Help with setup?

So. I will be spending about $1,500 USD on lighting gear. My main use of the gear is going to be for basketball and wrestling (high school and college). I have time until these sports start up again but I need to buy it now because I will be away at school next year and may not get the chance to purchase the gear again. I will take some portraits as well but right now that is not my main concern. So here is what I will be getting.

2x AB 1600's...(I am thinking about going with the 800's because of the flash duration but at the same time I want sufficient power.. Which do you think will be best for sports?)

11 inch reflectors...

2x 13ft heavy duty air cushioned stands.... from B+H (impact brand)

3x Pocket wizards... (I was going to go with the skyports but I do not want to worry about upgrading later so I am going to just dish out the cash.)

Cords for PW's to AB's

1x Some kind of umbrella (I have to do some research on that)
Will this be good for now. I eventually want to get a beauty dish for portraits but I will wait. And also a Sekonic L-358. Maybe even a vagabond battery pack. I am buying these lights along with a 40D and then I won't buy anything else until after I have saved and purchased a 300mm 2.8L IS.

Is there anything else I can buy that won't be killing my wallet that I need for now?

So I guess I should take the nothing as this is good.

How do you plan to use the ABs to light basketball and wrestling? Have you read the shortsshooter.com article on how they shoot the NBA? From memory a dozen powerful radio triggered slaves, direct from overhead.

Well. Unfortunatly I won't be shooting the NBA. lol. Here are some links of shots done by other POTN members using these strobes for sports.
https://photography-on-the.net …?t=466631&highl​ight=ab800
https://photography-on-the.net …?t=453794&highl​ight=ab800
https://photography-on-the.net …?t=423581&highl​ight=ab800
https://photography-on-the.net …?t=263824&highl​ight=ab800

I'm surprised they let you put up huge strobes that aren't overhead, wouldn't they distract the players? I guess you just have to set them up and just shoot where they can light.

They are not very noticeable when bounced off the ceiling and 13ft up in the air (on 13ft stands). Or at least that is what I am told. Direct flash would definitely distract the players but the bouncing shouldn't.

I have decided to go with the AB800's if anyone cares.

The more power you have, the better, IMHO, but there's a point where it gets to be too expensive. Also since high iso performance is pretty good it might not be critical.

Have you considered something like the White Lightening 3200 units?

tim wrote in post #5570695
The more power you have, the better, IMHO, but there's a point where it gets to be too expensive. Also since high iso performance is pretty good it might not be critical.

Have you considered something like the White Lightening 3200 units?

The WL 3200's are out of my price range. Also, they have a really slow flash duration. I have some more thinking to do I guess. I was hoping to save some cash to get a vagabond later on. The AB1600's also won't get as much use from one fully charged vagabond.

A T.1 of 1/150th is pretty slow, but looking at T.5 it's not too bad. Given you have to use a shutter speed of probably 1/125th to sync with the strobes I don't think it's a huge issue.

The number of flashes from a vagabond doesn't seem to be a great reason to choose the strobe, choose the one that gives you the power you need.

Your killing me here. You think it would be bad to have one 800 and one 1600? Or should I get two of the same?

Definitely two of the same. I think 800s or 1600s would do the job. If you want to shoot professionally you'll have to change your gear, so get "good enough for now".

I definitely want to shoot professionally. I am going to be working 70 hours a weeks trying to put away enough money to get everything I need before I transfer schools in the fall so I have enough gear to produce the images I want to make. I need to start somewhere though right? I am investing in some pocket wizards instead of the skyports. I just hope I don't need to upgrade to the Multimaxes. lol. I have another week before I order the AB's so I need to decide what I am going with between the 800's or 1600's. Thanks for the help Tim.

Did you find the sports shooter article about basketball? There's another one that I think is on the microsoft.com site that says how they cover the NBA. It's quite amazing the equipment they use: many, many 1 series cameras, a bunch of strobes up really high, wireless everything, laptops, teams of editors, the works.

Making money shooting sports sounds really tough to me. The equipment you need is expensive, and the people don't much want to spend money on photos of themselves.

I did actually check out the article. It is pretty amazing how they do all of that. I am planning on selling the images to parents. I don't plan on making a lot of money anytime soon. I just want to make enough to pay for my equipment so I can keep shooting.

Let me ask you a question out of curiosity. Are the Pocket Wizard Plus II and Multimax units compatible with each other?