If you started over

Hey Jannie, if you're going to consider lugging around a Vagabond or similar, you might as well get the full-size Ranger and be done with it! That way you have access to 1100Ws of power, and the kit is built to take just about anything you can throw at it. The best part is that the heads are a LOT lighter than the BX monoblocs, and even the pack are a little lighter than the Vagabond, et al. You will be able to use all your Elinchrom modifiers, etc, without an restrictions or limitations, too. FWIW, the RX Speed pack is 17.6 pounds, but for your situation you'd be better-off with the smaller RX pack at only 14 pounds.

P.S. I still vote for the Quadra.

Okay, okay I'm getting brain dead with overload, thank you all. I relaxed by doing more shooting with the 46" Softlighter II this evening, nothing solved or resolved other than I want to work with it more. Yes I'm getting bigger and heavier in these ideas and the real truth is I won't haul it around, I know that'll happen so I guess for now I'll just re-read this a few times and think about it. Thank you all.

I'd actually go and checkout all the options mentioned in person somewhere before making a decision.

Yeah I think seeing them in person and renting them if I can would clear up a lot. I've been writing down a lot of combinations after reading reviews on just about everything all of you suggested and it keeps coming back to how much gear, how much power, and what modifiers wi work with that gear.

What looks the best to me at the moment and this is in a fictional way because we aren't sure if it's real and I haven't seen it or used it is:
2 Quadra's
The indirect 60" Elinchrom octobox
I 580EXII
2 Westcott double collapse umbrellas.
There are variations I can list but this is the basic kit I'm fantasizing about at the moment and that depends on whether that new indirect octobox is real and when will we see it.

After watching every video I could find of Anne L using the Softlighter II, and liking what I'm seeing, I've not given up on that a a main key either, it all is about knowing your tools intimately.

I happen to love Elinchrom Octoboxes, I currently have three and will probably get the new 70cm one for my tabletop kit anyway, I've been considering the 28" softbox bu this will replace it. Also mu considering the Quadra's is based upon seeing them physically and if the do actually offer up around two stops more light than the 580EXII.

Two stops sounds about right, if not slightly more. The 580 EX II is about 60 Ws, the Quadra is 400 Ws max.

Went to local pro shop and looked at lighting gear today:

• Quadra is almost shocking it's so small and light, especially the powerpack - Wow!
• Lifted a AcuteR 2400W powerpack and I wouldn't call it heavy at all so the 1200W (which I didn't see but the photos show it to be substantially smaller) should be easy to haul around as well.
•? Question, with the AcuteR 1200W, it can power two lights, is it possible to get one of the heads all alone up to full 1200W? if you don't use a second head?

•I'd planned to buy a 60" Softlighter II but didn't see that size, just smaller so looking around I ended up with a 60" white Photoflex (not expensive but nicely and iterestingly made with nylon ribbing) convertible umbrella that you can use reflected with a black backing or shoot through.

I spent the whole afternoon shooting self portraits, comparing umbrellas and ended up loving it as a shoot through the most but expect to use it both ways. I did a lot of shooting with the 580EXII and ended up with a Stophen on it as well and then the final tests were done with an Elinchrom BX400 shooting through and both worked very well, the BX of course has a modeling light and more power but power as close as I work the light isn't really an issue indoors at least.

I'm a happy camper with the umbrella, the look it gives, I may still get a 60" Softlighter II as the one I have that's 46" with it's diffuser is very nice to skin but the contrast bleed off of course is more abrupt.

I played around a lot today with color temperature and finally found with both my speedlight/stofen/ 60"umbrella and my BX400/60" umbrella that shooting at 5500 degrees Kelvin in the camera gives me the closest results using the greycard I currently have and I found going from there in LR3 quick and easy.

There was a noticable difference in color temp using different umbrellas but I'm okay if I switch to the Westcotts, they worked well at 5500K also.

I brought back a bunch of literature on the Profoto lights, in the process forgot all about looking at the Elinchrom Ranger setups - oh well at least I made good progress today with getting a better look and feeling more confident at being able to do it without having to haul around my giant octobox all the time.

• ? Which grey card product do you use for your white balance, mine came from FlashZebra and it was very inexpensive and to be honest I'm not sure about the color. I'm close but sometimes it doesn't act like it's completely neutral.

Rudi wrote in post #10527900
Two stops sounds about right, if not slightly more. The 580 EX II is about 60 Ws, the Quadra is 400 Ws max.

Yup - we had a Quadra at half power in a Westcott 28" Apollo, and replaced it with three 550EX at full power, and the Quadra was slightly more powerful.

