Soon to invest on studio light equipment, need some advice

I was worried using the reflector alone from the side would spill too much light, but I guess not if I understood you right.

PacAce wrote in post #11696060
No, if using the reflector for the backdrop, you usually don't want to use the barn door unless you're trying to control where on the backdrop the light goes. I use the barn doors when I'm using the light for rim or hair lighting and I want to limit what gets lit.

Leo, you mentioned using the barn doors to hold gels (previous post), but also that you usually don't use the barn doors for the backdrop, so do you commonly gel your hair/rim lights?

Dave Jr wrote in post #11712149
Leo, you mentioned using the barn doors to hold gels (previous post), but also that you usually don't use the barn doors for the backdrop, so do you commonly gel your hair/rim lights?

Not, not ordinarily but I could if I wanted to add colored rim lights for effect. But you can use the barn door assembly for holding the gel for the background without using the doors themselves to block off the light.

PacAce wrote in post #11712458
Not, not ordinarily but I could if I wanted to add colored rim lights for effect. But you can use the barn door assembly for holding the gel for the background without using the doors themselves to block off the light.

Ah, good point.

Leo, if I could ask, what are some of your go-to methods (and modifiers used) for lighting the background and hair?

Dave Jr wrote in post #11712694
Leo, if I could ask, what are some of your go-to methods (and modifiers used) for lighting the background and hair?

I keep mine very simple since most of the stuff I do in the basement studio are head and shoulder or half-body portraits. If I need to light the background for those, I just place a background stand behind the subject and mount a strobe with the standard reflector on it. For hair lighting, it's usually a gridded strobe placed at one or both sides of the subject. I also have a small (14x35) stripbox I need to rim light more than just the hair.

I have one more question. Is there other brand softboxes or modifiers compatible with the elinchrom monolights besides the official elinchrom?

DigiNon wrote in post #11716565
I have one more question. Is there other brand softboxes or modifiers compatible with the elinchrom monolights besides the official elinchrom?

You can use virtually any other brand of modifier as long as you get an elinchrom speedring.

There are a lot of lower cost modifiers available. I just purchased this Visico 59" Octa with eggcrate grid and eli speedring for $99 delivered. This seller on ebay, oeccamera, has a lot of useful elinchrom items in their store at very reasonable prices. I also bought grids for the 7" eli reflector and they work well. It was like $24 for two grids and a diffusion sock.

I've been researching strobes as well and I am VERY interested in the Elinchrom, but I am more interested in location shoots so I know some of the locations would require a battery pack. The battery pack is making it very difficult to get the monolights that I would like to have which are the Pro Style RX 600s (2) with the skyports.

I would use these in a small home studio, garage studio and location shoots (on a limited basis) so I am wondering if getting two 600s would be overkill on the power. Would it be better to get one of the B&H kits like Digital Style Combo 600RX/2400RX/A3000N Kit, Skyport (120VAC) or something smaller because I may not need that much power.


or

Dave Jr wrote in post #11716902
You can use virtually any other brand of modifier as long as you get an elinchrom speedring.

There are a lot of lower cost modifiers available. I just purchased this Visico 59" Octa with eggcrate grid and eli speedring for $99 delivered. This seller on ebay, oeccamera, has a lot of useful elinchrom items in their store at very reasonable prices. I also bought grids for the 7" eli reflector and they work well. It was like $24 for two grids and a diffusion sock.

Let me know how the quality is on that one. The thing I am scared of when purchasing something like that is it's build quality. Will it start ripping on the edges after a few uses? Will it last long enough to pay for itself? I'm all about saving money and getting only what I need to do the job but at the same time, I'd rather do it right the first time and spend my money once. Let me know because it does sound like a good deal.

Also, the elinchrom lights come with a speedring, so does that mean I can use other softboxes for that speedring or does the modifier have to bring a speedring specifically for elinchrom? I've seen a lot of modifiers that don't even mention what kind of speedrings they bring...

Dave Jr wrote in post #11716902
You can use virtually any other brand of modifier as long as you get an elinchrom speedring.

