Light Stands and other gear for indoor portraits.

I do some occasional portraits and I"m looking to ad on to what I currently have ( which is minimal )

I have 2 stands, an umbrella and a reflector and a black/white backdrop, 2 flashes and 3 yongnuo flash triggers.

1. Does anyone have any suggestions for good affordable light stands.
2. Mount for Speedlights, I have 1 but I can use another, any suggestions?
3. I also think I may want to add a soft box.

Again any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

Stands for speedlites are not super critical so dont worry about air cushioned high end stands. Manfrotto makes a reasonable ramge, the nano is popular. Just do a search in amazon for umbrella softboxes. There are several models of neewer around $20 or so that work great with speedlites. Also look at the round umbrellas with attached diffusion panels, big light on the cheap. M

I've used several brands of folding stands (Impact, Phottix, PBL, no-name generic) and, as gonzo indicates, they are all fine for speedlights in combination with just about any modifier setup. Where you might run into problems is using a boom or hanging backgrounds.

As for mounts, I prefer the Godox S-type bracket, which clamps the speedlight by the body instead of supporting it by the hot shoe, and provides a standard Bowens speedring mount. http://amzn.com/B00N3O​FC2Q

Godox also has some decent, collapsible softboxes in the range of $40-60 that include the S-type bracket. For example: http://amzn.com/B00W4Z​RSUY

Thanks, I like the look of the odox S-type bracket. Seems more practical but how do you attach an umbrella? is that only for a soft box?

I actually do eventually need a stand to hold a background.

Tommydigi wrote in post #17867376
I do some occasional portraits and I"m looking to ad on to what I currently have ( which is minimal )

I have 2 stands, an umbrella and a reflector and a black/white backdrop, 2 flashes and 3 yongnuo flash triggers.

1. Does anyone have any suggestions for good affordable light stands.
2. Mount for Speedlights, I have 1 but I can use another, any suggestions?
3. I also think I may want to add a soft box.

Again any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

Heya,

With speedlites and smaller modifiers, I use inexpensive 9 foot Neewer stands (two for $30 commonly deals). I like basic Godox s-bracket mounts for speedlites with bowens mounts (allowing for a speedlite to be gripped in the s-bracket, and has an umbrella shaft mount as well as a bowen's mount for two different modifier types, very practical). I like brolly boxes over just bare umbrellas and plain softboxes, because they're inbetween, light weight, still large, portable, etc. A big 47" Neewer/Godox brolly box is commonly $30.

With stands, that said, I do like to have at least one boom capable stand that is sturdy. Adorama has a very good one for $80. Otherwise, I like the Cheetah Boom for my universal do all boom for all my lights.

Very best,

Thanks, this is very helpful.

So far I have in my cart these 2. I'm not really familiar with a brolly. Looks like an umbrella/softbox combo.

I prefer the brolly-style boxes over standard umbrellas. There's less uncontrolled spill, less of a center hotspot, less rapid falloff, and more wrap. I use shoot-through umbrellas occasionally, but the brolly box is my go-to when traveling light.

I have the PBL 42" brollies. Er, make that singular. I have one remaining, the other one finally bit the dust a couple months ago after several years of hard service.

If you look in my gallery, the four shots in front of the tan brick wall, were all shot with a Speedlight in a 42" PBL brolly box, and a bare gelled speedlight as a kicker. The girl with the lunchbox was just a single light in the same softbox (after this shot, the wind blew it over and it was done, the rest from that set are with a bare speedlight on a stand).

I have 4 el-cheapo 7' light stands from Cowboy Studios, the shoot through and two reflector 33" umbrellas. I make anything else I need (snoots, block panels, etc.) out of cardboard. Works for me. White posterboard is about $1.97 at Walmart. Cheapest reflector around.

Tommydigi wrote in post #17867535
Thanks, this is very helpful.

I have literally exactly those. They hold up well.

I use brolly boxes like this: 47" Brolly ($30 shipped).

It's an umbrella with a black back, and silver reflective liner for efficiency. The light goes inside of the umbrella and it holds on an umbrella shaft, so you get a softbox on an umbrella mount, it's very clever and very simple and useful, no special brackets or mounts, etc. Light weight. It has a cover that then seals it up and makes it a softbox. No spill every where like an umbrella. More even spread, and no hot spot. Centers on the stand instead of hanging off to the side, so weight is better distributed and you can get away with lighter stands I find. Super inexpensive for what they are. Folds up, just like an umbrella, so it's super portable. I have expensive big octa softboxes and stuff, and I just don't use them anymore, I use these kinds of brollies instead, they're just as good from a lighting perspective for me, and they're just so much more simple, light and portable. I use both strobes & speedlites in them.

