Studio lighting

[BrianD]

Hello all
I am looking to get into the world of studio lighting, I will be using the lights primarilly for portraits and wedding photography. I recently found these (link Below) and was wodering if anyone had any opinions on them good or bad?
900W Studio Monolight Strobes Flash Lighting Kit with Carry Case | eBay

 

[tirediron]

Can't speak from first-hand experience, but it looks very much like Cowboy Studio-type gear, which is of a quality that gives honest junk a bad name. If you're planning on using this commerically, I would re-think the plan and look toward the Elinchrom line. For personal/home use, consider Adorama's Flash-point line of lights & modifiers.

 

[BrianD]

Can't speak from first-hand experience, but it looks very much like Cowboy Studio-type gear, which is of a quality that gives honest junk a bad name. If you're planning on using this commerically, I would re-think the plan and look toward the Elinchrom line. For personal/home use, consider Adorama's Flash-point line of lights & modifiers.

Thank you sir for your advice......I will look into the Flash Point line

 

[Mike_E]

HM, not so much.

Adorama flashpoints are pretty good inexpensive lights and have actual mounts on the front for attaching modifiers- much better than the generic ones in your example.

Softboxes that use a speedring are a real pain to set up and take down so you might look at either umbrellas, brollies or something like this.. Westcott 43" Apollo Orb with Removable Front Diffuser 2336. THey had a 50" softbox on sale for $170 but it's back up to $250 now, the 28"is useful but isn't large enough for full body portraits.

There is a massive amount of videos describing what each do and their effects (if You're still researching this.) but remember that anything that you get that's cheap you will have to get over and over. Yes you do have to stay within your budget but buying an entire studio of cheapies won't help much when you have to keep replacing things that you can't afford (or get because you have to instead of something like food). The point here is that getting a good quality one or two light setup and a reflector or two is usually (if you could nail it to the floor in a studio somewhere) better than getting a cheap 5 light setup.

Buying cheap stands is doubly bad because you have to replace them and any light and modifier that may have been attached.

If you don't already have one budget $100 or so on a used flash-meter, it will save you an unbelievable amount of time as you go along.

Good luck.

 

[BrianD]

Thank you all for your advice......I have been researching a ton but it looks like I have a lot more to do.....Thank you again

 

[Derrel]

Some very good advice you've been given. The Apollo Orb at $128 seems like a good value to me, knowing the brand and its reputation, no doubt the Orb is well-made and built to LAST. Knowing that, I think you'd find the similarly-sized Photek Softlighter II, an enclosed umbrella design (sometimes called a brolly in the USA, by 'some' people), to offer similar performance for less money, at a similar size. Enclosed umbrellas, and devices like the Orb, or the Halo, are nice because they never need a speed ring that has been left somewhere else!!!!

 

[Mike_E]

Some very good advice you've been given. The Apollo Orb at $128 seems like a good value to me, knowing the brand and its reputation, no doubt the Orb is well-made and built to LAST. Knowing that, I think you'd find the similarly-sized Photek Softlighter II, an enclosed umbrella design (sometimes called a brolly in the USA, by 'some' people), to offer similar performance for less money, at a similar size. Enclosed umbrellas, and devices like the Orb, or the Halo, are nice because they never need a speed ring that has been left somewhere else!!!!

Come on Derrel, brolly is a lot easier to type than enclosed umbrella. ​

 

[Derrel]

Some very good advice you've been given. The Apollo Orb at $128 seems like a good value to me, knowing the brand and its reputation, no doubt the Orb is well-made and built to LAST. Knowing that, I think you'd find the similarly-sized Photek Softlighter II, an enclosed umbrella design (sometimes called a brolly in the USA, by 'some' people), to offer similar performance for less money, at a similar size. Enclosed umbrellas, and devices like the Orb, or the Halo, are nice because they never need a speed ring that has been left somewhere else!!!!

Come on Derrel, brolly is a lot easier to type than enclosed umbrella. ​

"Brolly" is an old British term for a regular umbrella. That's why I do not use the term.

 

[Mike_E]

Some very good advice you've been given. The Apollo Orb at $128 seems like a good value to me, knowing the brand and its reputation, no doubt the Orb is well-made and built to LAST. Knowing that, I think you'd find the similarly-sized Photek Softlighter II, an enclosed umbrella design (sometimes called a brolly in the USA, by 'some' people), to offer similar performance for less money, at a similar size. Enclosed umbrellas, and devices like the Orb, or the Halo, are nice because they never need a speed ring that has been left somewhere else!!!!

Come on Derrel, brolly is a lot easier to type than enclosed umbrella. ​

"Brolly" is an old British term for a regular umbrella. That's why I do not use the term.

would it help if we added box to it? Brolly box is still shorter.

 

[tirediron]

:roll:

 

[Derrel]

Come on Derrel, brolly is a lot easier to type than enclosed umbrella. ​

"Brolly" is an old British term for a regular umbrella. That's why I do not use the term.

would it help if we added box to it? Brolly box is still shorter.

It might....but the only device I have seen sold labelled as a "brolly box" is nothing more than a cheap, thin-fabric, shoot-through umbrella, with a black backing on it to contain ambient spill. And that gives an entirely,entirely different "look" and characteristic to the light, especially when used with a powerful flash like a studio monolight. When I write the term enclosed umbrella, I am referring to something very specific: it is a DOUBLE-diffusion umbrella design. What do I mean by double-diffusion? First, the light is bounced into the bowl of the umbrella. Then, that scrambled, diffused, reflected light is once again, diffused by a white, transparent enclosing cover. The effect is very soft, diffused,even light that does not spill all over the immediate shooting area.

The brolly box on the other hand, is a cheap shoot-through umbrella, which produces a central hot-spot of light with weak beam edges, and a fairly specular reflection on facial features like foreheads,cheeks,and noses, and creates that unique, weak, cheap lighting look that shoot-thru umbrellas are infamous for when used with powerful flash units. This is not the same type of lighting device, whatsoever. And the results are entirely different.

Enclosed umbrellas like the original Photek Softlighter,and the newer Photek Softlighter II, and the original Lastolite Umbrella Box are all very similar in design and similar in the KIND and the quality of light they produce: controlled, even, not-too-specular, very SOFT, doubly-diffused light. When I say "enclosed umbrella", I am referring to something specific. A very specific double-diffusion, 100% opaque black-covered, enclosed UMBRELLA BOX.

Shoot-through umbrellas, and covered-back shoot throughs, aka "brolly box" devices, are much cheaper, very different devices than enclosed umbrellas or umbrella boxes. You will note that there is not a single "smiley" on "winky" emoticon in any of my posts.

Take a look: Google Image Result for http://www.usedfilmstudios.com/posts/brolly.jpg


Google Image Result for http://www.usedfilmstudios.com/posts/brolly.jpg