A single light setup for location shoots ?

harjtt

I've been thinking about getting a single studio flash head (beauty dish or a a large softbox) and a powerpack for shooting on location so was wondering what you guys and gals would recommend bearing in mind that I'm in the UK?

Personally I've been thinking about a Bowens Gemini 500R + BW7691 batterypack but I'm unsure whether thats going to be enough power wise, how many shots would you get from the batterypack and whether it's going to be worth the aggro lugging about esp if its only yourself, model and mua?

Cheers

Harj

JimKarczewski

I have the Calumet 750's that I use with a custom battery pack, at 1/2 power I can balance with a noon sun, at full power I can bring the background down about 1-1/3 to 1-2/3 stops. So if the Bowen 500 is 500w/s then you should be find outside... I get a ton of shots from my battery, but I'm also using a full-size deep cycle marine battery... Not smaller ones like the put in the portable packs.

Art Scott

I can only atest to the reliability and sturdiness of the Paul C Buff Line of Lights....White Lightning or Alien Bees.....never owned any other.

Good Luck.

r9jackson

Einstein's Work Well
Art is right, I'm using an Einstein for sports shooting with the new Vagabond Mini Lithium battery (3.5 lbs with battery). The battery easily powers two Einstein's for a volleyball or basketball game. The Einstein is 640 W/S and can be powered all the way down to 2.5 W/S. The flash head is about 4.5 lbs. This is a great unit with really amazing flash characteristics (of which I don't understand at all, I just know it works great).

I was using their Cyber Synch trigger system and once I had the lights pointed in the right direction I could control the power and everything else from the floor.

This is a shot I made this week in a dimly lit gym with two Einstein's set at 200 w/s, bouncing off a high ceiling (silver colored) with a Canon 7D at 1/320 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800. No flash on the floor with my camera.

Well, I can't seem to get my photo to show, try seeing the low res photo in Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r9jackson/6127706616/

FlyNavy

The Einstein flashes paired with the new lightweight battery seems like the perfect setup.

Sam

Randy,

Two questions. How did you get the 7D to sync at 1/320? Why didn't you shoot at ISO 200 or 400 and use more flash power?

Sam

JimKarczewski

Sam wrote: »

Randy,

Two questions. How did you get the 7D to sync at 1/320? Why didn't you shoot at ISO 200 or 400 and use more flash power?

Sam

Seems odd that 1/320 is 1/200 * 1.6.... Hmm... You can get a little out of some wireless triggers.. depending on the camera and what you are shooting, I've gotten 1/250 out of the MkII.

20DNoob

If it's only going to be you lugging about gear I'd want to keep as light as possible. I wouldn't count out the idea of using a few regular flash heads off camera just for portability alone, add a few battery packs to them and you should be good for awhile(that and they're only double As').

Here's a clip with someone getting some really decent results(then again I'm easily awed by those who know how to light a shoot). One dude, a camera, off camera cord, 2 flash heads and a stand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQKqj4W0QWI

Well that and I just attended a Frank Doorhof workshop over the weekend and the stuff he pulled off with just a 580EX was amazing. I'm hoping he puts some of the images on his blog so I can prove to others I know you don't need big honkin strobes to achieve stunning results. I suggest checking out the strobist blog if your not already doing so.

Good luck.

kdog

20DNoob wrote: »

Here's a clip with someone getting some really decent results(then again I'm easily awed by those who know how to light a shoot). One dude, a camera, off camera cord, 2 flash heads and a stand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQKqj4W0QWI

I wonder why he uses the Omni bounce diffuser on the hand-held flash. I've always thought that does nothing outdoors since (a) there's nothing for the dispersed light from the diffuser to bounce off of and find its way back to the model, and (b) it doesn't increase the size of the flash head. But it does drop the reduce of the flash which doesn't help anything.

ziggy53

kdog wrote: »

I wonder why he uses the Omni bounce diffuser on the hand-held flash. I've always thought that does nothing outdoors since (a) there's nothing for the dispersed light from the diffuser to bounce off of and find its way back to the model, and (b) it doesn't increase the size of the flash head. But it does drop the reduce of the flash which doesn't help anything.

A diffuser, even a small one, does soften the shadows a little compared to a bare flash. It's true that the difference is not enough to justify the light loss in many cases. A larger modifier is almost always preferable, IMO.