Nikon 55~200 AFS

[astroNikon]

before you jump into strobes

1 advantage a continuous light system has is that they are on all the time and they do not need to be connected at all to the camera

with strobes, it needs to know when to flash.
so .... you get (the cheapest) cable connectors. Which for the D3300 it's not really designed well for OCF/strobes. So you'll need an adapter for that, and the cables. Or go with other triggers. I have higher end camera body, radio triggers (albeit cheaper ones). So .. there is a bit more research and maybe cost to it. I didn't look closely into what came with the strobe package(s)

I'd recommend just cool your jets for a bit with regards to new lighting.

I didn't read that entire page dump you just did. But the lighter end strobes are good for closeup work as they are not very powerful. I've only looked into the more powerful strobes for larger work.

 

[astroNikon]

==>

general flashpoint but a higher model, there's alot of youtube videos on various ones ==>

 

[Quovadis]

Yes indeed,
strobes are like a new mountain to climb...I know nothing about them. I have not even understood all these triggers and what I need to buy. I have no clue where to position them etc...
I need to consult with a professional photographer here in my town who can give me a quick lesson on strobes, how to position, what cables and triggers to buy, what sort of diffusion boxes are needed etc etc...can they be used in conjunction with continuous lights? etc etc...

 

[Quovadis]

are monolights the same as strobes?

 

[Quovadis]

wow, those videos are great, I did not know Adorama did the Tv thing. Great news.

 

[Quovadis]

Looks pretty simple actually. Are two strobes enough for bags? I wonder if they would go facing the bag or on the sides of the tent. Would the strobe used with the barn door give reflections on the bag? This is a real problem if the bags are patent leather or even leather. If I understand correctly the barn doors give a tight beam of light like a spotlight. Can you place white fabric over the barn doors to diffuse the light?

 

[astroNikon]

are monolights the same as strobes?

I'm not an expert in these things at all as I just use them but this is what I learned.

Be careful of off brands. They need an adapter connector to connect the front of the strobe to diffuser panels, et all. The cheapers brands are limited to diffusers because they use some weird connector. You probably can't do much with the LEDs other than make your own.

This may be information overload
but here's something to expand your horizons a bit just in variety ==> 9 Great Gadgets That Will Give You More Flattering Flash Photos | Expert photography blogs, tip, techniques, camera reviews - Adorama Learning Center

scroll down and look at the various adapters ==> Amazon.com: flashpoint strobe mount adapter - Camera & Photo: Electronics

cheapers ones may not have a built in continuous modeling lamp.
their power varies, cheaper ones are cheaper. The continuous modeling lamp will be less than on higher models.

Those LED barn doors - have silver reflective doors? Are the LEDs spot, projection, spread? - see, so many questions) Read about basic reflector colors a bit in this summary ==> When Do I Use the Different Reflector Colors?

so like I said ... cool your jets and slow down.

 

[chuasam]

Yeah, work on your lighting. It needs far more work than your focus. It's like trying to shoot a good game of golf and you don't even know how to hold a club properly.

 

[Designer]

are monolights the same as strobes?

There are two types of studio strobes; the "pack and head" type in which a power pack (that usually sits on the floor) powers the heads which are mounted on light stands and emit the light. The "mono" lights have the transformer and capacitors built into the head, so no power pack is required.

 

[Designer]

Looks pretty simple actually. Are two strobes enough for bags? I wonder if they would go facing the bag or on the sides of the tent. Would the strobe used with the barn door give reflections on the bag? This is a real problem if the bags are patent leather or even leather. If I understand correctly the barn doors give a tight beam of light like a spotlight. Can you place white fabric over the barn doors to diffuse the light?

This is where you need to read the book.

 

[astroNikon]

Yes, read the book

more information overload ...

Barn doors don't really make a "tight" beam, but essentially block the beam.
Take a flashlight. Point it to the wall. Now take your hand and cover half of the flashlight. The light itself doesn't change, just the "shape" of the beam is changed due to blockage.

Now the LED light you had a link to has silver reflective material on the doors. So those are not really going to block the light in as much as reflect it the other way - which you probably don't want as barn doors are normally used to shape light, not reflect & scatter light the other way (unless those LED are just spread lights, and not focused)

Barn doors don't diffuse the light they just allow you to shape the "square"
Diffusers such as these allow you to shape and diffuse the light. ==> Westcott Light Modifiers

strobes have infinitely more options to control the light than basic things out there.
speedlights are pretty good too but end up costing more than strobes.

fyi, as mentioned before that one link you had I think there was only ONE strobe from up above lighting that purse.
you could have two.
you could have two PLUS one to blowout the background.
it all depends.

but I'm not an expert at product photography. I do some, but very limited and plus I have about 5 speedlights with various diffusers, etc. But if you were to go to a professional portrait photographer you should see a bunch of various diffusers from full body diffusers 8ft x 4 ft thin rectangles to large squares, beauty dishes, etc.

product photography is usually limited to the one subject at hand. And it varies from something small, to something like a car.

 

[Quovadis]

Hi guys, thanks again for the tips. I have been reading avidly,. which gives me an idea, but without grasping the practicality of it.. Oh! so now there is a new kind of light? Speedlight? I will need to read up on that one. As I said, I have two large LED panels of continuous light on order, and I will tell you how that goes. They are mainly for video.
For now i'm trying to focus on my lenses because I want to buy some primes for different distances. I have been reading about them and am confused about the following :
1. Today i bought another lens, the Nikon AF-S FX 50mm f/1.8G.
I realize this is an FX lens and on my D3300 it will be a 75mm instead of a 50mm.
I then researched a real 50mm for DX and cannot find one.
I need a lens that I can photograph small details on the bag (serial numbers and pendants etc). I would be shooting at a distance of approx 2 feet.
The 70mm will not do. Could you suggest a close mm prime lens I could use? Maybe a 35mm? I looked for a 35mm FX and could not find one either. So i'm a little confused.

 

[astroNikon]

Speed lights are just like your popup flash, except more advanced in a way as you can have multiple speed lights. Speedloghts are basically portable strobes.

With how picky you are I think the 85 mm will be fine. You don't want to get too up close like you want to 35mm because then you introduce perspective distortion.

 

[Quovadis]

I know what I would need as a lighting system but do not know if it exists. Small LED white directional lights I could place inside the tent. Imagine an octopus with tentacles. Each tentacle would be made out of that bendable metal, at the tip a small directional bulb. In this manner I could place light on the bag where ever i needed it. Look at this picture. I would want the COACH hang tag to have some light on it. These black bags are hard to photograph because of reflections. This is a terrible shot

 

[astroNikon]

to get rid of reflections you add diffusion.
more than one panel of diffusion if necessary (most pro type diffusers have 2 panels of diffusion from what I've seen)
with your setup you would end up with a bunch of hot spots unless you could control each individual LED independently to it's brightness.

read the book you ordered
and practice each section

if you want to highlight something specific above the surrounding lighting, you could always snoot a separate flash/strobe.