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Thread: Studio lights for a hack

  1. #1

    Studio lights for a hack

    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!

  2. #2
    Big Negs Rock!
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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    Do you want "hot" lights or strobes?
    Mark Woods

    Large Format B&W
    Cinematography Mentor at the American Film Institute
    Past President of the Pasadena Society of Artists
    Director of Photography
    Pasadena, CA
    www.markwoods.com

  3. #3

    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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!

  4. #4
    Exploring Large Format Exploring Large Format's Avatar
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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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

  5. #5

    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    I'll check them out, thanks. I do use a sekonic l508 and will fool around with the flash.

  6. #6
    Big Negs Rock!
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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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. ;-)
    Mark Woods

    Large Format B&W
    Cinematography Mentor at the American Film Institute
    Past President of the Pasadena Society of Artists
    Director of Photography
    Pasadena, CA
    www.markwoods.com

  7. #7
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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
    Tin Can

  8. #8

    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    I do have an sb-800... i will do a test shoot with it and play, thanks

  9. #9
    Functional moron
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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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
    WEB
    www.RyanDarcy.com

    IG
    @ryandarcyphoto

  10. #10

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    Re: Studio lights for a hack

    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

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