Lighting Question

[cgratti]

Want to do some pet photography to supplement income and buy new equipment.

Would this lighting set up be sufficient enough for what I need?


Impact Tungsten 3 Flood Light Kit - consists of: 3 Floodlights, Umbrellas, Light Stands, Bulbs - 1250 Total Watts

Rating
12" Floodlight: 500 watts maximum
10" Floodlight: 500 watts max., 250 watts max. suggested
5" Floodlight: 250 watts maximum

Socket (Lampholder)
Ceramic

Reflector (Mirror)
10 or 12" & 5" Aluminum Parabolic, black finish

Mounting
Universal 5/8" mount

Cable
~10' with in-line switch, 3 prong USA plug

Weight
Each Head: ~4 lbs (1.8 kg)

Dimensions
10" Flood: 12 x 10" (30.5 x 25.4 cm)
12" Flood: 12 x 12" (30.5 x 30.5 cm)
5" Flood: 10 x 5" (25.4 x 12.7 cm)
With sockets

[SkipD]

That rig would heat up a small studio in no time and make it uncomfortable for you, the animals, and their owners. I would suggest that you look for similar stands and umbrellas, but studio flash units instead of "hot" lights.

Most studio flash units are MUCH brighter than typical "hot" lights and have a very short duration of the flash. The benefit is that you can close down the lens' aperture for a better (deeper) depth of field and at the same time stop any motion pretty well.

[Curtis N]

This thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=207339), which attempts to compare continuous tungsten lighting with strobes, might be interesting to you.

[cgratti]

Ok, so I want a flash setup not continous lighting.

What does this mean?

"User Replaceable Flashtube - No"

I see it on most of the kits at B&H, does it mean I cant replace the flash tube myself and have to send it in for replacement?

What about this system? And what do I need to sync all these lights so they go off together? Sorry for the Stupid questions, but I am new to studio lighting. Like my sig says,"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people who ask questions."

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/largeimages/459064.jpg

[Fureinku]

Yes, flash/strobes are what you want, they only fire when then need to, continues lights stay on the whole time, the brighter, the hotter they run

No idea on the tubes

[mjordan]

If you have to stick with photofloods, you would be better to get 2 with the same reflector size and bulb size and the smaller one half that size. The reason, with pets, you aren't going for lighting ratios, butterfly lighting (unless you are shooting butterflys of course ;)) or any of the other lighting schemes you normally use for people. For pets, you are usually wanting even lighting across the front with some fill light coming from above to give a little cross lighting. Cross lighting is used to bring out detail in hair and fur of animals. Especially black hair or fur.

I usually use 3 lights, one to camera right at about a 45 degree angle from the nose up above the subject angled down. One just to the camera left down so the middle is about eye level and one in back up very high angled down at the ear area. If I had a boom I'd put it directly over head angled down. The first two lights I meter for the same fstop, although the one to the right (which I consider the main light) is a 26x36 softbox and the one to camera left is a 26" Octogon softbox. The top light is a parabolic reflector. I do use studio monolights though and not photofloods.

If you were to go with monolights, you would want to get at least 160 watt second lights, although 2 320 watt second lights and a 3rd 160 watt second light would work very well. Most of the 160 watt second lights don't give you the control the higher power ones do and they have a harder time lighting up the big umbrellas or softboxes. Fiting your light source to the light modifier is important.

Good luck. And don't leave your camera bag down low. Cats like to pee in them for some reason. I don't shoot cats, so I've never had that problem. :D

Mike

[mjordan]

If you are going to look at monolights. Do a search on Excalibur on B&H and look at the SP line of monolights. They have the SP-6400, SP-3200 and SP-1600 (640 watt second, 320 ws and 160 ws) series of lights at the best bang for buck in this class of monolights.

Mike

[cgratti]

My head hurts....

Alot of info to absorb....

[SkipD]

I (and a lot of others) will highly recommend the AlienBees products as well. Check out www.alienbees.com. They have a lot of valuable information on their site. Their customer service is second to none, and will answer any question(s) you have.

I'd suggest starting with a couple B800's, stands, and large umbrellas (42" minimum, satin white interior - Photogenic's Eclipse series, white with black cover, are my favorites).

[cgratti]

I dont want to spend $1000 to start... AB's are out of my budget right now.

