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jcowles3sinar
29-Jan-2021, 11:26
Looking into buying my first studio lights. I'm just a armature guy and love to shoot and would like some lights for portrait and macro work. I see there is a ton of choices and wondered if you all could help stear me in a good direction of new or used equipment. I shoot with my Norma or a speed graphic and probably wont use them a lot but want to try it out. thanks for your advice!

Mark Woods
29-Jan-2021, 11:44
Do you want "hot" lights or strobes?

jcowles3sinar
29-Jan-2021, 12:21
I think its easier for a continuous light source for now... I have tungsten barn lights and wow they are hot! I live in Arizona so heat is bad... Are LED any good or are they just cheap? Thanks!

Exploring Large Format
29-Jan-2021, 12:33
I'm new too. Use Norma in studio, Crown Graphic (handheld) & Intrepid in field.

Godox/Flashpoint strobes are great entry point for checking out strobe lighting. AD200/Evolv200 are good values for 200 Watt Seconds. I also have more powerful models for Studio.

In dark Studio, modeling lights do some of what Continous lighting does by way of visualizing. I considered Continuous lighting, but went for strobe.

I use Sekonic meter for flash metering. Works perfectly. And, because I experiment with lighting in studio using self portraits, I like the Godox Phone App. It functions as remote trigger & lighting power adjuster while I sit/stand on my mark as I meter for flash. Don't need to detach trigger from my cord to shutter this way.

Godox/Flashpoint trigger works flawlessly. Very reliable.

Interested in hearing what you choose and how it goes.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

jcowles3sinar
29-Jan-2021, 12:56
I'll check them out, thanks. I do use a sekonic l508 and will fool around with the flash.

Mark Woods
29-Jan-2021, 13:09
I have Mole-Richardson tungsten lights and Speed-O-Tron strobes. I have 3 strobe packs -- 2/2400 ws & 1/4800 ws. My largest light is 2/750w Fresnels, 1/750w soft light, 2/250w Fresnels. I also have 7 C-Stands & a number of light stands. I think you'll find that the C-Stands are just as valuable as the lighting units. I also shoot in the sun & use nets and diffusion for the sun & white bead board & foam core to bounce the light. This sounds like a lot, but I worked as a commercial Cinematographer for 30 years & for me, it looks like a small kit compared to a 5 ton truck of equipment. ;-)

Tin Can
29-Jan-2021, 13:55
I use SB 800 as slaves with Paul C Buff

If you shoot any Digi, you will want to be able to lower output of almost any strobe, way down...

I like strobes for stopping sitter movement

jcowles3sinar
29-Jan-2021, 14:27
I do have an sb-800... i will do a test shoot with it and play, thanks

Ryan Darcy
29-Jan-2021, 18:35
What's your budget?

I'd recommend buying a used Profoto Pro 5, 6, or 7 pack with two Pro heads. All-in cost can be as low as $1200, with the following benefits:

- High-powered (250-500w per head) quartz modeling lights so you can see to focus on your ground glass.

- Widely-available lighting modifiers to rent or own; easily go from the hardest to the softest lighting available- one may travel without mods and rent on-location. I've often travelled with nothing but my power pack, light meter, and cameras, renting heads on-location for as little as $15 per day.

- Plenty of watt-second power (1200w/s or 2400 w/s per pack) so you can shoot at f/32 or greater when shooting macro, without multiple pops.

- High resale-value: if you decide you don't like it, or don't use it as much as you thought you would, you can sell it for equal or greater value than you purchased it for. More than once I've made a profit buying-and-selling Profoto kits.

- Won't trip a standard household circuit-breaker or get unbearably hot when working beneath the lights for hours on-end- it would take thousands of watts of continuous light to come anywhere near the lumens emitted by commercial flash tubes- I've used 5k HMI's and still been unable to achieve the equivalent sharpness as a flash unit. Additionally, when using bright, continuous lighting, your subjects pupils won't dilate and they'll blink far more often. Some people find these results unappealing, others covet them.

I've owned, rented, and borrowed many systems and setups, and I finally landed on Profoto. Everything else is a compromise.

