Help: I'm buying lights

Ann McRae · December 18, 2008

A request to volunteer to take photos during a soccer club social has turned into 'if you could set up to take posed (during the ceremony), candid, and team shots that would be great!'
Anyway, I have another two events requested next spring that require me to do posed on site photos, as well as on site printing.
I am going to use this event as my first trial, and hope to learn lots so that by April I am ready for the others.

So, I sold my 24mmTSE and can use those funds to fund portable lights and backdrop.

I need your recommendations please.(I already have pocket wizards! right Nik?)

ann

catspaw · December 18, 2008

I've been looking at some of the Alienbee 'sets' that they have, which seem pretty danged reasonable.

http://www.alienbees.com/packages.html

ziggy53 · December 18, 2008

I use FlashPoint II monolights and I have found them to be very high quality. (I believe Pathfinder also has FlashPoint lights.) Repeatability and durability have been remarkably good. Availability of accessories is sufficient for my needs.

Adorama has a 2 light kit that is very reasonable and probably suitable for your purpose:

http://www.adorama.com/FP1220APWK.html

Scott_Quier · December 18, 2008

catspaw wrote:

I've been looking at some of the Alienbee 'sets' that they have, which seem pretty danged reasonable.

http://www.alienbees.com/packages.html

AB strobes are a very good deal for the $$. Were I to do it over again, I would get my umbrellas and softboxes from another source - the build quality isn't there. After about a year of soft use, I had to pretty much re-sew all the seams in my softboxes. The umbies are made of light-weight fabric and the shafts are not all they could be.

But the lights ... I would do them again.

catspaw · December 18, 2008

Scott_Quier wrote:

AB strobes are a very good deal for the $$. Were I to do it over again, I would get my umbrellas and softboxes from another source - the build quality isn't there. After about a year of soft use, I had to pretty much re-sew all the seams in my softboxes. The umbies are made of light-weight fabric and the shafts are not all they could be.

But the lights ... I would do them again.

very good to know! I mostly like the lights, and I noticed the umbrellas were awfully cheap. They seem to have 'new' soft boxes now -- were those the ones you had or perhaps did they upgrade/fix them?

Scott_Quier · December 18, 2008

catspaw wrote:

very good to know! I mostly like the lights, and I noticed the umbrellas were awfully cheap. They seem to have 'new' soft boxes now -- were those the ones you had or perhaps did they upgrade/fix them?

Hard to tell from the pictures they supply. I would have to find my invoices and compare prices and even then I might not get the clue I need to give a firm answer.

Sorry

ChatKat · December 18, 2008

Scott_Quier wrote:

Hard to tell from the pictures they supply. I would have to find my invoices and compare prices and even then I might not get the clue I need to give a firm answer. Sorry

For stuff you want to last, Chimera makes great softboxes and I have some Westcott Umbrellas.

My Studio lights are Profoto Monolights. They are expensive but I think they will last for a long time. The newer ones (Compact-R) have the built in Pocketwizard receivers so they don't have them connected with a PC cord. Samy's Camera just had a show special on them and B & H has a special kit right now as well.

That said, I have used my Canon 580ex'es with umbrellas and I also have Sunpak 622's for portable light work that are quite nice. I am doing some events with a photo booth and I am using the Sunpaks with small softboxes because there won't be any electricity.

Ann McRae · December 18, 2008

So here is a link to the 'local' camera shops lighting list, and the Cdn prices.

I am wanting something portable, and as Cathy pointed out there are likely to be scenarios where I won't have electricity.....

Thanks for the input so far. Keep ideas coming, please.

ann

Scott_Quier · December 18, 2008

Ann McRae wrote:

So here is a link to the 'local' camera shops lighting list, and the Cdn prices.

I am wanting something portable, and as Cathy pointed out there are likely to be scenarios where I won't have electricity.....

Thanks for the input so far. Keep ideas coming, please.

ann

For portable lights, I've been happy with my Sunpak 622 stobes. They play well with self-contained battery power sources. I have something that B&H doesn't even list as an accessory, but I hear that the Quantum Instruments battery is a VERY good choice.

Art Scott · December 18, 2008

I cannot vouch for AB's but I have been using for over 20yrs Paul Buffs White Lightning 5000's.....these were his first line of lights and they are still popping after all of the hard use I have given them......they have been in the smoky regions and dark bowels of rock clubs, blues clubs and country/western bars and more churches than I can remember.........I have had wescot umbrellas that yellowed after 6 months and a couple of no name umbrella that are still white after 15 yrs.....currently I am using brolly boxes from Paul Buff (Alien Bees)......Swinton Photo also use them.....they are a shoot thru type of octagonal softbox....i dislike rectangle or square catch lights .....but all of this is just my opinion ......

Ann McRae · January 2, 2009

Today, I came home with this Elinchrome kit! Requires electricity, so not exactly what I first thought I wanted, but

I also bought the cord that will allow me to use my 580ex with my PW, so I have that to add in to my mix.

Now,it is play time!

ann

ziggy53 · January 2, 2009

Ann McRae wrote:

Today, I came home with this Elinchrome kit! ...

ann

Congratulations Ann.

