Studio

Derrel · Apr 27, 2015

One thought just occurred to me: the glass door could have a piece of vellum paper taped to the glass, and one or two flash units could be placed in the adjoining room and fired through the window and the diffusion material, to create a light source. Speaking of flash units...I think the 'economy' monolights Adorama is selling for $39.95 (now 20 percent off!) are a pretty good value in terms of what you get for just under forty bucks; a low-cost studio flash that runs off of wall current AND which has a modeling lamp, so you can aim it better, and see what the flash is doing, plus a built-in umbrella AND light stand mount. I mean, this is an AC monolight, 120 Watt-seconds, for forty bucks!

Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash 120 Watt Seconds BF-120W

Designer · Apr 27, 2015

Excellent price! I paid $49.95. Cheap enough at that. My umbrella was more, but it's a big one.

Also BTW: that is plenty of power.

As in; I turned the power down nearly all the way.

MeganChristine · Apr 27, 2015

Derrel said:
One thought just occurred to me: the glass door could have a piece of vellum paper taped to the glass, and one or two flash units could be placed in the adjoining room and fired through the window and the diffusion material, to create a light source. Speaking of flash units...I think the 'economy' monolights Adorama is selling for $39.95 (now 20 percent off!) are a pretty good value in terms of what you get for just under forty bucks; a low-cost studio flash that runs off of wall current AND which has a modeling lamp, so you can aim it better, and see what the flash is doing, plus a built-in umbrella AND light stand mount. I mean, this is an AC monolight, 120 Watt-seconds, for forty bucks!

Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash 120 Watt Seconds BF-120W

There is no glass door. There are 2 windows and 2 doors which lead to the rest of the house..

Derrel · Apr 27, 2015

Oh, I guess that's a mirror on that door then. Still...keep in mind that a doorway is one place where light can be fired into a room, through a diffusing material, or raw, or through an umbrella or softbox. Light coming in from the door's position might make a decent side-light, depending on the shooting area in use. Just something to keep in mind.

And about the 120 Watt-second monolight with modeling lamp: those have 4-stop power control, so you have basically Full, Half, Quarter, and 1/8 power settings to choose from. The Guide Number is listed at 125, in Feet, at ISO 100. SO, that means with that monolight, used bare, the GN of 125 is divided by the distance from the flash to the subject, and that gives the needed f/stop, when ISO 100 is being used. SO...at 10 feet, we'd take 125, and divide that by 10, so that would be f/12.5. Which is smaller than f/11...meaning, the light is amply powerful for use in a small room.

Adding a modifier will lower the effective Guide Number, but again, in a smallish room like that one, it does NOT take a lot of light--especially now, when we have cameras that shoot great at ISO levels of 150 to 400 with flash.

MeganChristine · May 3, 2015

Yikes.. that's somewhat alot for me to take in. I'm not tech savvy when it comes to all that stuff. Would those lights still be able to be put to good use in my studio?

Also, any flashes for my camera that I should buy?(for outdoor photography)