On a really tight budget: using an SB-800 in Commander Mode, you can use much cheaper SB-28's as slave units on light stands. My preference is to use a coiled off-camera TTL cord to trigger the Commander SB-800, and allow the SB-800 to trigger all of your SB-28's. You can even assign groups, channels, etc. It can get very complicated but remain inexpensive. If I were doing this for flattering portraits, I'd use a Profoto Deep White Large umbrella using an articulating stand adapter, mounting the white plastic wide-angle adapter to the face of the Nikon flashes inside the umbrella(s).

The best money I've ever spent on lighting equipment is a Minolta IVf meter and Matthews sandbags to keep my light-stands on the ground.


- Ryan

LabRat
29-Jan-2021, 19:33
Go down to the hardware store and buy some plain old style reflector work lights with the bulb socket... Then try CFL or LED bulbs... For B/W, no problem, but some come fairly close for color... Output is lower, but because no heat, they can be closer to subject with greater output...

Buy the ones that have a parabolic curve, as they have a nice fall-off with a regular bulb, and (really) scientifically designed, but you can also use a lamp with a built-in reflector...

The easiest way to learn lighting is to view it in real time with your eyes, measure it, and photograph it at whatever time it needs...

You are not trying to light the Empire State Building, just a smaller area around subject...

Steve K

Willie
30-Jan-2021, 05:33
A "hack"?

A taxi cab driver?

Peter Lewin
30-Jan-2021, 06:44
Since I've been doing this for a long time I have a bunch of studio strobes which I can use with soft boxes or umbrellas. My favorite is a compact DynaLite M500 pack with two heads, I also have a Paul Buff moonlight strobe, and another cheapie pack and two more heads, too lazy to run to my basement and check the brand. While studio strobes with their modeling lights are great, you also need a flash meter, and they can be relatively bulky and costly, even used.

BUT I remember seeing a YouTube video on inexpensive continuous lighting (it was geared towards digital) and they used LED panel work lights. If you Google "LED Adjustable Work Lights" you will find lots of tripod-mounted LED panels. They are relatively inexpensive (say $50-$125) and since classic setups are usually two lights, you might want two. The main disadvantage I see is that the ones I looked at quickly for this post are not adjustable in intensity, just positioning.

esearing
30-Jan-2021, 07:01
I picked up some used Alien Bees back around 2010 - I used them maybe 3-4 times for product shots, but I don't do studio or portraits.

Michael Graves
30-Jan-2021, 08:07
I have used some 1200-LED units for filming video and they were quite good. Watch your light balance when you're buying. It seems to vary all over the place. The ones I used were switchable between daylight and tungsten and had continuously variable output settings. They were quite bright at full output and we had to use a lower setting. The gentleman that owned them said he paid a bit over $400.00 each for them, so they were a bit pricier than some of the ones you see. If I could afford them I'd get a set for myself. They threw out virtually no heat. Sorry. Can't remember what brand they were.

Tin Can
30-Jan-2021, 08:34
Lights are just the beginning

Light modifiers are needed most of the time

I would love a huge North Light 16X20 feet studio (https://lorimcnee.com/why-how-to-turn-your-window-into-instant-north-light/), not going to happen

I now have one of these always setup as it almost too big to setup (https://www.paulcbuff.com/Light-Modifiers/PLM-Umbrellas/86-White-PLM-Umbrella.html). I am going to buy another one day. They are cheap. Reflectors can be almost anything, GOBOs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_(lighting)) also

I am still learning how to use it, I store it fully open facing down at 11 feet, and out of my way

Today I will fiddle about with it and my DIY V Flats (https://improvephotography.com/19176/make-v-flats-studio-photography-cheap/#:~:text=A%20V%2DFlat%20is%20an,tape%20forming%20the%20letter%20V.)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50891035727_b0209083c3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kx4RUt)Modelling Light Not Flash (https://flic.kr/p/2kx4RUt) by TIN CAN COLLEGE (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tincancollege/), on Flickr

Daniel Unkefer
30-Jan-2021, 09:20
I prefer Broncolor, which can be expensive, but I have bought in a frugal way and now I am set.

I have four Impact 21 strobes, 200 watt seconds each, and four Impact 41 which are 400 watt seconds each. This are monolights built with quality components, in a simple circuit, and all parts heavily overrated. Extremely safe they are even approved by Underwriter Laboratories and have their seal. I love these Impacts they are ideal for a lot of uses. They are getting long in the tooth but recently I have been buying them for $50 each which suits me just fine.

I also have the older Broncolor Pulso Monolights, the C171 and C70's I have owned for twenty years and they are still going strong. A full range of older Broncolor reflectors I have at my disposal.

