TridenTBoy wrote in post #18629100
Okay. I'll look into C-stands. Any suggestions on which to look at? It seems Matthews is the brand to beat. I get the appeal for a $150+ steel light stand but I am wondering if it's 100% necessary. I'll set a craigslist alert for "Matthews" in photog to see if I find any good deals but I am just wondering.
I'll always be traveling with this gear and so I'd like it to be relatively fast and easy to setup, teardown, and carry around.
You're going to want a cart with wheels to haul stuff. It's heavy. It will get real heavy when you have to lug it. Work smart, not hard with this.
When using big modifiers outside with no assistant, stability will be more important than anything because a gust will send your light to the ground. It will happen, it's not if, it's just when. This will easily destroy a modifier, and could be deadly to your light(s). So while looking at an expensive, heavy, steel c-stand is a put off, remember, it's the life line between your stuff being where it should be, and laying on the ground. A 48"~60" octa, umbrealla, etc, will catch a ton of wind and it will go to the ground, even weighted down. They're literal wind sails. Some smaller modifiers will stand up better in wind, like reflectors and beauty dishes. You can weight it down and bungee it down. Whatever it takes to keep it stable. And this is where the cart comes in, to haul around rock-filled bags and a heavy steel stand.
Now, you can get away with non-c-stand tripod/boom stands. There are heavy duty ones. They're ok upright, but the moment you go off-axis or off-center with a modifier, the moment arm is really long and the amount of weight it's actually having to support, and torque, goes up a lot (think of it like a lever). This is why steel c-stands are used often, as they're far more rigid than a heavy duty "hollow aluminum" stand. Cheetah Boom has a great light but good strength tripod boom stand. I use one with a 6lb light no problem. But I bungee-stake that thing into the ground. And when I'm on a hard surface, I weight it down (I use bottles of water instead of rocks in bags). Still though, when I use my 60" softlighter II, it's a windsail, and even if it doesn't get gusted over, it will turn on axis sometimes and move my light direction in some good wind. I just use my 10" reflector or my 28" beauty dish when conditions don't allow my bigger softer light sources.
If you change your mind about the AD600, take a look at the AD200's instead. They're so flexible, simple, lighter weight, and still do the job as fill/blend/ETTL&HSS in full sun at close range. Get the 600WS AD600 if you need to beat down sun with more distance of course. But if you're not looking to do that specifically, the AD200's are excellent alternatives that are still more powerful than speedlites and give you some lighter/smaller options for portability and weight.
I do 90% of my portrait stuff outside in the elements. I of course started with big modifiers. Over time, I far more often am using smaller modifiers at close distance instead. I rarely have help or an assistant, so I have to keep it simple and far more durable. All too often I tear things up just moving things from A to Z for a session, because it's all soft and easy to break (modifiers). These days, as much as I love my 60"+ modifiers, they're just such a chore to use outside in the gentle breezes and so fragile compared to metal modifiers; so these days I love taking my all metal 10" reflector or all metal single-piece 28" beauty dish. They can take torture, and my session's lighting isn't over if it falls or if I drop it, or if I throw it in my trunk. I can't do the same kind of lighting as I can with my 60" softlighter or my 48" octa, but again, running around outside without an assistant with the weather against you, I'd rather not constantly fear when the lighting is going to hit the ground. Thing is, you can beat the sun and do gorgeous fill light with a smaller reflector (like a 10"~16"). Fill light is softer anyways. My favorite modifier is my 10" fireball. I can beat the sun at 12 feet with that on a 600Ws, and it still produces fairly soft light if I set it as fill.
So my suggestion is keep your stand heavy duty. Weigh it down big time. Move this stuff with a cart, no bags over your shoulders. And finally, instead of going for a wind sail, consider smaller durable modifiers that are more favorable to outdoor conditions; remember you're more often doing fill light for ambient+strobefill, you don't need the big modifiers to accomplish that. While a huge 60" looks super amazing soft as fill up close, you truly need someone to hold it, to be able to do it reliably and not just gamble the "when" for when it hits the ground in a gust.
Note, the Cheetah Boom I use is not "heavy duty." But, with smaller modifiers, it's a fast, light alternative to needing heavy big stands like c-stands. I don't recommend it over a c-stand. Just as another option depending on what direction you go.
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Some examples:
The 60" Softlighter II on a Cheetah boom. This is a wind sail. But I love how soft it is. I just have it upright, close to the subject(s), it's big enough to cover a group, and I can still battle the sun with the 600Ws, especially as fill. With a big modifier, I can even be front of it and it's ok. Makes for getting close shots much easier. I have this weighted down with water bottles, but I also stayed right on it, because it would still hit the ground fast (and it tried several times). And I'm using a 35 F2 in their faces to be able to get very close to keep that modifier close and I was in front of the modifier, the light just spilled around me onto them as fill (people do this with huge 7 foot parabolics for the same reason). This is just not durable. I stopped using it outdoor unless I have mom as an assistant, because it will just be on the ground with a gust no matter what.
by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
But big and close gives you soft glow:
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/21sDZXW IMG_9310 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Here's a metal 28" beauty dish. I use this on a boom and also as a hand-held (which I just hold with a mono-stand as a fulcrum and angle it at close range). This can take a beating. I can drop it even. Granted, don't want to. But, it can take compression and dings in the trunk moving from place to place. It's not that heavy. It still is fairly large at 28" and can produce soft or hard light depending on how you use it. I like it for contrasty lighting style. And I can get close with it, and use a speedlite, and still battle the sun with ETTL & HSS at F1.2, not even needing a 600Ws:
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/GVHrtn 20180426_193656 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Results of filling up to sunset level ambient, with F1.2, ETTL & HSS from a mere speedlite in the beauty dish at close range:
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/25d8Qka DSCF8797 copy by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
And here's the 10" reflector. I like this thing. It's efficient and cheap, while still rather flexible. I can beat the sun at 12 feet with this, and my 600Ws. So I can work in nearly any light with it which is great. It has 65 degree spread, so I can get a group with it, or I can tighten it up and put a spot light on someone if I want. Or I can back it up and provide a fireball of fill, or key, in nearly any light. It handles wind no problem. I hoist this up with my 600Ws way up in the air on the Cheetah and I don't worry about wind. It just doesn't catch wind like big modifiers. But it still provides good lighting options on scene and it's so much easier to position, move, be portable, etc, while being durable.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/YBbLgj Setup_09192017 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Dropped ambient, shot at full key exposure with the light from far away for that spotlight look.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/XApgLy IMG_8437 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Have fun!
Keep it simple!
Fooling with gear on location is bad for everyone.
Very best,
. 
