Alright if that's your budget head on over to ebay. I would get 2 $15 umbrellas, nothing fancy it's just an umbrella,
Shoot through or silver reflective? Just silver, or white with a black/silver backing? just an umbrella is cheap and tends to fall apart. What size? Why? Why not larger or smaller? Why not an umbrella and a different type of modifier? I mean they just want to overexpose the background, why do they need an umbrella to make a flash do thatt?
then about $30 on 2 stands,
Cheap stands don't last. Even cheaper stands are just crap.
then go for the better brackets, you'll know them when you see them.
Would you know them if you saw them?
Then last but not least head for some Cactus triggers, wireless and a dream (so i've heard).
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAAAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!1!11!!one!11one
With the remaining cash I would see if you could score a cheap vivitar, or Lumo flash. Then you got 2 light setup to begin with.
Maybe the only good recommendation. Why would you go with a Vivitar over a lumopro or the other way around? What features to each of them have that make them worth the price?
B&H prices may have changed a bit, but this is what I remember.
Air cushioned 9' impact stands $30 x 2 = $60
Impact umbrella adapters $15 x 2 = $30
Westcott 43" umbrellas $20 x 2 = $20
Lumopro LP160 flash (mpex.com) $160
That's $270, not including triggers. Impact is
B&H's in house brand. It's not top of the line by far. The air cushioned stands should last you if you're careful with them, but I have 1 out of 3 that still works and that's being generous.
The umbrella adapters come with a cold shoe for the flash and will hold your umbrellas. There's not much too them, the several ones I have from when I first started still function perfectly.
The 43" westcotts are cheap and they're basically throw aways, but they'll server you well for now. I'd recommend a shoot through and a silver reflective umbrella so that you have options. You're not going to want to use an umbrella for the back wall, but like I said, two different ones gives you options.
The Lumopro LP160 is as powerful as a lot of high end first party speedlights. It has an optical slave, a pc sync port, and a miniphone port. It tilts and swivels. It's power level has a greater range of adjustability vs. the Vivitar 285HV, which only has a tilt feature. It's a better flash over all and MPEX is a great company to deal with.
The last choice is triggers. There's a large range of e-bay triggers, like the Cowboy Studio triggers, the Cactus triggers, and others. When they were first released, they weren't the most reliable, but they've gotten better. If you're planning on sticking with this, you may want to look at something more reliable. The cheapest brand that I could recommend as an absolutely reliable brand would be the Paul C Buff Cyber Syncs. PCB and Alien Bees are the same company. It will cost you about about $200 for two receivers and a transmitter. E-bay triggers will be fine if you're experiementing, but if you're having misfires or other wierd problems, then you know what to expect. Although, some people I know have had amazing luck with them. It seems like it's hit or miss. As for calling them a dream, that made me laugh.
Have you even received your entry level lighting kit yet Bram? I mean, just this week, you are still asking the forum members which trigger, umbrella and such. Even if you have, you wouldn't have had enough practical time to make a sound judgement of your gear. Where are you drawing upon this knowledge to make a recommendation?
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/36/36652-145f66f617fee0f81baca6f8db8b4eb2.jpg?1734169166)
