Posted by Bill Wen on February 17, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Hello everyone,
I am going to setup a small to medium size studio at home. The studio is mostly for portrait and macro work. I am seeking your help in choosing photographic lighting kits. My questions are: How many total Watts is needed? How many Watts is good enough for modeling? Is auto dump important? What brand do recommend? My budget is $1500.
Thanks,
Bill
Posted by Bryan Maltais on February 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM
"NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS"
Posted by Kent Staubus on February 17, 2009 at 11:52 PM
Even though this is a nature forum, there are at least two (and probably three) people here who can give you some ideas. For $1,500 I suggest you buy x2 Alien Bee B1600 and x1 B800 monolights (Paul Buff) plus either softboxes or shoot through umbrellas and decent (~$50 each) light stands. Buy one Buff CyberSync transmitter and one CyberSync CRSB receiver to trigger the lights (use the built in optical on the other two lights.) That will eat up most your money and give you a very capable lighting system.
The Alien Bees series are an excellent value, very light (less tippy on a stand), and fairly rugged. If you want to start doing outdoor shoots you can add $300 Vagabond battery pack to run all the lights from. Alien Bees would be about perfect for you. They only have five stops of control (White Lightning has 7) but you can cut light output by using an ND filter over the lights or simply move the lights further back. The triggers will make your operation cord free and reduce the hassle and tripping hazard of PC cords running to all the lights. The Alien Bees lights and Vagabond have a VERY high resale value on eBay. I've actually seen used ones sell for more than the cost of new!
There's a pretty good forum on the PCB website that can give you more info: http://www.paulcbuff.com
I agree wholeheartedly with Kent. He's put together a great kit for you.
And yuppers, it will be dandy for NATUREPHOTOGRAPHY macro shots and much more!!!!
And just coincidentally, 1600 w/s from a couple of lights, along with 800 w/s will be just fine for an average size room, giving you at least f/8 @100ISO, and lots more as you are able to move them closer while keeping them out of frame. We normally position our lights in the studio for 8-10 feet of subject distance, and we have to turn down our 2400 w/s lights to around 800 in order to shoot at around f/8 to limit DOF off our backgrounds. Nice for you, you can shoot lots further than that @f/8 with yours cranked up all the way to 1600 w/s in larger settings. In most location shoots we get away with a single 800 w/s powerpack and a couple of lights unless we're trying to cover lots of area. Bigger rooms and wider shooting can call for lots more lighting power, but more for uniform coverage than any need of extra power booming in on the subjects.
The one thing I might add to Kent's recommendation is a 42"x78" translucent light panel, frame and legs, the first three items from this page at Calumet, for a total investment of around $120. Our frame is actually collapsible PVC, which may be available on subsequent pages, but I didn't check. The panel is dandy when used as a giant "soft box" in shoot through applications. It's also a great reflector for portraits in single-light applications. And yeah, it gives incredibly uniform light for tabletop and macro shooting of NATURE subjects.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on February 18, 2009 at 12:19 PM
I'll third the Alien Bees!
A couple of comments on them. First, their website is really god-awful tacky. DON"T be put off by that. If you get on their forum (http://www.paulcbuff.com/forums/), you'll quickly realize that while the owner doesn't take himself too seriously, he does take his products and his customers seriously. He is active on the the forum and will respond personally if needed (Paul Bluff - Luap on the forums)
If you look at older customer reviews of his products, there are some complaints about color shifts as you go down on power. These are older reviews, though. I've seen no problems reported in the last 5-8 years. Just for kicks, I even tried powering down on my set and using the auto-white balance settings on my digital. There were no changes in the white balance settings, either as reported by the camera or by eye. Granted, that is not scientific but for most of what I do, it is close enough. Build quality is a non-issue. They are a plastic housing, but I've dropped mine with no ill effect.
I own two 1600's, plus lightstands, kit softboxes - I forget what size they are, both umbrellas, and their old remote system. NO problems at all with them. They have done some portraits and weddings, and a lot of in-home studio work. I'd like more power when I pull out the 4x5 for macro work, but that is extreme. For 35mm based work, digital or film, they are fine.
