External light for night portraits

Agnieszka

OK, so I am not much of a person that uses external laps at weddings ... but I do have some shots in mind where a lamp would come in handy, any suggestions? I want to keep it cheap, easy to carry & it will need to be robust (I guess) .... any help would be appreciated :lust THANKS

Oh ... and what do you do with the power? Do you know any lights that could be powered with a larger battery so I don't need to be hooked?

ziggy53

Angie,

The best solution is an external flash. Is that what you mean by "lamp"?

If you are comfortable with a simple electronic flash you can get by with an auto/manual flash like the Vivitar 2858HV. I wish they still made the Sunpak 383 Super flash because that's my first choice in a simpler flash in that it has both tilt and swivel as well as better power control.

The Vivitar is fine for landscape orientation and if you put the flash on an off-camera cord and appropriate bracket it works in portrait mode as well.

It will work great for fill as is but you'll want to make a couple of simple modifiers for use as primary light. It will take lots of practice to learn how to moderate the flash to suit your purpose but you did say "cheap", right?

If you can spend a couple hundred dollars there are much better choices still and the better flashes help automate the exposure as well.