Are strobes overkill for baby/children's photography?

cyoung

Hi all,

I've done some searching and reading on strobes and Shay's portable suggestion on pocket wizards and Sunpaks.

I was thinking, if I'm only going to do a home studio setup, are strobes overkill if I'm not taking shots as a business? Would a EX580 and two other speedlites in slave mode be enough power?

My idea would be my child on a white seamless paper clamped to the floor joists in my basement.

Now would that speedlight setup be enough to expose everything? If I went Alienbess/strobes....how much power would I need? Do I need more if I am using a diffuser and if I did use a softbox on the speedlights would that be enough power?:scratch

Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions...

dancinkate

I do child portraits out of my home as well and use A.B. lights in my set-up. I use the 580ex outside the studio and just usually leave the A.B's at home. Worked really well for me so far and I love the lighting of them.

Shay Stephens

In a small studio space, you don't need a lot of power. The speedlights will provide plenty, even with modifiers like umbrella or softbox and you should be able to get output up to f/8 or so depending on the modifiers and distances.

I have b400 strobes and sunpak 555's and they are pretty close in power output. The bee's are easier to setup with modifiers than the sunpaks, but if you are crafty you can mount anything to anything.

I would lean toward portable (speedlights etc) over studio lights if you have a hankering to travel with the studio.

cyoung

Well to much of my surprise, my financial advisor (my wife) didn't fight me on the idea of purchasing lights for a home studio.

Now I'm really torn, I love the practicallity of getting a EX 580 and a ex420, but I can get a AB800, light stand, brollybox, hotshoe adapter, pc sync cord all for the price of the 580. But one of the main reason I got fast glass was to use ambient lighing when available for candids.

If I am using continous lights to light the background, would the AB 800 be enough power? I would think so correct? I figure I'll start with one light and see how it goes. I remember seeing a photog using one strobe in a softbox to light his shots and my wife loved those kinds of pics.


dancinkate, how many AB's you have and what power settings do you normally shoot at?

Thanks again for all your suggestions and comments.

cyoung

Well never mind on those alien bees......after carefully researching on the AB800's diffusers and such I realized I needed a light meter too. So instead I settled on a 580ex and will use ETTL for the time being for metering and use that as a stepping stone to go manual. Then I will add on additional lights later as needed. I think Shay is right....portable is good

Thanks for the suggestions.

dancinkate

You'll LOVE the 580!

I never did get a light meter for the AB, I just played around with the settings until I liked the lighting (and used the histogram) and then went from there.

XO-Studios

dancinkate wrote:

You'll LOVE the 580!

I never did get a light meter for the AB, I just played around with the settings until I liked the lighting (and used the histogram) and then went from there.

Same here, no meter, just check the histogram and shoot completely manual.

I have 2 lights, but with one, you can use it as the main, and use a reflector as fill 'light'.

FWIW,

XO,