If you are planning to do a lot of macro, I'd get the most powerful lights you can afford. Macro sucks up a lot of light.
Correct that. I did have a problem with the first remote transmitter. A quick call to them to make sure I was setting it correctly (I was) and they replaced it immediately. It was at my doorstop 2-3 days later. This was an older model when they first began to offer them.
The next step up is the White Lightning series, which have about 2 stops more light and are a bit more solidly built. They are also built by Paul Bluff and are also a bit more expensive. I know of at least one studio locally which runs exclusively on this system of lights. One of the employees went the Alien Bees route for his home studio, mainly because the White Lightnings have never been the souce of a problem at the business studio.
Alien Bees are probably the least expensive setup I would recommend. They are not the cheapest, but definitely underpriced in a cost vs value relationship. It is the difference between cheap and inexpensive.
Also, you are buying straight from the factory, not through a wholesaler and then your local shop. That explains a lot of the price differential.
There is also a website called Strobist.com, which I would look at. They largely advocate hotshoe mounted flash units, used off-camera. Depending on what you own and can find, that may also create solutions to the lighting issues you are facing. It is also a good source for learning lighting. Midwest Photo Exchange (mpex.com) can help you find a lot of the gear they reference.
(Edit: For what Kent has put his lights through, his recommendation should be taken very seriously. Those poor lights... They have probably been to more places in worse conditions than I have ever seen )
Posted by Kent Staubus on February 18, 2009 at 8:20 PM
Dan--
I won't go into great detail what I, as an outdoor photographer, have put my Alien Bees/White Lightning gear through. I'll just say that I can confirm they work very well for hours at a time at 28 below zero. My two Alien Bees have been blown over by 35+ mph winds a couple of times, and survived intact after whacking the frozen ground. Often when it's below zero plastic will shatter like glass.
Kent in SD
Posted by Dan Borzynski on February 18, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Kent -
I've heard more than a few bits and pieces of the stories, through comments you have made here and on a few other forums, plus through the stray friend of a friend of a friend. They are a good recommendation for the quality of the Alien Bees/White Lightning lights.
I have to toss in that we have half a dozen or so White Lightnings. Older models that see tough use, but not as tough as Kent's. The good news is their record of service. Good outfit, on par with Speedatron for service, and that's high praise in our 20 year history of breaking their stuff.
Posted by Bill Wen on February 18, 2009 at 11:24 PM
A big thank you to Kent, Hank and Dan for your time and the great input. I visited the Alien Bees website and its forum. I really liked the Alien Bees/White Lightening products. I probably go with the kit Kent put together for me.
Discussion
8 repliesI am going to setup a small to medium size studio at home. The studio is mostly for portrait and macro work. I am seeking your help in choosing photographic lighting kits. My questions are: How many total Watts is needed? How many Watts is good enough for modeling? Is auto dump important? What brand do recommend? My budget is $1500.
Thanks,
Bill
The Alien Bees series are an excellent value, very light (less tippy on a stand), and fairly rugged. If you want to start doing outdoor shoots you can add $300 Vagabond battery pack to run all the lights from. Alien Bees would be about perfect for you. They only have five stops of control (White Lightning has 7) but you can cut light output by using an ND filter over the lights or simply move the lights further back. The triggers will make your operation cord free and reduce the hassle and tripping hazard of PC cords running to all the lights. The Alien Bees lights and Vagabond have a VERY high resale value on eBay. I've actually seen used ones sell for more than the cost of new!
There's a pretty good forum on the PCB website that can give you more info:
http://www.paulcbuff.com
Kent in SD
And yuppers, it will be dandy for NATUREPHOTOGRAPHY macro shots and much more!!!!