There are a lot of lower cost modifiers available. I just purchased this Visico 59" Octa with eggcrate grid and eli speedring for $99 delivered. This seller on ebay, oeccamera, has a lot of useful elinchrom items in their store at very reasonable prices. I also bought grids for the 7" eli reflector and they work well. It was like $24 for two grids and a diffusion sock.

Dave, how did you find the Visico setup? Is it a "cheap and nasty" or is it a reasonable unit?
The price being so cheap compared to Lighttools makes me nervous about purchasing...

I would say the Visico Octa is quite a good value. I think the quality is quite good, but I don't have much to compare it, since I only have the Portalite boxes that came with the BXRi to go kit + a Softlighter II.

Four of the eight rod positions have velcro wrap overs, so the rods can extend outside of the box to let you work on the others with reduced tension. I don't know if that is common or not, but it helps ease the setup. I am impressed with the thickness of the outer black shell and the silverized interior is nice. The diffusion panels fit well, and are reasonably well made. The grid seems good too, for the money. Obviously, it is not anywhere near Lighttools quality, but it does a reasonable job controlling spill. And it's basically a free grid, considering the 150cm Octa at $99 without a grid would still be a good value.

Overall, I'd have to say I was not expecting much for this price, and was pleasantly surprised with what you get. The thing is big, and quite front heavy with grid and both diffusion panels installed. I am a little concerned about the stress it puts on the strobe mount, and it is difficult to keep the tilt lever on the strobe stand mount to hold. It will droop down unless you really lock lever tight, almost to the point of being concerned about damaging the lever. Ideally, I think the speedring should be mounted directly to the stand, but I don't want to spend the extra $75 (photoflex speedring and heavy duty umbrella bracket) to do that right now.

I should add, the speedring adapter that fits within the speedring does suck. It is very similar to the $9.95 SP Studio adapter, thin and easy to bend out of shape. It does not fit well on my strobes. It's tough to lock it on, and even tougher to remove. I'll probably replace it with a stouter one in the future.

Well, I would recommend the ranger Quadra due to its portability.
I've been using it for 3 months and loved it so far..

Dave Jr wrote in post #11805823
I would say the Visico Octa is quite a good value. I think the quality is quite good, but I don't have much to compare it, since I only have the Portalite boxes that came with the BXRi to go kit + a Softlighter II.

Four of the eight rod positions have velcro wrap overs, so the rods can extend outside of the box to let you work on the others with reduced tension. I don't know if that is common or not, but it helps ease the setup. I am impressed with the thickness of the outer black shell and the silverized interior is nice. The diffusion panels fit well, and are reasonably well made. The grid seems good too, for the money. Obviously, it is not anywhere near Lighttools quality, but it does a reasonable job controlling spill. And it's basically a free grid, considering the 150cm Octa at $99 without a grid would still be a good value.

Overall, I'd have to say I was not expecting much for this price, and was pleasantly surprised with what you get. The thing is big, and quite front heavy with grid and both diffusion panels installed. I am a little concerned about the stress it puts on the strobe mount, and it is difficult to keep the tilt lever on the strobe stand mount to hold. It will droop down unless you really lock lever tight, almost to the point of being concerned about damaging the lever. Ideally, I think the speedring should be mounted directly to the stand, but I don't want to spend the extra $75 (photoflex speedring and heavy duty umbrella bracket) to do that right now.

Thanks for the feedback Dave, much appreciated.

I didn't think the Portalite was too bad, obviously its no Eli, but as you've not bagged the Visi against the Porta that is somewhat reassuring.
The weight has me a touch worried.

My main objective was actually getting the grids more than the softboxes. Was going to try one on my Eli to see how that goes.
If it fits my plan was to buy more Eli boxes and use the Visi path for grids
The Lighttools price is fairly up there but i guess you get what you pay for.

cheers again

I'd say It's much thicker and more durable than the Portalites.

Do the sizes of the Visico's match up with the Eli's such that you could use these grids on them? The Lightools grids are $500+ so I guess it could be worth a try.