 Crystal Williams |
Portable Lighting Systems What portable lighting system is recommended to use with Nikon D70 for both indoor and maybe some outdoor shots? I am just starting with my own business and am on a tight budget.
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Bryan F. Peterson |
Hi Crystal- Good luck with the new venture, and when it comes to portable lighting I swear by the good folks at White Lightning (Paul Buff Inc.) in Tennessee. They make these really cool "mono-lites" called Alien Bee's in various power outputs, and when it comes to lightweight yet powerful strobes for indoor on location in some corporate boardroom they can't be beat. And know I am not being paid by them to say this, but when I find a product that proves itself time and time again, I am happy to boast about it. I have been using, along with countless other pros, White Lightning for years, and they work just as easily with film or digital cameras. You will also need a flash exposure meter - of which there are many and I personally use a Sekonic.
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Crystal Williams |
Thank you for you help. I will check into the White Lightning. I have already invested in the Sekonic light meter. I really appreciate all the help.
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Gregg Vieregge |
I have owned the Alien Bees for 4 years and they are great. (plus very affordable) They make great studio lights. For location and outdoors get a Nikon Speedlight SB-800.
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Gordon J. Evans |
I agree with the Alien Bees assesment, they work flawlessly at low voltage, immediate recycle, pack easily for travel (I fit two monolights with stands and umbrellas in a suitcase, a big suitcase, but...). Course they are costly and you either need a battery pack or work indoors for electricity. On the other hand, I was shown the least costly setup imaginable by a pro photographer friend of mine, who with 2 DigiSlave units by SR Electronics (about $100 each), 2 reflective umbrellas ($20-30 each), 2 inexpensive tripods/stands ($20-30 each) and 2 General Brand Multi-Brackets (about $15 each) gets just as good results, this all for about or less than the cost of one Alien Bee set-up. The other advantage is the setup packs into a large gymbag and requires no electricity, just the AA batteries in the flashes. I'll use my Canon 550 EX and 420EX and/or a DigiSlave unit at times for portraits outdoors with umbrellas and reflectors because they are so convenient and much better at filling in the shadows while maintaining a natural light look. Oh, and get a good light meter (I've been happy with the Sekonic L-308BII Flashmate for about $180). http://www.srelectronics.com/ http://www.shortcourses.com/how/slave/slave.htm
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Crystal Williams |
Thank you for all the advice. When I went to the White Lightning site to check on the Alien Bees lights, they weren't there. Where can I get these lights?
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Gordon J. Evans |
http://www.alienbees.com/ is the site. http://www.davidweikel.com/E20_Page/alienbees/bees.shtml also has some useful info on them.
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Jeff |
Gordon, If you are willing to share some info, I would appreciate it immensely . In the following text, you mentioned a very good basic set-up for lighting. I am a graphic designer and have done a little photography for my company (mostly "portraits" or shots of poeple having coffee, etc)... but have been fortunate enough to have outdoor lighting situations, etc... Well- next week, they want me to do a photo shoot at one of our properties- and I have no lighting equipment. The set-up you mentioned sounds like it works well, would be good for on location, and is an amount they might be willing to pay for. Can you elaborate a little bit on how to use the items you mention in your post? What, specifically, would you recommend for digi-slave units? How do you use these? How do you mount them (some sort of stand/tripod?) Do the digi-slave units essentially sense the flash from the camera and fire themselves? If you could expound it would be GREAT! Thanks in advance... ---------- The other advantage is the setup packs into a large gymbag and requires no electricity, just the AA batteries in the flashes. I'll use my Canon 550 EX and 420EX and/or a DigiSlave unit at times for portraits outdoors with umbrellas and reflectors because they are so convenient and much better at filling in the shadows while maintaining a natural light look."
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Justin G. |
you can get the alienbees and they offer a travel power kit which includes a pure sine wave inverter and a batter so you can run your lights in the middle of nowhere. with one B800 (320ws) their website claims you can shoot 800+ shots with a recycle time of 2 seconds on one charge. as soon as I make some money i'm going to get that "vagabond" system ASAP.
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