BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Photography Question 

Amanda R. Milam
 

Studio light kits on eBay?


I have been looking for some strobe lights to use with the continous lights that I already have. I will be mainly using my Sony camera which does not have a sync plug to connect the lights directly to the strobes or a hotshoe to use an adapter. What are my other options when using a strobe kit? If I use the flash on the camera to set the strobes off will it not overpower the hot lights that I'm using? The continous lights are more of a tungsten while the flash is not. I found a few sets on eBay that I think might work but I'm not sure. Will someone who knows more about studio lighting be willing to look at the items and give me some advice as to if they are good and would possibly work for what I am trying to do? I would be using the continous lights as the main lights and the strobes as a fill light. Here are the links to the two sets that I am looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7579451679&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fws%2Fsearch%2FSaleSearch%3Fsofocus%3Dbs%26satitle%3D7579451679%26sacat%3D-1%2526catref%253DC5%26amp%253Bsspagename%3Dh%253Ah%253Aadvsearch%253AUS%26from%3DR7%26nojspr%3Dy%26pfid%3D0%26fsop%3D1%2526fsoo%253D1%26fcl%3D3%26frpp%3D50%26fvi%3D1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7577486298&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fws%2Fsearch%2FSaleSearch%3Fsofocus%3Dbs%26satitle%3D7577486298%26sacat%3D-1%2526catref%253DC5%26amp%253Bsspagename%3Dh%253Ah%253Aadvsearch%253AUS%26from%3DR7%26nojspr%3Dy%26pfid%3D0%26fsop%3D1%2526fsoo%253D1%26fcl%3D3%26frpp%3D50%26fvi%3D1

I hope this works!!


To love this question, log in above
January 07, 2006

 

Mark Feldstein
  Greetings Amanda:
Strobes rated at 110 Watt Seconds aren't very powerful at all. While you could use them as fill lights that's about all they're good for, if that. Used in an umbrella, they put out very little light. My guess is you'd be very disappointed getting these lights.

Also, mixing hot lights (tungsten) with strobes is often a problem at least from the standpoint of color shifting. Tungsten lights are cooler at about 3400 degrees kelvin, than strobes that run closer to daylight at 5500 degrees. Thus, you may find your strobe fill light, assuming that they were even powerful enough to produce a balanced fill effect, are turning out blue or your tungsten lights may appear orange, depending on how the light balance is set on your camera. Although I don't know how many watts your tungsten lights are, my guess is they'll probably tend to overpower your 110 w/s strobes so the fill effect would be little or even non-existant.

I'll give you two suggestions; First, the more horsepower your lights have, in terms of watt seconds, the better off you are. Save your money for now. When you can afford it, buy a new or used pack system that'll deliver at least 850 Watt seconds, or better yet, 1000-1500. The more power your light system has, the smaller the f-stops you can work with to give you greater depth of field. That's important and gives you flexibility, especially shooting portraits. In other words, it's better to have too much light and to be able to lower the power, than too little which can be extremely frustrating. This is especially true using light modifiers like umbrellas or softboxes. Also, when you buy lights, you need to have an eye on the future use not just present. Buy lights that you can kind of grow into and consider the accessories as well, like modifiers, reflectors, scrims, barndoors, etc. You want to make sure that you can buy accessories for these things later on as you need them.

My preference for pack systems is Speedotron lights and our packs are 2000 W/S 0r 2400 W/S each. While that's probably beyond your needs, perhaps look at Dyna Lite, Norman, or even a Speedotron 850 W/S pack.

The other thing you should know (if you don't already) is when you shop at e-bay, the old adage "buyer beware" really is important to keep in mind at all times. This is especially so when you're buying items you're not familiar with. If you don't know what to look for exactly or what questions to ask, assuming the seller is either truthful or knows the answer) you're sunk.

There are enough of us here who really know studio lighting and use it nearly every day. So, if you see something you're interested in buying, always feel free to ask for our input. I should note that I shoot a lot of portraits on slower speed films, particularly in black and white at ISO 50 or 100. 99 per cent of the time, I shoot with a single, 1500 w/s monolight (a self-contained strobe with its own power source) mounted in a 24 x 48" softbox on a stand. I also use a fill card to bounce light back into the subject from the other side. IMHO, the results are very nice. :>) At those ISO's and with that single light, I can consistently work at f11 or 16.

I also have Bowens 1000 w/s monolights that will ratio down to 250 W/S for fill. They're durable and portable and really not all that expensive, especially these days if you buy kits from B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com.

Two last points for now: You can always buy a pack and a single head and add heads later as you can afford them. You can usually ratio a single head down to 125 w/s or at full power, as I mentioned, upwards to 1000, 1500 w/s or beyond.

And, You can also get some excellent deals on used studio lighting, but again,you need to have an idea of what you're looking for, like monolights or pack systems and how much power. http://www.keh.com.

