Wattage for Strobes for Portraiture

[Gnu]

What would be the minimum strobe wattage for portrait shots.
Am using a shoot through brolly and am also contemplating a soft box also as we have several flash guns

 

[Derrel]

25 watt-seconds per light on hair light, separation light,and fill light is ample, with as little as 50 to 75 watt-seconds being enough for the main light for a single-person portrait shot with the lights fairly close-in to the subject.

For many years, I have had good luck distributing 200 watt-seconds,total, through four flash heads, using a 1600 watt-second power pack. That gives roughly 1.5 second recycle time, and the flash units are basically "loafing along" at far,far below maximum capacity. It is also more comfortable for subjects when the flash is a soft,short "poof!" sound, rather than a big,slow "POOOOO-OP!" report, accompanied by a retina-overloading flash burst. Keep in mind, today we have cameras that offer superb performance at ISO 320 to 400; when many flash power levels were set up, ASA 25 to ASA 64 slide film was normal.

 

[tirediron]

...ASA 25 to ASA 64 slide film was normal.

Ahhh, those were the days... 6x7 25 ASA B&W print film!

 

[Gnu]

Thanks guys,appreciate you taking time to answer me.