Lighting kit for a newbie

JayMurphy · December 4, 2007

I spotted this lighting kit on the B&H webpage:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/298604-REG/Impact_401470_Tungsten_Miniboom_3_Flood.html

The comments on B&H are pretty positive for the most part. I would like to give lighting a try without spending a lot of money yet have a kit that will give me options as I get more expirience.

Does anyone here have any expirience with this kit? Or have any suggestions on another 3 light kit similarly priced? Within $100...

Would like to use for portrait photos in my home, family and friends.
Thank you in advance for your time...

SloYerRoll · December 4, 2007

Wow that's a whole lotta light for the price!

I don't own this kit. But I'd chime in by saying you get what you pay for. Usually the only difference between prosumer and pro gear is durability. You can beat on pro gear pretty hard and it will keep on working.

As long as you take care of your gear and don't hammer on it. It should be more than adequate for your needs.

Of course any posts in here of ppl that actually own this gear nullify my post.

*It has a one years manufacturer warranty. Even if it only last one year and a day. You still got your moneys worth!

Cheers,
-Jon

JayMurphy · December 4, 2007

Light Kit
Jon,

Thanks for you input. Most likely this set up would never leave the house. I don't have any plans for moving it around much, short of playing with different lighting configurations and being a newbie things will be pretty basic until I get a good hold of how to even do basic lighting.

I have been doing a lot of reading and I think I am ready to try to apply what I have read. Plan on making this a christmas gift to me

If needed someday I would step up "lightinh kit" quality.

pathfinder · December 4, 2007

Jay,

I am going to point out some of the downsides to this kit that come to mind.

I do not think it will really be that bright compared to good flash units - whether battery or AC powered.

It WILL be hot to sit very long in the light. Standard Photoflood bulbs have a short life span, and get very hot to the touch.

For about the same money you could purchase a Strobist kit and and an Impact 5x1 reflector and have something you could take to the park when the weather moderates. I rec the Strobist kit with the wireless triggers if your budget will tolerate that.

I think your color will be more consistent with flash, your kids will likely object less with flash, and the system is portable, and safer - NO AC lines to trip over, no hot objects to burn fingers, rugs, or furniture.

If your goal is to shoot tabletop products, then the hot lights may be a better choice. I am not saying the hot lights won't work, but many of us started with hot lights, and no longer use them for the reasons I have mentioned.

JayMurphy · December 4, 2007

Pathfinder,

Thank you. Question: those kits come with a Vivitar flash or w/out. I already have 580EX would it be safe to assume that I could use that same "kit" with the Canon flash?

Then would I have to get Canons wireless flash controller?

LiquidAir · December 4, 2007

If you want to go with continuous lights, I'd suggest flourescents rather than tungsten. Here's an Impact brand 2 light kit for $160 from B&H you could suppliment

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/465550-REG/Impact__Fluorescent_2_Light_Kit.html

Note that I have not used this kit so I can't recommend it. I, like pathfinder, use shoe mount strobes for my studio lighting.

pathfinder · December 4, 2007

I am sorry I missed that you already owned a 580ex. That can be used in lieu of the Vivitar 285HV in fixed Manual flash mode - you would need a hot shoe to PC converter to use the 580 off the camera with the wireless trigger from the Starving Student Wireless kit, or a pc cord.

You could just add a 430ex to use as a slave controlled by your 580ex on your camera as a master. But you still would need light stands, umbrellas, etc.

LiquidAir and I both use an ST-E2 ( Canon's IR remote trigger ) to fire an off camera 580ex on a stand. You can buy both umbrellas or softboxes to use with a speedlite. I keep a 16x20 softbox mounted on my older 550ex for just this purpose.

I have written about these subjects here previously as a sticky above.

I wrote a thread about the use of speedlites for crosslighting out of doors with an ST-E2 and a 550ex on a tripod here

LiquidAir · December 4, 2007

I too missed that you have a 580EX. As for where to go from there, it depends on what you want to do.

If your primary goal is headshots or head and shoulders, triggering the 580 with an ST-E2 and using a reflector as fill works quite well. For that rig, I bring an umbrella, a 48" diameter white reflector, a holder for reflector and 2 stands (one for the strobe, one for the reflector). In a pinch I'll skip the reflector and use a white wall instead. To get a reasonable amount of fill, you need to pull the umbrella back and keep the reflector tight. The light is going to be moderatly hard, but if you place it well it looks great. This set up looks best if you drag the shutter to take advantage of the ambient in the background because if you let the background fall black you risk tonal mergers without a separate strobe as a rim/hair light.

Once you go beyond head and shoulders, things get tougher because you start needing big light sources and big light sources need a lot of power. Honestly, I don't think any of the low budget light setups will serve you well once you start trying to light a bigger scene. On a budget, I think you are better off using shoe mount strobes to suppliment the light Strobist style than trying to do it all with your on light.

Personally when it gets big I use a pair of 30x40 softboxes each with a 580EX as my main light. What's nice about this setup is I can arrange my main light either as a 40x60 for group shots or 30x80 for full body shots. My large fill light is a 430EX shot through a 60" umbrella. With that rig, I have enough light for even coverage without much fall off and at least f/5.6 at ISO 100. That's enough to cover most of my needs and if I need to stop down for DoF, I'll bump the ISO. I'd like f/11 at ISO100, but that puts me into the domain of monoblocs and gets rather pricey for a battery powered rig.

ChatKat · December 4, 2007

Save your money...
I have some Photoflex lighting - similar to your Impact setup. They are too hot to use for anything but some product. One even caused my old 420ex to melt! (It was on my camera, on the shoe mount - the camera on a tripod - I was shooting products for web pages)

If I were going to invest and I already had a 580ex, I would get a 2nd one and a couple light stands and save for the Canon Remote (The STE2 trigger). I just used it for an event and and I am very happy. It was a great set up and had multiple uses for the day.

Lighting kit for a newbie

Comments