Compact flash unit?

McBlane

TPF Noob!
Joined
Feb 4, 2016
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Hi folks,

I'm in the process of starting up a sideline photo booth business, and I'm building the booth from scratch. There is going to be a flash unit in the booth, which will be behind a diffusion panel of some kind. I want to keep overall bulkiness to a minimum, so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for smaller flash units? I don't have a whole lot of experience with different lights. I've used Alien Bees B400s for any studio work I've done in the past, but even these basic units seem too bulky for the purposes of a photo booth.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

-R
 
Do you mean a battery-powered speedlight? If so, I would recommend against it. They're not meant for continual use and you would need one that has the option for mains power vice 'AA' batteries only. A 150 ws, fan-cooled monolight, while bulkier than you might want will, I suspect, save you a lot of time, grief, and money in the long run.
 
No, no. Definitely not something battery powered! I should have been clearer on that, sorry. I guess what I'm after is something relatively comparable to the Alien Bees B400 in terms of output, but in a smaller size. Monolights do tend to be a bit on the bulky side, but I might just have to bite the bullet on that one. I was just hoping someone would know of something a bit smaller.

Thank you, though! Do you have any brands you would personally recommend?
 
I'm curious about the design of your booth. Why do you need a "booth"? Where are you going to use it? Does this stay set up for a long time, and therefore need to be sturdy? Only one flash unit? Any other features, such as a reflector, etc.? How big is this going to be?

When I think of a booth business, I think back to the photographer who took photos at the local school. He had a simple backdrop, two AB softboxes, and hand-held the camera. Children put on the silly props, stood in front of the backdrop, and he snapped the shutter. Later he posted them all on FB for people to review and purchase.

Everything was sort of "fold up cloth" kind of equipment.
 
I'm curious about the design of your booth. Why do you need a "booth"? Where are you going to use it? Does this stay set up for a long time, and therefore need to be sturdy? Only one flash unit? Any other features, such as a reflector, etc.? How big is this going to be?

When I think of a booth business, I think back to the photographer who took photos at the local school. He had a simple backdrop, two AB softboxes, and hand-held the camera. Children put on the silly props, stood in front of the backdrop, and he snapped the shutter. Later he posted them all on FB for people to review and purchase.

Everything was sort of "fold up cloth" kind of equipment.

It's all going to be in one self-contained unit - basically a big box with everything customer-operated via a touch-screen. I've seen similar setups that use the camera's pop up flash behind a diffusion panel and the results are pretty terrible, so I made the decision early on that I don't want to skimp on lighting!
 
Why does it have to be flash? Why not a light that is always on? You would do some tube type bulbs behind a diffuser panel. Would be cheaper.
 
...Thank you, though! Do you have any brands you would personally recommend?
If budget isn't a concern, you could look at something like a Dynalite pack & head system, which has a very compact head, but does have a separate power pack to contend with. For the most part, monolights are fairly similar in size...
 
Why does it have to be flash? Why not a light that is always on? You would do some tube type bulbs behind a diffuser panel. Would be cheaper.
You would need a LOT of bulbs to shoot at a reasonably low ISO, which uses a lot of power and generates a lot of heat.
 
Why does it have to be flash? Why not a light that is always on? You would do some tube type bulbs behind a diffuser panel. Would be cheaper.

I thought about that, actually. Admittedly, I'm no expert on lighting, but I had concerns that an always-on light would cause issues with overheating, especially in a contained unit. I also think that flash is more conducive to the whole photo booth "experience," as pretentious as that may sound. And if there are multiple shots being taken in a row it's a very clear indicator on when to change poses.
 
I thought about that, actually. Admittedly, I'm no expert on lighting, but I had concerns that an always-on light would cause issues with overheating, especially in a contained unit. I also think that flash is more conducive to the whole photo booth "experience," as pretentious as that may sound. And if there are multiple shots being taken in a row it's a very clear indicator on when to change poses.

Nope makes since. My first though was just to run some daylight fluorescent lights. Cheap and found anywhere. A couple PC fans would help with the heat issue. Those behind a frosted piece of plexiglass would be pretty cheap.

I might suggest going to the movie theater or mall and directing the ones the have there. It's be a long time since I have used one but I believe they have continuous light.
 
The kind you see in a pizza restaurant have flash.
 
...Thank you, though! Do you have any brands you would personally recommend?
If budget isn't a concern, you could look at something like a Dynalite pack & head system, which has a very compact head, but does have a separate power pack to contend with. For the most part, monolights are fairly similar in size...

I had a look at the Dynalite system, amd it definitely is a preferable size, but maybe just a tad too expensive. I may just have to stick with a regular old monolight.

Thank you, everyone!
 

Most reactions

Back
Top