Flash vs Monolights Pros/Cons

[Todd Jacobsen]

I have been very interested in getting the Pro's Cons of using a Flash oriented lighting setup vs Monolight/studio lighting kits.

For the most part, it seems that a flashes will work good with reflectors, umbrellas and are more portable/useable in confined spaces than studio kits. In addition flash lighting setups would provide for more outdoor use than primarily AC dedicated monolights.

Any inputs would be great.

[Todd Jacobsen]

Buehler...Buehler...

[DaveG]

I have been very interested in getting the Pro's Cons of using a Flash oriented lighting setup vs Monolight/studio lighting kits.

For the most part, it seems that a flashes will work good with reflectors, umbrellas and are more portable/useable in confined spaces than studio kits. In addition flash lighting setups would provide for more outdoor use than primarily AC dedicated monolights.

Any inputs would be great.

Beuhler here,

The Canon flashes - the 550/580 and the 420's work great with the wireless ttl system. The best way to use this - in my opinion - is for feature type photography. Imagine I'm shooting you for a magazine and I want to use your working enviroment as well. I'll use the 550 as the Master and in a bracket. It will be the fill light. I'll put a 420 on a light stand and I may use it as the Main light. I can take a second 420 and use it as a background light or a hairlight, or whatever. I'll flag the 420's so flare is less of an issue and will start to shoot. But my goal is to get one great shot. I mention this because there will be slight (and sometimes more than slight) variation in the exposures.

Now if I'm shooting 50 H&S shots that will go on a car dealership's wall, it's a situation where I need, really need, exposure consistency. That's when I'll turn to my monolights. The Canon flashes along with the camera's "computer" offer an opinion as to the exposure before every shot. If I use a grey background for the H&S shots, the density of the background will change from shot to shot, and that could lead to hours of work in Photoshop cleaning it up.

Monolights are brain dead and as long as I let the flashes recycle they should be very consistent. They require AC power (mostly) so you'll need access to a plug-in. But then you can go all day without worrying about batteries.

You can buy a few 550's (you can't with 420's) and use them with Wireless Manual in order to get that consistency, but that is going to be a lot more expensive than buying monolights like Alien Bees or somesuch. Of course you will need to buy a flash meter to set up the lighting ratios with the monolights.

After all of that my opinion is that Canon flashes and monolights are two different tools for two different jobs. You can force one to do the other, and I have; but the workflow and results will be better if you use the right tool for the job.

[Todd Jacobsen]

After all of that my opinion is that Canon flashes and monolights are two different tools for two different jobs. You can force one to do the other, and I have; but the workflow and results will be better if you use the right tool for the job.

Thanks Dave!

I don't have a "fixed" studio yet and once this is accomplished, a fixed monolight setup (ceiling mount) would be purchased. I currently do not have a client load requiring me to lug around a studio setting....

[Headcase650]

If you want to go even cheaper than wireless ettl or monolights you could use a 550 in manual on camera and use some vivitars as optical slaves. I have 2 vivitar 283's, One is main light into an umbrella and one is a background light. I trip them with the 550 in manual as a fill light. If I wait the full 5 seconds for the flashes to cycle I get very consistant results but you must have a handheld flash meter or experiment with the histogram to get your proper apiture.

This is enough power for a smallish studio. Mine is 12' wide and 18' long. MY lighting set up fits into a small bag. I use 2500mAh rechable energizers.

Adrian