Example of the light they output. Here's a 31" brolly and a 47" brolly for a portrait. The 31" brolly is on a basic 9 foot Neewer stand, cheap, very effective, with a single speedlite in an s-bracket holding the modifier. It's acting as a rim light. The 47" brolly is on a boom stand so I can better angle it.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/D4FG​xJ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CgSb​Br

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Defr​14

Great info everyone. Much appreciated. I like the boom

I'v been reading through everyone's comments again this morning, I already ordered the 2 stands and the bracket.

I really like the 2 brolly setup. I'm getting the 47" brolly to use with my 600 and I may get the smaller one for my 270 ( or I'll add a larger flash later if needed but I think the 270 will do the job )

I also like the boom stand, I did some baby shots a while back and that would have been really helpful, I'm guessing the boom should be a step up in quality?

Thanks again everyone

Tommydigi wrote in post #17868203
I'v been reading through everyone's comments again this morning, I already ordered the 2 stands and the bracket.

I really like the 2 brolly setup. I'm getting the 47" brolly to use with my 600 and I may get the smaller one for my 270 ( or I'll add a larger flash later if needed but I think the 270 will do the job )

I also like the boom stand, I did some baby shots a while back and that would have been really helpful, I'm guessing the boom should be a step up in quality?

Thanks again everyone

Heya,

I have a few booms, for heavier lights and larger modifiers, I use a better boom so that stability is maintained. Last thing you want is for it all to go crashing down. I use my counter weights genersously so that it's center weighted as much as possible. I have a very cheap boom arm that attaches to any normal stand, with a counter weight and it holds brolly boxes & speedlites totally fine. But I weight it down at the base, and at the counter end of the boom arm itself. Depends how much extra work you want to have to put into it. I definitely prefer a heavier duty boom at the end of the day, I relax more...

Adorama's own boom is only $80 and is very good, will hold speedlites and smaller strobes and big modifiers no problem.

I adore Cheetah's boom. It's a hair more heavy duty. I got it because it can hold my 6lb Rovelight off-center plus a big modifier, with counter weights, outside in the wind with some bungee's and stakes. It doubles as a very good stand indoors for me when it's not doing heavy work like that.

Very best,

Tommy, I'm in a similar scenario, just got back into strobe stuff, and with the large modifiers, you probably dont want 7' stands. I paid a little more for the ravelli branded 10' stands, well made large footprint for larger modifiers, not sure I have the space a boom currently and definitely considered it. The S bracket has an umbrella holder in case someone missed your question. BTW, you can get the same S-bracket for less on amazon: http://www.amazon.com …&keywords=godox​+s+bracket. They sell the same thing at varying prices give or take a few dollars in a clickbait manner. The one I linked is $16.99, and they have others that cost up $24.

I bought 1 s-bracket al la cart, and 1 s bracket with 32x32" (80x80cm) softbox. I am aware of the brolly boxes, however, I wanted a conventional softbox as well for speedy setup, and indeed, it's very fast to setup. Not sure what my next modifier will be, either the pbl 47" brollies or 60" photek softlighter. The larger 60" makes more sense if you've got a more powerful gun, which I do plan to use, like a rovelight, however a pair of 47"s can be easier to position for family shots, just one to the left and one to the right if I'm limited in space.

If I had a larger budget, I would have got the cheetahstands along with cheetahboom. Their stands have a quick setup, a good reputation, and their boom is competitively priced.

Lastly, for strobes, I still have canon flashes, which are up for sale, however, very happy with the YN 560iii + YN 560 TX setup. Basically, I got a pair of flashes (580ex in size), and a radio controller for $155. It can control 6 groups remotely, super budget system.

Hi Charlie, thanks for the link for the S bracket. That's crazy that its the same.

I was ordering the 9 foot stands but you think the ravelli are better? worth it? I may be using these just to hold a background. I do have 2 manfrotto stands already

I don't plan to spend a lot on this, I really only do portraits on occasion.

Heya,

Taller stands are great for future proofing, and creative lighting. If your portraits are all virtually sitting down, 7 foot stands will do the job. If you can afford taller stands, I would suggest going that route if you think you will at all need the potential height due to a large modifier (think about it, a 60" modifier that mounts in the center will have 30" down the stand, making it only 4 feet off the ground in terms of where the light is as a source. With bigger modifiers you might want them higher up. If you use smaller modifiers, this is less of an issue. Also, for things like hair light or rim, etc, you might want them really high, and that's where taller stands become a requirement. If it's only a few bucks more, I'd go for the taller stands.

I have 9 foot stands for my run of the mill cheap stands, and they're just tall enough for most of the stuff I do with 31" modifiers (I use that as hair/rim). For my largest modifiers, if I'm really wanting it off the ground, I use my cheetah boom as it can raise it way up and angle and dangle and all that fun jazz.

Point being, again, if you can get the taller stands, go for it. Every bit helps later if you get creative. You can't make up the height later short of buying more stands.

Very best,