Understanding Watts/S

[cupcake09]

I've decided to buy some flashpoint strobes thanks to the lovely advice I received here. However I am confused by all the options. I currently shoot with continuous lighting, and I'm having a hard time understanding the watts on strobes.

I do mostly product photos and food photos. However, I would also like to get into some portraits just for fun around the holidays with friends/pets.

What watts would be best for this?Trying to keep it under 400-500ish =/

Also, would you consider a softbox or umbrella better for product shoots?

Thanks in advance

 

[tirediron]

Here's a good, albeit lengthy explanation. The size of the product will affect the amount of light you need, but typically a couple of 250 w/s strobes should be more than adequate for most things. Unless I'm shooting out of doors, into bright sun, I very rarely have any need to put more than 200 w/s out of a key light.

 

[KmH]

For strobes it's not watts per second, it's just watt seconds.

For constant lights it is watts per second. Watt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There is no direct conversion factor for converting watts to watt seconds.

A strobe light delivers all it's power in hundredths of a second, and at less than full power may deliver all it's light in thousandths of a second.
Since inanimate objects don't move and don't have to be 'stopped', a longer shutter speed will add light.
constant lighting though is ambient lighting.

Strobe lighting (flash) allows controlling the ambient light exposure separately from the strobe light exposure with a single shutter release.

Which light modifier I would recommend would depend on the product being photographed.

Are you tying to keep it under 400-500 ws, or $400-$500?

What has made you decide you need strobes?

 

[Derrel]

With today's digital cameras offering excellent performance at ISO 100 to 320 ranges, the need for a lot of Watt-seconds (the proper way to spell that) or W-s, is not all that pressing; we're not forced to shoot Kodachrome 25 these days for superb color...so...the need for raw power from studio flash units has actually declined over the past 15 years. I have a lot of different studio light stuff, and honestly, I find that 50 to 100 Watt-seconds per head is plenty for most small-format camera stuff. In the 1990's I used to shoot occasional product pictures using a 4x5 camera and Ektachrome 100 Professional, and lots of bellows extension, so my ISO levels would drop wayyyyyy low, and I found that for single-pop shots, I often needed 1600 Watt-seconds with the lighting gear I had then. Today, not the same situation.

For product and other STILL subjects, you can easily dim the lights and do "open flash", meaning open the shutter in a dark room, and fire the flash(es) as many times as is necessary, to get whatever flash output level required. For instantaneous work, of course, that doesn't work.

I would say buy their 320M monolights, which are as I recall 150 Watt-second units. I own one 300 Watt-second monolight, and it's actually too powerful at full power for most of the closer-range stuff, and I almost always end up using it dialed down to 1/4 power, so for "me", the 300 Watt-second total is kind of wasted. If you want to light up bigger areas, a more-powerful light might be needed.