Lastolite HiLite ??

Has anyone used the Lastolite HiLite Illuminated Background with speedlites?
http://http …om/hilite-backgrounds.php
I was wondering how it worked out and if the speedlites were powerfull enough?

^ i seriously doubt that speedlights would power it, unless you had 5

That thing's just a gizmo. All you need is a white wall and a couple of studio strobes to do a 3/4 length white background. It makes more sense to me to use it as a diffuser to be used as a light source.... But it seems to me that The same white wall with a couple of studio strobes hitting it would do almost the same thing. No white walls? Why not just get a muslin?

Oh and no way would it work with speedlights.

Some people use the HiLite very successfully with Speedlight's.

111t wrote in post #9851166
Oh and no way would it work with speedlights.

Have you got one? Have you tried it with speed lights? I have one, and it works great with speed lights, often with the one only, so long as you set it brighter than the key. I'm not going to quote how many stops, as this varies depending on how close your subject is to the HiLite. I use a 120cm octabox as a key and often quite far back from the subject. Sometimes, the fall-off to the background is quite a lot, so the speed lights need to be powered accordingly, enough stops to get 255 all round. Other times the octabox has spilled over to the background with pure white and near pure white, so the speed lights just needs a small increase to fill in the not-so-white" areas.

The job becomes more difficult for full-length shots, but you can get around this by either whacking up the power to at least 2 stops more than the key, or adjusting your key/aperture accordingly, and sometimes you need to move the subject further away from the back to avoid light spill coming back.

To be honest, I'd rather use my Bowens, simply because I'd rather use mains power, but speed lights do work in my opinion.

I normally use strobes in mine (I have two of them). However, I know people who use a single speedlight but get better results with two. Might also depend on the HiLite size. There are several sizes available now. In the 6'x7' HiLite, I get more uniform coverage with two strobes, one on each side...but in a pinch, I can get by with one. Same is probably true with speedlights.

If I'm not mistaken in order to produce a good high-key photo you should have your subject approx. halfway between your camera and the background, then have room behind or to the side of your subject to properly light the background.
This seems like it would take a fair amount of space.
So I'm thinking that the HiLite would be good for high-key where you have limited space such as on location in a clients home.
I also think it would be easier to bring the HiLite on location than to bring a muslin background and some way to hang it. The HiLite would give you more flexibility on your location.

Thanks sdipirro and kuchars22 for you hands on info.
If I do get a HiLite it would be with the intentions of buying some studio strobes in the future but I wanted to know if for now I could use the speedlights. Your posts were very helpfull ...Thanks

If you have any examples of high-key photos using the HiLite with speedlights and would be willing to post them I would find that helpful and greatly appreciated.

You can definitely do it with a single speedlite. The first group of shoots I did used a single Elinchrom BX500Ri for the main light and a 580EX-II for the HiLite:

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Thanks JasonW......that's exactly the look I want....it's good to know that I can do it with speedlights and move to studio strobes in the future.
In this photo are you also using the LastoLite train under the subjects? If it is ...how do you like it, is it worth buying along with the HiLite?

I figured I'd comment about the train and let JasonW chime in with his opinion. I bought the train for my 5'x7' HiLite and used it for a while. The train is not going to match the color of the background, and I tried lighting it separately with 1 or 2 strobes. Didn't seem to matter. I could never it right that way. I could fix it up in Photoshop, but as long as I was doing that, I asked if there were better and cheaper alternatives to the train. At the suggestions of some folks here, I bought a couple of 4'x8' sheets of this white wall board material (I'll have to go look up the exact name, if you're interested) for about $10 a sheet at Home Depot. It has a more reflective finish that I like, doesn't get folds and bends in it like the train, and it's easier to match with the background in Photoshop. So that's what I use now instead of the train.

Since we're on the topic of the HiLite, can someone who has one explain what it's made of? I've seen the pictures but have never seen one in person and am curious. Is the front just your basic softbox diffuser fabric, and what is the back made of?

They're certainly not cheap, and I wonder if something like that couldn't be a DIY project if you didn't need to move it around.

It's called white tile board, and in looking for the correct name, I found an older HiLite thread where JasonW not only said he used the train but showed the technique for blending the train with the background in Photoshop. It was his technique that I applied. I'm not sure if Jason is still using the train, but he seemed pretty happy with it a while back. My problems began when I folded it up to store it and could never really get the folds out. Your mileage may vary.

munzzzzzzz wrote in post #9894850
Since we're on the topic of the HiLite, can someone who has one explain what it's made of? I've seen the pictures but have never seen one in person and am curious. Is the front just your basic softbox diffuser fabric, and what is the back made of?

They're certainly not cheap, and I wonder if something like that couldn't be a DIY project if you didn't need to move it around.

Yeah, the front seems like typical diffuser fabric. You can even use the thing as a giant softbox. The back is a heavier, non-reflective black material. It's maybe a foot or so deep with zippers around all four edges so you can put flashes/strobes anywhere and use whatever orientation you like. Of course, a big advantage of the real HiLite is being able to fold it up and stick it in its carrying bag like a reflector.