Advice needed...Light setup

Okay guys, please give me your advice. I am wanting to put together a portable light kit to be used for portraits. I am leaning towards Canon products like speedlights and putting them on stands. I already have a 580EXII. I really have no clue what I need to get a kit started. Im thinking about possibly buying 2 more speedlites and also do I need a transmitter? What speedlites do you recommend? And will the transmitter operated muliple speedlites at one time? Thanks for you advice.

Well my friend you have couple of option... You can either go with the couple more 580EX's and PW's for the most portable setup. But you also have to think about the price, if price is not your weak point then by all means go for some high end portable lighting kits like Profoto. Transmitter wise you also have a few options, from IR to Radio. IR being ST-E2 which I own myself and radio being PW which I also own. Each has its own benefits, with the ST-E2 you can get your TTL to work and with PW you cant. With ST-E2 your working with line of sight and with PW..well you wont have that problem. It really comes down to what you NEED the products to do... For now I am using the AB1600 on a light stand with wheels and VB II and it works great..... I hope this helped you out a little bit I know I jump around to muchhhhh.....


Fabian

BKG, sounds like you've got a bee in your bonnet about lighting but don't know what to do to get it out

To kick off i'd start with some basics, http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com/2006/03/lightin​g-101.html and follow on from there. The strobist 101 will give you a good grounding in how to get your flash off camera and what you can do with it once its there.

Now, that will teach you how to use manual flash, which is what a lot of us use most of the time because its reliable and consistant and at least for the next few years the way that studio strobes work.

Moving on from that we have ettl2. It sings, it dances, it throws a fit if you didn't remove the yellow m&ms

BUT, since you'll know how flash lighting works you will be in a better position to understand how to make the most of the clever bits of ettl and avoid its diva moments. My favorite guide on this is put together by FM forum regular Chuck Gardner at http://super.nova.org/​DPR/ and then you will understand that its not crazy, its just trying to be too clever!

Oh, and finaly, hang around on this forum, i havn't been here long but its possibly the most useful lighting forum around.

I'll give you a quick rundown;
- Mobile portraits can be cheaply and effectively done with cheap, old hotshoe flashes setup remotely and controlled manually. You take test shots or use a flash meter to sort out the settings. You can trigger the off camera flashes with a wired cable, an optical flash sensor or a variety of radio systems from $30 to $300
- Studio strobes can be run off battery packs. Alien Bees with the Vagabond or Elinchrom with the Ranger approach this in 2 different ways. These systems will offer a lot more power, consistancy and access to some awesome modifiers.
- Canons ETTL system offers speed and flexibility in fast and dynamic situations. Where you dont have time to meter the light or your subject is moving around the scene the system will compensate, they also have a built in IR based wireless which is fine indoors with line of sight but kind of fail outside, you can get radio triggers which will carry the ttl data. This can be expensive and you are well into studio lighting kind of money.

Now I went down the canon path without knowing enough, you can make your own decision. This is what I learned:

Do you use/need ETTL? If so, than yes, go with Canon. Going to use the IR or a STE2 or something, than canon is pretty much your only choice.

If you're a more of a "manual" control, you can go with almost any flash that you can either take a pc port or fit onto a hotshoe that has a port. Vivitars for example make a cheap, fast, powerful flash that is more than good enough to use for portability.

Hey.............Thanks to you all soooo much for the advice. You have given me lots to think about. I really appreciate it. I'll keep in touch with my decision.

Actually most of my portraits will be either indoors or if outdoors for now will be done in a tent canopy. I noticed a ST-E2 transmitter on this forum for sale and was wondering if that would work for me. I am in the position to buy another 580EXII or maybe even (2) 430EX's which would give me a total of 3 flashes. I dont know anything about the wireless transmitters, would this transmitter operate multiple flash units? Please advise and forgive my ignorance.

Was doing some shopping and was thinking about these Alien Bees products: (2) CSRB+ CyberSync Battery Powered Trigger Receiver - Plus, and (1) CST CyberSync Trigger Transmitter. Then find some cheaper flash units, I could always add more in the future. What do you think?

ST-E2 and in fact all IR type systems will not be 100% in sunlight. If that is your main subject locations than you should look into Pocketwizards, Radiopoppers or other radio based units. Just as a FYI - The ST-E2 is almost the same thing as 580EX II's master control portion (not really, but it accomplishes the same task). If you have a 580EX II you probably don't need the ST-E2, unless you don't want to have a on-board flash (which you can relocate with a long enough cord)

I don't have any experience what-so-ever with cybersyncs but they sound like they should do the job.

aram535 wrote in post #7712758
Now I went down the canon path without knowing enough, you can make your own decision. This is what I learned:

Do you use/need ETTL? If so, than yes, go with Canon. Going to use the IR or a STE2 or something, than canon is pretty much your only choice.

If you're a more of a "manual" control, you can go with almost any flash that you can either take a pc port or fit onto a hotshoe that has a port. Vivitars for example make a cheap, fast, powerful flash that is more than good enough to use for portability.

I am going with the radio transmitter and receivers and was wondering which Vivitar flashes units you would suggest? Also maybe some of the cheaper Canon flashes?

I have used the Vivitar 285HV, $90 at B&H & amazon. Not even worth buying it used since its less than $100. The cheapest canon flash you'll want to use is the 420EX used.

You'll need either to mod the flash you would need to buy a hotshoe adapter.

aram535 wrote in post #7727001
I have used the Vivitar 285HV, $90 at B&H & amazon. Not even worth buying it used since its less than $100. The cheapest canon flash you'll want to use is the 420EX used.

You'll need either to mod the flash you would need to buy a hotshoe adapter.

Oh yeah, the Canon flash comes with a "flash stand" and the Vivitar doesnt. Is that correct?
I will also need to find some decent tripods to hold the flashes. Something that would also handle a softbox or umbrella.
Thanks for all of your help so far.

"Flash stand" is a piece of plastic nothing more (pretty useless unless you do tabletop photography or there is a ledge exactly where you need it everywhere you go).

You mean lighstands and not tripods right? Although I guess a lighstand is technically a tripod. MPE has a nice 7.5' one for $27. You also need a umbrella head for each flash.