Okie dokie??
Take it light Amanda.;>) (Mandy?)
Mark


To love this comment, log in above
January 07, 2006

 

Debby A. Tabb
  Amanda,
I also do not recommend Mixing the two- Mark is very correct.
and I belive you would just be making things harder on yourself.
I have some "wish Lists" on lighting Kits I made for others who have contacted me to ask. If you would like them please email me and I will send them.
I will take a look at all you have listed , but I will most likely have to post back about this tommorrow.
I am more then willing to help you find the right kit for you, just email me a little something about what you are looking to do.
I do hope this will help,
Debby


To love this comment, log in above
January 08, 2006

 

Amanda R. Milam
 
 
 
Thanks for all the responses. I didn't think that I could use both kinds of lights but I just wanted to ask. I'm interested in mainly portrait photography. Right now I'm using it for family only, but later on down the road I want to be able to make a little extra money with it. I like using the continous lights because you can kind of see what the image will look like, but the ones that I have just don't seem to do what I thought they would. Most of the time, my images come out looking like they have a haze over them. I bought the lights from Amvona.com and paid a good bit for them. They didn't really come with directions or anything so I've had to just play around with them. I've taken some decent pictures with them but most of the time they always seem to dark. I guess I should have read a little more about what I was buying instead of just buying the first thing I came across. Any help that I can get is greatly appreciated. I'll try to post some of my images and see what you guys think of them.


To love this comment, log in above
January 10, 2006

 

Amanda R. Milam
  I didn't post the images right, but I put them in my gallery if someone will look at them and see what they think and tell me how I can improve them.


To love this comment, log in above
January 10, 2006

 

Mark Feldstein
  Welllllllllllll, I see what you're talking about Amanda. That haze effect could come from a couple of sources. The first thing you ought to do is determine whether the negatives are quite sharp, or if this kind of haze appeared on all the images you shot at that time. If the negs look good but the prints don't, go back to whomever printed them and tell them to do it again based on the negative sharpness.

If your negs look soft, and you know that your lens is clean and not hazy itself, then let us know how you positioned those lights and whether you used a lens hood. You really need to look at the lens and hopefully, you haven't been storing it for long periods with a filter in place. Sometimes that promotes growth on lenses of fungus. Lenses need to breathe and the fungus will cause haze.

Sometimes glare may cause that effect although it's usually more pronounced. If this is appearing on other images, say things you've shot outdoors With a lenshood, unless you're shooting into a light source, you could have your focus checked at a local camera repair shop. Sometimes the mirror or prism gets out of whack and causes soft focus problems. Try a different lens too as lens elements can get knocked out of alignment too, and that may not show up until you start working at wider f-stops, say at f5.6 or wider.

For now, that's about all I can think of. Unless someone has a really obvious solution, I'd check those things out and let us know what, if anything, you find.
Take it light.
Mark


To love this comment, log in above
January 10, 2006

 

Kip T. Berger
 
 
 
Looks to be like the haze effect is result of your "photoshop" work of trying to adjust for the lighting. Does your digital have exposure adjustments? Try adjusting your shadows/mids/highlights & use unsharp mask along with a gausian blur layer to rid the haze effect. Uploading example done to your image. See if better for what you are trying to achieve.


To love this comment, log in above
January 10, 2006

 

Kip T. Berger
 
 
 
here's example adjustments to your shot.


To love this comment, log in above
January 10, 2006

 

Amanda R. Milam
  Hey guys, thanks for all the input. The picture that Kip adjusted looks great! As far as what Mark said about the camera and lens- well the camera is not that old, I've only had it for 6 months and no I don't use a lens hood, but I will try and see if that makes the images come out better. As far as the processing, I work at a photo lab so I can print and adjust at work. Maybe I need to learn how to use the photoshop program better because I did try to lighten the images up a little. Ok Kip, what exactly did you do to the image, I LOVE it!! As far as the lights that I use, I have one at about 4 O'clock and the other at about 8 O'clock with the subject being at 12 O'clock. Should I reposition them?


To love this comment, log in above
January 11, 2006

 

Mark Feldstein
  I really hope you find the source of the problem and if you do, let us know please.

And Amanda, since you work in a lab, maybe you could ask around and see if anyone knows a good dealer that sells used commercial lab equipment like enlargers, heads, sinks, mixing valves and dip and dunk processors. Please lemme know if you find out anything on that?? Thanks. :>) Be well.
Mark


To love this comment, log in above
January 11, 2006

 

Kip T. Berger
  Hi Amanda,
I first adjusted your picture by darkening the shadow areas, then bumping the mids & highlights up alittle. Next I duplicated the layer. The duplicated layer, I unsharp masked at 1 radius of 15%, then again at 5 radius of 15%. This layer, I duplicated again, but added a 5% gaussian blur. The middle layer I then adjusted the transparency to try and maintain sharp lines but little noise. The top gaussian blurred layer I adjusted the transparency to soften the facial features, but soft erased around the eyes & mouth to keep them sharp. Then just empahsized the catch lights in the eyes with a gray tone paint. Once satisfied, merged all layers to form final image which is what you see. Hope this helps you understand the workline to achieve similar results.
BTW, a very cute child/model.


To love this comment, log in above
January 11, 2006

 

Amanda R. Milam
  I work at a Walmart photo lab, nothing like where we use a darkroom or anything. Although there are alot of things you can do on the machines that the public doesn't know about that are not advertised. My boyfriend works with a guy that used to sell equipment for Kodak and I'll get him to ask the guy if he knows anywhere that may sell used equipment. Thanks Kip for the step by step directions, I have a few pictures that I've taken over the months and I'm going to try and fix them the way you described. BTW- thanks for the comment that my child/model is very cute, she's my niece.


To love this comment, log in above
January 12, 2006

 
Log in to respond or ask your own question.