And just coincidentally, 1600 w/s from a couple of lights, along with 800 w/s will be just fine for an average size room, giving you at least f/8 @100ISO, and lots more as you are able to move them closer while keeping them out of frame. We normally position our lights in the studio for 8-10 feet of subject distance, and we have to turn down our 2400 w/s lights to around 800 in order to shoot at around f/8 to limit DOF off our backgrounds. Nice for you, you can shoot lots further than that @f/8 with yours cranked up all the way to 1600 w/s in larger settings. In most location shoots we get away with a single 800 w/s powerpack and a couple of lights unless we're trying to cover lots of area. Bigger rooms and wider shooting can call for lots more lighting power, but more for uniform coverage than any need of extra power booming in on the subjects.
The one thing I might add to Kent's recommendation is a 42"x78" translucent light panel, frame and legs, the first three items from this page at Calumet, for a total investment of around $120. Our frame is actually collapsible PVC, which may be available on subsequent pages, but I didn't check. The panel is dandy when used as a giant "soft box" in shoot through applications. It's also a great reflector for portraits in single-light applications. And yeah, it gives incredibly uniform light for tabletop and macro shooting of NATURE subjects.
A couple of comments on them. First, their website is really god-awful tacky. DON"T be put off by that. If you get on their forum (http://www.paulcbuff.com/forums/), you'll quickly realize that while the owner doesn't take himself too seriously, he does take his products and his customers seriously. He is active on the the forum and will respond personally if needed (Paul Bluff - Luap on the forums)
If you look at older customer reviews of his products, there are some complaints about color shifts as you go down on power. These are older reviews, though. I've seen no problems reported in the last 5-8 years. Just for kicks, I even tried powering down on my set and using the auto-white balance settings on my digital. There were no changes in the white balance settings, either as reported by the camera or by eye. Granted, that is not scientific but for most of what I do, it is close enough. Build quality is a non-issue. They are a plastic housing, but I've dropped mine with no ill effect.
I own two 1600's, plus lightstands, kit softboxes - I forget what size they are, both umbrellas, and their old remote system. NO problems at all with them. They have done some portraits and weddings, and a lot of in-home studio work. I'd like more power when I pull out the 4x5 for macro work, but that is extreme. For 35mm based work, digital or film, they are fine.
If you are planning to do a lot of macro, I'd get the most powerful lights you can afford. Macro sucks up a lot of light.
Correct that. I did have a problem with the first remote transmitter. A quick call to them to make sure I was setting it correctly (I was) and they replaced it immediately. It was at my doorstop 2-3 days later. This was an older model when they first began to offer them.
The next step up is the White Lightning series, which have about 2 stops more light and are a bit more solidly built. They are also built by Paul Bluff and are also a bit more expensive. I know of at least one studio locally which runs exclusively on this system of lights. One of the employees went the Alien Bees route for his home studio, mainly because the White Lightnings have never been the souce of a problem at the business studio.
Alien Bees are probably the least expensive setup I would recommend. They are not the cheapest, but definitely underpriced in a cost vs value relationship. It is the difference between cheap and inexpensive.
Also, you are buying straight from the factory, not through a wholesaler and then your local shop. That explains a lot of the price differential.
There is also a website called Strobist.com, which I would look at. They largely advocate hotshoe mounted flash units, used off-camera. Depending on what you own and can find, that may also create solutions to the lighting issues you are facing. It is also a good source for learning lighting. Midwest Photo Exchange (mpex.com) can help you find a lot of the gear they reference.
(Edit: For what Kent has put his lights through, his recommendation should be taken very seriously. Those poor lights... They have probably been to more places in worse conditions than I have ever seen
I won't go into great detail what I, as an outdoor photographer, have put my Alien Bees/White Lightning gear through. I'll just say that I can confirm they work very well for hours at a time at 28 below zero.
Kent in SD
I've heard more than a few bits and pieces of the stories, through comments you have made here and on a few other forums, plus through the stray friend of a friend of a friend. They are a good recommendation for the quality of the Alien Bees/White Lightning lights.
Thanks again guys. You are great!
Bill in SD