Also this year I have added the older 404 Broncolor Pulso Power pack, 1600 watt seconds in one pop and takes all my older Pulso reflectors.
I have four 1600 watt second rated heads for this so far, and a Hazylight head as well.

I have two 6000 watt second Pulso 606 packs and heads, these are wired into 220V lines I had installed. A Broncolor Hazylight mounted on a heavy Matthews rolling stand is one of my studio focal points. This came from a British fashion photographer in New York City who was shooting 8x10 chromes.

All this was purchased used over a long time and at low prices. So I am set with the world's finest lighting.

jcowles3sinar
30-Jan-2021, 09:44
Great stuff here, i do thanks all for the ideas and will look to this tread as i go forward. I will try some muli-source lighting shots with what i have and play with it. The bigger purchase will come but i need some simple practice at this point. Thanks again!

Daniel Unkefer
30-Jan-2021, 09:53
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50890453593_779ceff7e9_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kx1SRF)Broncolor Pulso Quad Head Never Used (https://flic.kr/p/2kx1SRF) by Nokton48 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/), on Flickr

This arrived yesterday. Broncolor Pulso Quad Head, which allows four 1600 watt second Pulso 404 power packs to discharge into four flash tubes in this head. So 6400 watt seconds in one pop. Quite awesome and super rare, I don't see this in any of my old catalogs.

This unit is an amazing deal for $150 and is never used. It also came with a large metal screen which goes on the front of the quad head.

Exploring Large Format
30-Jan-2021, 12:40
+1 to importance of modifier when discussing lighting gear.

For large modifier, i like the Glow Wing-Like Umbrella. Mine is 88", but smaller available. With low ceilings, you can still get wide light spread. Can use included black cover to block light, akin to barn doors. Shaped like an elongated curved wing. Bowens mount. Super easy & quick setup/takedown.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

Ryan Darcy
30-Jan-2021, 16:17
Show us some examples of photos that you like, we can help you reverse-engineer them and achieve similar results at a low cost.

I always recommend to my assistants: start with only one light and master it, you can always add more lights later.

-Ryan

Peter De Smidt
30-Jan-2021, 17:34
First, you need to know how much light you'll need, i.e. what'll give you the shutter speed and aperture that you want to shoot at with whatever film you pick. You'll need much less light to shoot at f/4, where you'll have very narrow depth of field, than at f/22. You can always turn bright light down, but if you don't have enough power.... Well, you can resort to really long shutter speeds or multiple flash pops, but that assumes that your subject isn't moving, or you don't care if there's subject movement.

For portraits, continuous lights can be difficult on your subjects, if they get too bright. F/22, 1/25th, ei 100 would need a lot of light! This is a bit of a standard for led lights, not too dinky, pretty bright, decent quality, but not pro-level gear: https://www.adorama.com/us%20%20%201355978.html?adlclid=1e9b111ed88812479f24710b21286026&msclkid=1e9b111ed88812479f24710b21286026&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%5BADL%5D%20%5BShopping%5D%20%5BPLA%5D%20-%20%7BManufacturer%7D%20-%20%5BUsed%5D&utm_term=4580496729049254&utm_content=%7BManufacturer%7D%20-%20%5BUsed%5D%20-%20Bing&utm_source=adl-umbase-p

Flash would be much cheaper. Personally, the best bang for the buck is Godox. I use their lithium battery speed lights for portraits. Speed lights don't have modeling lights, and so you have to know what you're doing. Studio strobes will have modeling lights, the brighter the better. So...you can go battery powered, which is very convenient, as you get rid of long cords, and you can work away from AC power. On the other hand, battery power usually means a less bright modeling light, and there might also be a time limit on how long the light can stay on.

Here's an interesting looking Godox: https://www.adorama.com/fplfx300ptb.html?sterm=QPZ05vSWqxyOTt8wUx0Mo3bwUkERcUQRwyVZ2U0&utm_source=rflaid68302

Here's a photo taken with 3 Godox speedlights in small soft boxes:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i0dgrdxvdbji0g4/Alex_color_2.png?raw=1

A good site to learn more is flashhavoc.com. A more educational site is the strobist.

If you get softboxes, get all the same brand an age. Otherwise their color temp can vary.

jcowles3sinar
31-Jan-2021, 09:36
Thanks all, great to see the help!