start using a key light that does not interfere with background allowing low-key or coloured (by gel) backgrounds.</p>

<p>The low delay does have a meaning. It means that you can shoot at your sync speed of 1/250. Some triggers have longer delays and you start seeing the shutter and need to drop to 1/200 or lower. The issues are max frame per sec of 3 (pocket wizards do more) and easy to activate buttons (can be cut down)</p>

<p>I have an old generator that does not support fan heads. I want to know what the fan output is from the new generators. If it is 240v then I can do a bit of temporary head rewiring and run the fan off the modelling lamp supply. I want someone to measure the output of a generator for me. I have worked out the pinouts and markup is below:<br /> www.dazedproductions.co.uk/acutepinoutmarkup.jpg<br /> I want to know the AC voltage between the fan supply (note that my generator is missing this pin!) and earth. Please be careful and ensure that your meter is on the right setting!<br>

I am only interested in hearing from people running from a 240V supply.<br /> Many thanks,<br /> Jim</p>