I'm voting Quadra as well - killer device.

The Acute 1200's WS can be put out over one lamp or spread amongst all heads. No different than 400WS Quadra shooting with one head.

Jannie wrote in post #10518585
If you were starting over with your location lighting kit, just for portrait/head to no longer than waist length shots and you could get absolutely anything to light with, knowing there was just going to be you, never an assistant what would you get.

Assume the camera would be a 1DsMKIII and the lenses a 24-70, 85L and 70-200LII and you'd plan to shoot everything on location.


I'd want to be compact and portable so I'll just say right off to limit it to 2 or 3 lights plus at least one 580EXII or newer or even one battery powered strobe and a Speedlight.

What lights, I wouldn't plan to need anything more than 600W with the way I shoot and the limited amount of sun around here.

Pretend you need to keep it compact so you could travel with it as well but that you had an employer who told you to just go place the order.

I'm just trying to break my level of thinking and come up with the best kit and worry about if I can afford it later, or sell everything to buy it if it really makes sense.

I've got a few ideas but this idea of starting from scratch, radio triggers and everything cause I'm old enough that if I did this, it is unlikely that I'll be doing this more than 5 years more so I don't really have to worry about what's going to go out of date if I can do stunning lighting on portraits, mainly head shots. The other stuff I was doing aside from table top at my home, was wearing on me and too much to carry so keep it simple but the bottom line is for first of all, being able to provide a really beautiful key with more than one approach, i.e. BD and Large Octa or anything like that.

In a perfect world what would you write on the order?

And don't worry about what the other people are going to say or suggest, let it be your dream kit for this type of thing.

Two Lights/Location/Money'​s No Object

Speedotron Digital Explorer 1500 (x2)
Speedotron 104 2-Cable (x2)
Lowel Grand Stand (x2)
Lowel Full Pole (x2)
Manfrotto 123 (x2)
Small Convertible Umbrella (x2)
Large Translucent PLM with Black/Silver Cover (x2)
CyberSync CST & CSRBs
Franzus LadderKart
Cases for Transportation & Weight Management
Sand Bags

Jannie wrote in post #10531026
Went to local pro shop and looked at lighting gear today:

• Quadra is almost shocking it's so small and light, especially the powerpack - Wow!
• Lifted a AcuteR 2400W powerpack and I wouldn't call it heavy at all so the 1200W (which I didn't see but the photos show it to be substantially smaller) should be easy to haul around as well.
•? Question, with the AcuteR 1200W, it can power two lights, is it possible to get one of the heads all alone up to full 1200W? if you don't use a second head?

•I'd planned to buy a 60" Softlighter II but didn't see that size, just smaller so looking around I ended up with a 60" white Photoflex (not expensive but nicely and iterestingly made with nylon ribbing) convertible umbrella that you can use reflected with a black backing or shoot through.

I spent the whole afternoon shooting self portraits, comparing umbrellas and ended up loving it as a shoot through the most but expect to use it both ways. I did a lot of shooting with the 580EXII and ended up with a Stophen on it as well and then the final tests were done with an Elinchrom BX400 shooting through and both worked very well, the BX of course has a modeling light and more power but power as close as I work the light isn't really an issue indoors at least.

I'm a happy camper with the umbrella, the look it gives, I may still get a 60" Softlighter II as the one I have that's 46" with it's diffuser is very nice to skin but the contrast bleed off of course is more abrupt.

I played around a lot today with color temperature and finally found with both my speedlight/stofen/ 60"umbrella and my BX400/60" umbrella that shooting at 5500 degrees Kelvin in the camera gives me the closest results using the greycard I currently have and I found going from there in LR3 quick and easy.

There was a noticable difference in color temp using different umbrellas but I'm okay if I switch to the Westcotts, they worked well at 5500K also.

I brought back a bunch of literature on the Profoto lights, in the process forgot all about looking at the Elinchrom Ranger setups - oh well at least I made good progress today with getting a better look and feeling more confident at being able to do it without having to haul around my giant octobox all the time.

• ? Which grey card product do you use for your white balance, mine came from FlashZebra and it was very inexpensive and to be honest I'm not sure about the color. I'm close but sometimes it doesn't act like it's completely neutral.

Two Profoto 1200w/s packs and 5 heads would be an amazing setup for me, except for the price. Two packs will ultimately give you a better ability to adjust separate lights.

I currently have speedotron black lines that I use for on location work, but my kit is heavy. I think my pelican case probably weight 100lbs or more with everything in it.

I traveled light: Simple "every-day-emergency" location lighting