Lighting. What to buy into?

[stevewe88]

I use the Yongnuo YN560 flashes and the RF602 triggers. No complaints from me at all. Its solid reliable stuff.

The flashes do overheat if you are shooting heavy with a full dump but so will most units and they soon are ready to use again.

[Scott Stephen]

I got the old Visa out and made several purchases... 2 stands, 2 dumb flashes, 3 brollys, some Yongnuo 603's. A large number of very cheap purchases, which is different from earlier on when there was a small number of very expenxsive purchases.

Please post advice. I will post my shots as I get the equipment in and I get time to make trouble.

[William W]

I made several purchases... 2 stands, 2 dumb flashes, 3 brollys, some Yongnuo 603's. . .Please post advice. I will post my shots as I get the equipment in and I get time to make trouble.

The First Steps I suggest to you are:

For INSIDE Portraiture, you begin by using ONE Flash head and ONE stand and ONE Brolly and learn how PLACEMENT of the light affects.

For OUTSIDE Portraiture, you use only ONE Flash head (direct) in two methods: shooting with it on a STAND and also on the CAMERA HOT SHOE to understand how to use Flash as Fill.

WW

[AB26]

Hi Scott,
It is very interesting to read trough this thread and see different opinions. Then you go GOOGLE and read what the Pro’s have to say about lighting. I believe you will find the following link very enlightening. A professional artist/photographer’s view on lighting.
http://photo.net/learn/studio/primer

[Mike Buckley]

Great article, Andre. Thanks for sharing it!

[Manfred M]

Steve: I agree with Bill in that you should start with a single light source, and especially with your indoor work, add a reflector to work in conjuction with your flash once you are ready for the next step.

One thing to remember, especially when you use more than one active (i.e. powered) light source is that we live on a planet with a single sun that casts light from above, so there is a single shadow from a light source that casts down looks normal to us. This is a good place to start when you place your lights. If you look at how some of the classic horror movies were lit, they often lit from below, giving the monster that spooky look.

When you add a second flash, make sure that it is weaker the your primary (key light). This is something called a lighting ratio and a 2:1 ratio (where the secondary i.e. fill light) is set to half the light output of the first light. This is one reason I like white reflectors, they do give you fill light that is around this ratio. If you want a more dramatic look; a 3:1 or even 4:1 lighting ratio will do this.

The other thing to remember about lighting; the further away you set your light, the harsher the shadows are. Look at sunlight this way; the light source (while extremely large) is a long way away. If you set your light with a modifier (an umbrella in your case) very close to the subject, you will bathe your subject with a very pleasing light without any harsh shadows. How close is close? With a 80cm / 32" umbrella, I try to position it about 80cm / 32" from the subject; i.e. just outside the image when I am shooting. Again, this is something to experiment with, when you are shooting. I actually kept sketches of my lighting setups when I first started using off-camera flash so that I could reproduce my results.

[rpcrowe]

If you are willing to work where there is A/C power available, a sudio strobe will beat the pants off the Strobist philosophy of jury-rigging a hotshoe flash into a pseudo-studio strobe.

Even the el-cheapo, Chinese, strobes, such as this one are superior to hotshoe flashes:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180W-180WS-S...item2c61fdf6b3

The reason that they are superior is that they have modeling lights which will give you WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) lighting. They also are set up for accessories such as umbrellas and can fit on light stands without needing extra mounting accessories. They also have a steady recycle speed because of the A/C power rather than the increased recycle time of AA battery powered hoyshoe flashes.

I would not use the above strobe for 40-hour, 5-days a week professional shooting, but then again, I would not set up a studio for 40-hour, 5-days a week shooting using hotshoe flashes.

There are other studio strobes available, especially on the used market, which would also be a better choice than hotshoe flashes for amateur (and professional) studio work.

I would choose this 2-light set over attempting to convert two 580EX flashes into studio units...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Elinchrom-St...item4d03e957c5

There are also usually lots of Alien Bee or White Lightning units available on the used market at prices equal to or lower than hotshoe flash units from Canon such as the 550EX and 580EX (series)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...g&_sacat=87637

Of course, if you absolutely need portable battery operated lights, then hotshoe flashes are probably the least expensive way to go. I have a couple of Vivitar 285 (series) flashes which I bought for around ten U.S. dollars each at various rummage and garage sales. Using a cheap radio transmitter, they are quite adequate as portable light sources. BTW... you can often find low priced Vivitar A/C power units for the 285 (series) flashes which keep your recharge time steady and release you from having to worry about the power left in the AA batteries powering the units.

[William W]

Steve: . . . start with a single light source, and especially with your indoor work, add a reflector to work in conjuction with your flash once you are ready for the next step.

Please note the words - IMO the meaning is critical to learning good lighting:

i.e. start with one light: master it.
THEN the next step is using a Reflector with ONE LIGHT: master it.

WW