Strobe and Soft box suggestion

[Diddy2theJJ]

Hello, I'm looking for a good strobe and soft box suggestion to be used in a studio for portraits.

What I have now is a kit I bought off of ebay. It does alright, but seems to be of fairly cheap construction and sometimes the strobes don't fire. The signal is being transferred because the wireless trigger light is blinking, but the strobe doesn't fire. It's frustrating when you are working with children when you miss a shot because of that...not to mention a little embarrassing when equipment doesn't work in front of a client.

Anyway...I would love some input on brands and even what to look for in a good strobe...and if you don't feel like typing that much then if you could point me in a good direction of where I could find this info I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

- Diddy

 

[zapman29]

Thats such a broad question. It all depends on how much you are willing to spend. you can get kits from $350 to $1000's and If you want nice stuf you can order seperate. Your price range will determine what you can get.

 

[Big Mike]

Could it be a recycle time issue? Many cheap strobes have a fairly long recycle time....they need 5-7 seconds to recharge before they can fire again.
This makes it very hard to shoot kids because when they finally get into position and give you a nice expression...you want to fire off a bunch of shots...but if your lights can only fire every 5 seconds...you might be SOL.

Also, those cheap radio triggers are notorious for being inconsistent. I have a couple sets but I stopped using them because they were just too inconsistent (which can be embarrassing in front of clients). I went with the CyberSync system from AlienBee. They have worked flawlessly.

Have a look at;
AlienBees: Illuminating the Galaxy with Professional Photographic Lighting Equipment
Calumet Genesis 400 Soft Box Kit - CF0514K2 -
Elinchrom D-Lite 4 400ws Soft Box Kit - EL3060K - EL3060K

 

[IgsEMT]

AlienBees: Illuminating the Galaxy with Professional Photographic Lighting Equipment
Calumet Genesis 400 Soft Box Kit - CF0514K2 -
Elinchrom D-Lite 4 400ws Soft Box Kit - EL3060K - EL3060K __________________

don't forget dynalites