Ann McRae · January 3, 2009

Help! Help!

ziggy53 wrote:

Congratulations Ann.

Thanks, Ziggy.

So I have taken the stuff out of its boxes, and got it set up. Now I REALLY NEED HELP!

First thing I did was grab my pocket wizards and look for a way to hook the lights up to the PWs. Hmmm, funny, but the cords all have the wrong ends to do this -> the end that goes into the PW is the same end that goes into the strobe, and the other end on the cord doesn't fit anything but the camera.

And the girl at the shop said that she has fried a camera sensor by using a sync chord, so recommended NOT doing so.

Now am I missing something or is there a different cord or was she incorrect in telling me PWs would work?

I did manage to get the strobes to fire, via my 580EX. So I put the flash on the camera, and when it flashed so did the strobes. Fair enough, but how do I manage lighting from the strobes, and the 580EX on camera? I turned it backwards, I changed settings, I finally figured that it would fire them when the Off/master/slave switch was off. But is this correct or not. What should I be doing to not be a n00b here?

Thanks!

Ann McRae · January 3, 2009

My gallery of test shots
No PP - import with LR2, and export to SM.

and a few to share:

My first model was quite pleasant, but all I could think of was at the 07 shootout, when Scott Q and Nik tried to teach me 'loupe' lighting.

and, as Nik always shows, the set up:

When I bought them, I asked the sales person about a light meter, and she said that she usually relied on trial and error, and chimping. Not having a spare $350 for a light meter, I figured I could chimp for a while.

I switched models for the final few shots, and although he proved a bit stiff, I tried to convince myself that there was a difference being made by the strobes. So, with only the 580EX:

and with the strobes:

At this point I would relish as much feedback as possible!

Thanks

ann

ChatKat · January 3, 2009

Ann - there is a PC Cord. It goes from the PW to the Monolight. There is also a synch cord that could go from the light to the camera but you don't need it when you have a PW. It is instead of.

The Elinchromes are very good lights. I considered them. Make sure you get extra light bulbs for the heads. At least one. And if your lights have modeling lights, get an extra too. I will see if I can find the part number for you

Here you go: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/131298-REG/PocketWizard_804_301_PC_1_Miniphone_to_PC.html#features

Ann McRae wrote:

Thanks, Ziggy.

So I have taken the stuff out of its boxes, and got it set up. Now I REALLY NEED HELP!

First thing I did was grab my pocket wizards and look for a way to hook the lights up to the PWs. Hmmm, funny, but the cords all have the wrong ends to do this -> the end that goes into the PW is the same end that goes into the strobe, and the other end on the cord doesn't fit anything but the camera.

And the girl at the shop said that she has fried a camera sensor by using a sync chord, so recommended NOT doing so.

Now am I missing something or is there a different cord or was she incorrect in telling me PWs would work?

I did manage to get the strobes to fire, via my 580EX. So I put the flash on the camera, and when it flashed so did the strobes. Fair enough, but how do I manage lighting from the strobes, and the 580EX on camera? I turned it backwards, I changed settings, I finally figured that it would fire them when the Off/master/slave switch was off. But is this correct or not. What should I be doing to not be a n00b here?

Thanks!

Ann McRae · January 3, 2009

ChatKat wrote:

Ann - there is a PC Cord. It goes from the PW to the Monolight. There is also a synch cord that could go from the light to the camera but you don't need it when you have a PW. It is instead of.

The Elinchromes are very good lights. I considered them. Make sure you get extra light bulbs for the heads. At least one. And if your lights have modeling lights, get an extra too. I will see if I can find the part number for you

Here you go: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/131298-REG/PocketWizard_804_301_PC_1_Miniphone_to_PC.html#features

Hi Kathy - thanks - the PC cord must be an extra item - the lights came with synch cords, and the PW came with cords with exactly the same ends. I will find out about the PC cord tomorrow!!!! Thanks much - just what I needed.

ann

ziggy53 · January 3, 2009

Ann,

If you get the PWs to work, that's great. If not, use the 580 in "manual" mode as the master for the Elinchrom's built-in optical slave. (E-TTL will not work because of the pre-flash.)

To use your camera as a light meter, if you have an 18% gray card, include the gray card in a scene and take an exposure with just the key light illuminating the card. If you have access to a computer, crop the scene to just the card and adjust the flash to try to get the histogram to show a peak in the center. (If you don't have a computer, use a telephoto lens to isolate the gray card and use the camera's histogram.) You can substitute the palm of your hand but the histogram should then be 2/3rd to 1 more stop to the right.

If you're using a standard key-fill lighting, repeat the process with just the fill light active. Position the histogram peak for the fill light somewhat below the key light, depending upon the desired ratio.

Depending on the position of the key and fill, you may have some light overlap. You will probably have to adjust the aperture a bit smaller as a result.

This should work well for average light skin tones. For darker or lighter skin tones you should adjust accordingly. For group shots, if you have a mixture of skin tones, you are better off with the key and fill almost equal to yield a low contrast ratio.

Help: I'm buying lights

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