When would you need a 1000w/s light?

I have an 1100w/s Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS.

Honestly, I can't figure out why, or when someone would ever really need an 1000w/s+ light. Could someone... heh heh... shed some instances when one would be appropriate?

It would be handy for many uses, such as overpowering the sun, shooting with large format at f/64 or shooting groups with large modifiers where lots of DOF is required.

Wouldn't a 500W/S light (e.g. Profoto B1) be very well capable of overpowering the sun?

I guess the most I'll be using the light for is at most group portraiture on sunny days with a 69" Elinchrom modifier, f/16 as probably the maximum aperture I'd use.

A B1 can overpower the sun under certain conditions, it depends on the sync speed and weather. It's true that many people wouldn't need that much power but sometimes it's nice to have the flexibility, especially if it's work for a paying client.

I need 1000Ws to provide ambient fill for my studio of 240 sq.ft. using bare bulb. Key requires only a bit more, like 18Ws. Aperture in this case is f/5.6, or so. Wide view of a model shoot:

I use my Eli Ranger RX AS Speed outdoors HS and get 1/8000 1.4-2.8. Full power is very useful. Love it. If you have a large modifier, that can eat up a few w/s too. Faster Recycle time at lower power settings is also a benefit.

To your 500 w/s comment.. Your Eli will do that already. Plus more as needed.

Perhaps it is good to have and not need than need and not have...

The weight of the pack though. I've had it shortly, but I've been considering ditching it and going with the B1.

And you will have opportunity to use bigger modifiers for softer light (if needed). You dont always need it or use it, but if you do, lower ws strobe can not do that

Better to have power you don't need than to need power you don't have.

quadwing wrote in post #18187637
The weight of the pack though. I've had it shortly, but I've been considering ditching it and going with the B1.

You can drop the weight by 5 pounds and add 50% more flashes.

Here:

https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1344​816&page=1

Don't remember the size packs we used to use, but we would cut all ambient, open the shutter and pop the flashes three times ... 4x5 transparencies. Only way to get the DOF we needed to shoot a corner of a room filled with furniture.

quadwing wrote in post #18187592
Wouldn't a 500W/S light (e.g. Profoto B1) be very well capable of overpowering the sun?

I guess the most I'll be using the light for is at most group portraiture on sunny days with a 69" Elinchrom modifier, f/16 as probably the maximum aperture I'd use.

Depends on how close the light is to your subject and how bright the ambient light is. If you were trying to light a large group of people with the light in a modifier, set back about 30 feet, then the answer might be "no". I used two 1500 w lights when lighting a large group (about 75 people) a few years ago.

It all depends on what you're doing. I shoot with a view camera at very low ISO's, and seldom use any ambient light. Sometimes when lighting large sets, it just takes a lot of light to do it.
I've forgotten how many heads I have...maybe 20. It's unusual that I'd use all of this at the same time, but in the last year I've probably fired up most if not all of this for one shot on 2 occasions.

My Einstein can't over power sun when I need it. This is with double diffused softbox and I Einstein is 640ws. I tried with Kacey dish and just matches sun in the afternoon. Better to have more power but lot better to have strobes which go much lower in power and also let you do HSS. Some day cameras will let you shoot past the slow max sync speeds of 1/200, then it won't matter much.

I don't ever ever ever use HSS. I always just use ND filters; that's why I was considering the B1; I can use the ND filters to kill the sun, and then use the B1 to light. I don't know, I just hike a lot with my lights and would prefer not to carry a 15 pound battery pack; even with the battery light, it's still heavy. >.<