[SkipD]

I dont want to spend $1000 to start... AB's are out of my budget right now.Then, you could try by using your Speedlites along with some stands and umbrellas. You could use the 580EX fairly close to the camera, connected to the camera with the $50 Off Camera Shoe Cord 2 and have the 430EX slave off it. Placement would be a little tricky, but it could work.

It would be really wise to save up for some decent studio strobes rather than waste money on equipment that you will ultimately label as junk. However, the stands, umbrellas, etc., that you would use for your Speedlites can be reused with studio strobes (assuming you choose the right stuff). You would need to invest in the cord and some brackets (like these: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=5156&is=REG&addedTroughType=search ), but that shouldn't break the bank. Just make sure the light stands are sturdy enough and tall enough for the future and that they have 5/8" diameter fittings (like those on the adapter in the link) to connect things to.

[cgratti]

Once I decide on a set of strobes (monolights), what do I need to sync them so they both fire with the camera?

[Titus213]

I've seen several comments on the forums recommending starting out with one light and building on it as you learn. It keeps the cost down and the learning curve manageable. Two lights more than doubles the complexity IMO.

Another vote for the Alien Bees. The B800 if you can, but the B400 works well in smaller areas with smaller subjects. This gallery (http://www.norwoodphotos.com/gallery/1940003) was taken with one B400, a Sunpak 555 as a background light, and a 550EX in manual mode. Yeah, I know, 3 lights but not 3 studio lights...

[cgratti]

Will this light stand work with the AB800?

Impact Compact Air Cushioned Light Stand - Black, 8'

Minimum Height
26.75 in (68 cm)

Maximum Height
8 ft (2.4 M)

Closed Length
27 in (68.5 cm)

Footprint Diameter
3 ft (91.4 cm)

Weight
2.4 lbs (1 kg)

Maximum Load
7.5 lbs (3.4 kg)

Attachment Size
5/8 in stud with 1/4-20 in threaded tip

Accepts Wheels
Yes- (1022)

Air Cushioned
Yes

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/largeimages/253074.jpg

[NewbieXT]

Here is the exact set I bought off ebay (it's cheaper to get them directly from his site).
http://store.prostores.com/servlet/skaeser/Detail?no=283

Here is what I know about them. at full power, 180 w/s I have to stop my lense down to about f10. That's enough power for me at this stage. (ISO 100)

They are cheap, but they make a huge difference in the quality of photo's I make. They may not be as powerful as others would like, or have the durability for the long haul, but they get me started.
The strobes are triggered by other flashes, changes in electric current, and pc sync cord. Sync cord requires a hot sho adapter for my camera. Not sure about your camera but I cannot trigger these with built in flash because of the preflash. Can us an older flash set to manual and the camera will only flash it once. Preflash is faster than you can see so it seems like one flash but when you look at the photo it will look like the the strobes didn't fire. (they fired too early).

hope this info is helpful in some way. You can check out the threads I have started to see examples of what these lights do.

[NewbieXT]

Oh one other thing, as far as I know when they say the flash tube is not user replaceable I think it is because they are soldered in instead of plugged in. Modeling lamps should be replaceable.

[Titus213]

Will this light stand work with the AB800?

I...

They both seem to indicate the same head - 5/8 in (1.6 cm) stud with 1/4-20 in threaded tip. It appears to hold just a bit less weight than the standard stand that comes with the Beginner Bee set...

[cgratti]

They both seem to indicate the same head - 5/8 in (1.6 cm) stud with 1/4-20 in threaded tip. It appears to hold just a bit less weight than the standard stand that comes with the Beginner Bee set...

Then I think I will go with the AB B800 and use the stand I have with it. That saves me a few bucks, which is cool...

[SkipD]

That stand should work fine. All you'd need is the flash unit and an umbrella to get started. Some home-made reflectors will round out the starting setup for you.

You'd hook up the first AB strobe to the camera with the 15-foot cable that comes with the strobe. Any additional ones can fire using their built-in optical slave sensors. The only problem with that is when you are working in a location where others are using flash they will trigger your slaved flashes. In a home or your own studio that shouldn't be a problem.

[cgratti]

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to help me out. Much appreciated.

[cgratti]

Pulled the trigger on the AB800 flash head, bought it for $290 shipped and paypaled from another member on the FM forums. It included a 60" translucent umbrella, and 48" silver umbrella.

Can't wait to get this puppy

[NewbieXT]

congrats.