Guide Numbers Studio Flash

[Stevedevil]

No Sync voltage on both are 5v ( even though most people use remotes nowadays I would think )

 

[Digital Matt]

There is nothing that I can think of that is unique to digital that would require special digital strobes, other than the lower sync voltage. Sounds like a marketing ploy to me.

 

[Stevedevil]

Reading further ( as we do here ) I found that the only apparent difference is that the so called " Digital Range" have a couple of extra features

1) Infra red remote control up to 10M

 

[Stevedevil]

Ok I have been reading all night

The so called " Digital Range " is so that it has Infra Red Firing built in along with a Remote control to make changes.....

Wow so we go to model with light meter and set off flash, so using seconic 558, I believe you can activate infra red strobes, I push a button and measure with 308 flashmate,

So then you can set remotely, wow ive had to walk to model to gain light levels so if I then adjust levels remotely, after walkin past lights, will have to take new reading to adjust camera

Please stop me if Im missing something

So now camera set, I hit the button

What has a Digital set up got for the shot!!!

 

[EOS_JD]

Steve
Just one thing. In a small studio space you have I think 750W is overkill. You'll struggle to get power low enough!

That's why I was between the Dlite2 & Dlite 4s. Ithink 400W is more than enough.

Regards the setup, 9' in width is narrow but probably workable. If you go for 9' in depth that will not be a good idea. You have a backdrop then room for subject say 3'-4' away from the backdrop leaves you 5'. Your lights need to be positioned and then you have to have room to move in. You'll need to be at least 4' away from your subject just for a head and shoulders so not enough room to go "wide" as you say. Unless you're going for a different look with a shot with a wide angle lens.


I have 16' x 9' so I know which way my studio will be set up.

 

[fmw]

Steve
Just one thing. In a small studio space you have I think 750W is overkill. You'll struggle to get power low enough!

.

Here is my small product light tent. The two bare heads lighting the tent from just a few inches are 750 w/s Bowens monolights. I normally shoot at f16. I have one of the units dialed down to 1/4 power and the other one to 1/8. They will dial down to 1/32 should I want to use a wider aperture. I could add light modifiers to shoot at f1.4 if I wanted to. Not overkill. Easy to dial down. Not a problem at all. In fact, using them dialed down improves their longevity and reliability. It also allows me to shoot hand held at f16 because of the short flash duration. At full power, the flash duration is just 1/125. At 1/8 power it is around 1/4000. At full power I would have to use a tripod for this small product setup.

I've also used all five of my monolights to handle an indoor shoot of an RV exterior for which I used a parachute canopy for a light tent. I shot at f11. Steve may not need to shoot RV's but the extra power never hurts. If 400 w/s units will do the job, so will 750 w/s units or 1000 w/s units. I't not suggesting he needs that much power. I don't know what he needs. Neither does he. However, I do know that you can dial down flash heads but you can't dial them up.

At any rate, I'll get off the soapbox and post a shot of the monlights and the light tent.

 

[Stevedevil]

Looks good

On your lights Fred are you only using one as flash as two do not appear to have sync leads??

Or do they fire remotely??

 

[Digital Matt]

They are slaves. They detect the initial flash and fire.

 

[northcoastcamera]

You should listen to fmw he knows what he is writing about. With flash there is no such thing as too much power. You can always reduce the output. 1/16 or 1/32 power is available on all decent strobe systems.

 

[rppnj]

I have been looking at getting 400 - 500w Heads x 2, with an additional 250w later on, In UK the most popular are Bowens & Elinchrom ( 500 Bowens & 400 Elinchrom )

Just purchased Elinchrom 500 Flash System - 3 Heads. I am looking for the PDF user manual for the Elinchrom 500. It is not available on their website or anywhere I can find, although it does exist. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[bango707]

You should listen to fmw he knows what he is writing about. With flash there is no such thing as too much power. You can always reduce the output. 1/16 or 1/32 power is available on all decent strobe systems.

I am going to agree and disagree with this statement.
If you have too much power you can always power the unit down, use scrims, and or use ND gels to lower the intensity of the light.

On the other hand if you don't own scrims or ND gels then you are stuck with the 5-7 or however many stops the unit is capable of losing.

The problem is cheap strobes. If you own and shoot with Profotos then you can pretty much use the light at any power level and it will look/act the same. But it doesn't work the same when you are shooting with say AlienBees. When used at the lowest power they tend to have major color shifts just like your cheap lens might at wider apertures.

There is a great example over at POTNF that someone did comparing a few different brands of strobes at varying power levels. Like said earlier in this thread cheaper lights are cheaper for a reason. They aren't build as nicely as the more expensive lights and they can't perform as well.

So saying that there is no such thing as too much power simply isn't true in all situations.

 

[Early]

Steve - fmw has generously given you some great information. I am a studio photographer, and would like to help too. I see your last question but I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Can you explain the question a little? What do you mean by standard and digital ranges?

Just so you know! I found your post very informative. Thanks!