Lighting By Sigma & Sunpak-example

[AginKajun]

Here's my first "paying job" using my Sigma 500 (Main) and Sunpak 383 (Fill). I hope my client likes them. Thought I'd share what these amazing little strobes will do. You just have to wait a few seconds between shots about 4 or 5 for them to recharge.

[Nigel Wallace]

Nice shots, they look happy and natural

Would you mind sharing how you positioned the lights /strobes on this

thanks

Nigel

[AginKajun]

Nice shots, they look happy and natural

Would you mind sharing how you positioned the lights /strobes on this

thanks

Nigel

Main light was to camera right about 45 deg and 30 deg up. about 6 ft from girls. Fill light was right behind camera about 2 ft higher than the girls just a little lower than the main light and about 8ft away.

Both strobes were bounced into 2 white 4ft square umbrellas.
I've been putting Lumiquest large softboxes on the strobes and to me it seems to soften the light more.

[Tony-S]

Those are very nice. What were the flash ratios?

[AginKajun]

Those are very nice. What were the flash ratios?

Tony, I'm not sure exactly. I think somewhere arount 2:1. I've set this up so many times at my home at these distances that I've become comfortable with the results. Both flashes were set to full power and they are pretty close to the same output.

[a521]

The pictures look great, I'm sure they are happy with them! How did you fire the flashes?

[AginKajun]

The pictures look great, I'm sure they are happy with them! How did you fire the flashes?

E Bay magic triggers (shame,shame):oops: :oops:

[FlashZebra]

Here's my first "paying job" using my Sigma 500 (Main) and Sunpak 383 (Fill). I hope my client likes them. Thought I'd share what these amazing little strobes will do. You just have to wait a few seconds between shots about 4 or 5 for them to recharge.
Nice images.

This forum gets repeated questions about what gear is needed to accomplish the setup you use (or a setup very like the one you use).

Could you post an exact list of the gear you use for the many that are trying to accomplish someting very like this?

Enjoy! Lon

[AginKajun]

Nice images.

This forum gets repeated questions about what gear is needed to accomplish the setup you use (or a setup very like the one you use).

Could you post an exact list of the gear you use for the many that are trying to accomplish someting very like this?

Enjoy! Lon

I'm flattered:oops: :oops: being so new at this. I'd be happy to.
I have 2 Reflectosol 4 ft square umbrellas that I use and bounce into the white side.
I used one Sigma 500DG super with a large lumiquest softbox attached shooting into one umbrella as main light and one of "King Curtis" Sunpak 383's with a Wescott softbox attached bounced into the other umbrella as fill. Both flashes were on manual at 100%

I used my 30 D with the nifty fifty set on 200 f/4 and magic triggers to set the strobes off. (You could use a pc cord and an optical slave on the other unit and accomplish the same thing but I pulled my stand over one time paracticing at my home once and didn't like the sound everything made hitting the floor.)

After this session the only thing I might have done is try to up my ISO to 400 to get a little more depth of field because I lost a couple of shots when the girls weren't exactly the same distance from me.

I can see AB's in my future though. This is minimum light you can get away with.

[Curtis N]

Very nice image. Here's my 2 cents worth:
1) With two equally matched lights, positioning the fill light 1.4 times the distance from subject as the main will produce a 2:1 ratio between them. So if you have your main at 6 ft. and fill at 8.4 ft. (which is more or less what you described) this should give you a good starting point. Small changes in the distance of one or the other will enable you to tweak this ratio to your liking.
2) You could use the built-in optical slave on the Sigma rather than a second radio receiver, simplifying the setup slightly.
3) I like the idea of combining the Lumiquest or Wescott softbox with the umbrella. I'll have to try that sometime.

[AginKajun]

Very nice image. Here's my 2 cents worth:
1) With two equally matched lights, positioning the fill light 1.4 times the distance from subject as the main will produce a 2:1 ratio between them. So if you have your main at 6 ft. and fill at 8.4 ft. (which is more or less what you described) this should give you a good starting point. Small changes in the distance of one or the other will enable you to tweak this ratio to your liking.
2) You could use the built-in optical slave on the Sigma rather than a second radio receiver, simplifying the setup slightly.
3) I like the idea of combining the Lumiquest or Wescott softbox with the umbrella. I'll have to try that sometime.

Thanks Curtis

I've spent hours experimenting with this set up and liked what it has done on my daughter and my wife. I did my homework and others suggested 2:1 with children. I usually put the Sunpak on 1/2 power and it gives nice 3:1 for some things.

Since I just got my flash meter I use the radio receivers so I can set my Sigma off by itself for metering purposes. I was so nervous on this shoot I don't remember the ratios. I just remembered the final readout. I've used the optical slave on the Sigma before and it does work also.

I have another Sunpak but I've had so much success with this set up I hate to fix something that's not broke.

I experimented bouncing the light into the umbrellas with and without the softboxes and you loose some light with the softboxes but I think it's softer. I'm no lighting engineer but I think the more times you bounce that light around the softer it becomes.

[Headcase650]

With that 3rd flash you could use it as a hair light or add a gell to it and point it at the background allowing you endless combonations. you can get the gells for free if you request a sample pack from roscos website, they will mail them to you. Oh and all the portraits on my site are done with a simmilar setup.

[AginKajun]

With that 3rd flash you could use it as a hair light or add a gell to it and point it at the background allowing you endless combonations. you can get the gells for free if you request a sample pack from roscos website, they will mail them to you. Oh and all the portraits on my site are done with a simmilar setup.

Thanks, I've played around a little with hairlights and backlights but I'm wasn't comfortable enough yet to try them in this case.
Best if I use them on my Maniquin first until I'm more sure of what I'm doing.

[scott searles]

Any reason that you couldn't use the Sunpak Auto 433 instead of the "King Curtis" Sunpak 383's? I think that it was bought for a Nikon, but a neighbor is looking to unload on me for cheap, and I figured if I wa s just going to use it for this type of set-up that it would be fine? Any thoughts would be appreciated

[Headcase650]

Scott, as long as the flash has manual settings and can be tripped by a pc cord or optical slave then you should be able to come up with something as long as it has enough power. If it doesnt have manual settings but has a sensor you can still use it but control is limited

[Headcase650]

For anyone looking for the free rosco gells.

http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/swatchBookRequest.asp?type=roscolux

[keener]

Nice shot. I have a similar setup to yours, Sigma 500DG Super and a sunpak 433AF (for nikon). I also trigger them with the eBay triggers. However, what I've noticed is they don't play nice together. If I trigger the sigma alone it works fine, 99% success rate. If I pair it up with a second receiver attached to the sunpak (or any other flash for that matter), my reliability drops significantly. What happens is out of 20 shots, 2 or 3 fail on the sigma. I set the sigma on slave mode "C1". With the sunpak as the master It is kind of pointless putting it on slave mode "C0" with the remote triggers because the optical trigger in mode "C0" will kick in before the radio trigger does. Have you noticed this at all? What slave mode do you have your sigma on ?

[Familiaphoto]

For anyone looking for the free rosco gells.

http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/swatchBookRequest.asp?type=roscolux

Thanks, just ordered my samples.