Speedlites vs strobes

Well, it's Thanksgiving and everybody in the house went off to have turkey dinner at somebody else's home so I'm left here all alone by myself. And on top of that, I'm on-call for work so I need to be by the phone and my computer.

So, having nothing better to do, I decided to play with my new Alienbees strobes that just arrived last Monday. After playing with the strobes for a while, a thought came to my mind. I was wondering how the Speedlites would fair against the strobes in a small studio environment. I then decided I'd have a look-see and find out for myself.

Both shots were done using the same basic lighting setup, using a reflector umbrella (for the fill) and a shoot-thru umbrella (for the main).

With the strobes, the output was adjusted using a Sekonic hand meter until the aperture I got was what I wanted. The main strobe, a B800, was set for an aperture of f/8. The fill strobe, a B400, was set for an aperture of f/4. This gave me a ratio of 1:4.

With the Speedlites, in ETTL mode, a 550EX was used as the main (A) flash. And a 420EX was used as the fill (B) flash. The two flashes were controlled by a 580EX set not to fire and the A:B ratio was set to 1:4, just like the strobes.

In both cases, the camera was set to manual and shot at 1/200 and f/8. Based on the histogram, the Speedlites were underexposing compared to the strobes so I added +1 FEC when shooting the Speedlites to get about the same exposure level as the strobes.

Although the camera WB was set to Flash, the color balance of the pictures came out different from each other. So I adjusted the WB of both images, using part of the shirt in the picture as a white reference. A little bit of USM was also applied.

Attached are the results. Can you tell which is which?
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And here are the 100% crops of the picture above:
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I can see a tiny bit more contrast in the left image, but I can't tell which is which. If I had to guess i'd take a punt that the strobes are on the left, but it's very hard to tell.

Any comment on easy of setup, ease of use, recharge times, or anything else? And do you know offhand which setup cost more?

Yup, you got it right, Tim. Strobes were used on the one on the left.

Comments? Hmm, let's see...

Ease of setup: Definitely the Speedlites. No metering to perform; no wires to connect to the pocketwizards and the strobes; no Rceivers to setup and turn on.

However, with the Speedlites and ETTL, I had to check the histogram and adjust the exposure for the first couple of shots to make sure the exposure was right. With the strobes and a flash meter, the exposure was spot each time, as were the setting of the ratios.

With ETTL, ratios will usually come out the way you set them but that's not always the case, depending on how the lights are positions. This is because the ratio is determined by the camera using the light reflected back to the camera and, as we all know, interpretting the intensity of reflected light is always prone to errors.

Recharge time: The strobes definitely recharged much faster than the Speedlites did. A second or less vs. a couple of seconds.

Cost: Hard to say which is the winner when it comes to cost. I needed three Speedlites (worth about $890.00) to do the work of two Alienbees strobes (worth $505.00). But with just the strobes alone, it would have been a little more tedious and time consuming to set up the lighting, using the histogram and a tape measure. So, if you add in the cost of a light meter, then they might run neck to neck, cost-wise. But, of course, I had to splurge and get a set of PocketWizard transmitters and receivers so that really inflated my cost for the strobes.

As far as portability is concerned, the Speedlites would win hands down. But light output wise, the strobes have the upper hand and that's a big advantage when shooting outdoors during the day.

The primary purpose of my test really was to show that the Speedlites, although not as powerful as the strobes, can do just as good a job in a studio environment as the strobes can, as long as one is aware of their limitations and work within those constraints.

A very useful and interesting test, thanks!

Who's the man?!

What I'm wondering is:

1) - Can you do full body shots of people/models with the two 580 flashes and the two umbrella's?

2) - Are the 800 AB capable of doeing full body shots, or do one need more power, e.g. the 1600 AB?

3) - What is the least lightsetup I need to do full body shots of people/models in a studio?

Thanks.

I probably can. Pacace can. Scott and Bob can. Can you?

AB800 have enough light for anything you can possibly imagine, and probably a little more. If the messiah comes and all I have is an AB800, i'll be satisfied.

I've taken glamour photos lit by 2 candles. That's the least I can imagine, there really wan't enough light. Anything more and you're doing well.

Well...I really want to know a little more about the model who posed for the test shots

Posting just to show that, yes, speedlites even work well in an outdoor setting (not just a small studio).

The shot below was taken at sunset. I used 3 speedlights. An on-camera 550EX as the master, and also used to throw a little fill light onto the scene. Two 420EX's were used as well. One off to my left shooting thru a white umbrella, and another bare 420EX on the right, but positioned behind the model.

Lighting was extremely easy... the hardest part was positioning the speedlites. The camera+550 calculated the flash output. I had dialed in a 1:4 ratio so that the on-camera flash didn't light the scene and that (and positioning the lights) was about the extent of how much I had to think about the lighting.

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Well, Tim just about answered all your questions for you but here's another version of the answers:

1) Yes you can. However, you do use pretty much most of the charge so if you plan to do a lot of shots, have plenty of spare batteries handy or use one of those powerpacks.

2) Yes and then some. Even the B400 wouldn't have any trouble at all.

3) The number of lights you need depends on the effect you want. You can do a pretty decent job with just one light and a good reflector or two.

Thank you Tim and PacAce. I'm in the middle of investigating studiolights so in a few months I hope to buy me a little set
I'm by all means no pro, just an amateur who would like to learn more about studio ligting and technique.

Thanks again.

I think two AB800s might be a little weak for photographing museum aircraft. But for one or two people, I'll agree.