a n00blet question from me, speccing a portable strobist kit

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I'm trying to put together a portable strobist kit. I've got a 580EX2 and a 430EX2.

Basically I want them to form the foundations of my portable strobist kit. I need two lightstands and softboxes. Does anyone have a similar kit and would care to pass on kit recommendations?

This has probably been asked plenty of times before but I can't find some solid recommendations. There seems to be so many components that I just end up getting confused with all the reading. :shrug:
 
Before investing in a Strobies kit I'd recommend looking at this Youtube video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibCYozFz4fs

At the moment I have two cheap Portaflash stands from cameras2u (~£10 each) with eBay brolly adapters (~£5 each), two eBay brollies that double as bounce or shoot through (£8 each) and 2X eBay RF-602 wireless triggers (£36). It all works just as one would expect. I also have an eBay 110cm 5-in-1 reflector and boom stand (£12+£31). All prices including delivery.

I am considering adding a softbox, and perhaps a beauty dish, but am undecided whether to go for a dedicated "Speedlite" box or an S-Ring adapter for Speedlites and a Bowens compatible modifiers.

These were shot with 2X 580EX with bounce brollies....

20100801_121351_4640_LR.jpg
20100801_125053_4672-Edit_LR.jpg
 
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sorry link didn't work it was the umbrella set I bought not the other tosh ;)
 
I started off with a 580EXII and so far have added another three 430EX to that collection along with a few brollies, a brollybox, softbox, gels, and some radio triggers.

If I had two speedlites and had to start from scratch looking at a 'value engineered' approach I would probably go for the following;

Two x Konig lightstands - FITP or Amazon at roughly £10 each.
RF602 trigger and 2 x receivers. FITP
One brollybox FITP
One brolly FITP
Two brolly holders for the light stands. FITP

Have I missed anything to make it work?

The brollybox just gives such soft light and really just use the brolly as a bit of fill, but if on location with some ambient light tend to only use the main light.
 
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Thanks for the advice so far. A great help.

The bit that confuses me is the parts required to get the strobe attached to the light stand and to get the soft box attached also. Are the fittings all fairly standard between manufacturers?

Basically I want to do portraits in dark places as opposed to portraits in ambient light situations. I quite like the hi-saturation look when it comes to those portraits. I did think about getting some sort of ring flash or beauty dish.
 
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Have a look here for an assortment of bits and bobs....

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=244521

This - http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac282/selectivefocus1/lbracket2.jpg - is one example of a brolly adapter. I have one that looks more like this....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flash-Shoe-Um...747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5c96439b

From the look of things I think the one Graham (FITP) sells is probably a better design because you should be able to position the flash head much closer to the centre of the brolly, and with better alignment towards the centre. The ball head fits to the top of the stand. There is a cold shoe to which you fit the flash directly, or the RF-602 receiver and then the flash, and a hole through which you can insert the stem of a brolly.

These adapters won't work with a softbox. The softbox will need to come with its own solution to supporting the flash, or you will need a different adapter onto which you can fit a more standard softbox. Here are examples I am considering....

Dedicated Speedlite softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/60cm-strobist...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb102ae67 (with grid)
- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/24-60cm-Hot-S...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item230a2c078d (without grid)

or....

Speedlite adapter to which you can fit a "standard" softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bowens-S-Fit-...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb0e4523e

Bowens fit softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bessel-60cm-x...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb1012323

The advantage with the Bowens speedring adapter is that you can fit all manner of modifiers - softboxes, octaboxes, snoots, beauty dishes, reflector and grid, barn doors etc.. The disadvantage is that such attachments are probably designed for (semi-)permanent use and not intended to be rapidly deployed and packed away. A dedicated Speedlite softbox might be lighter and hopefully speedier to set up and pack down.

I don't speak from a position of personal experience here, but from what I've seen I'm not sure that trying to make Speedlites work with gear designed for monolights is the ideal solution. The light pattern emerging forwards from a Speedlite (a beam of light) is quite different to the light radiating in a much broader pattern from a monolight, and I can see the prospect of major disappointment with a directed beam of light from a Speedlite, albeit quite widely spread, compared to the much broader radiance of light from a monolight. This beauty dish is an example that gives me cause for concern - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/46cm-Beauty-D...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3a5ee8b585. I'm pretty sure that you can see through the whole of the grid, but the illumination of the dish looks absolutely pants, and I think is caused due to the constrained path of light out of the Speedlite, which seems not match the lighting required to illuminate a beauty dish. Sure you could add an omnibounce style diffuser to widen the light path from the Speedlite, but then you reduce the power further from a light source that is already weaker than a studio strobe.

I'm considering buying some studio lighting, so for me I am umming and ahhing about whether to get a dedicated Speedlite softbox, for convenience as a Strobist, or to go down the route of the Bowens fit adapter and a Bowens fit softbox. There's not a big difference in price but I'm still weighing the pros and cons. Certainly I think an internal baffle is a must, and depending on your lighting requirements a grid might well be a useful option.
 
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I'm just getting into the Strobist thing seriously.
There are some very good tutorial DVD's made by David Hobby & Zack Arias, I found Zacks particularly useful for setup information although David's website is much better.
Both recommend kit but are very orientated to the (huge) American Strobist scene, some of which is hard to get hold of in the UK & on within a reasonable budget so I used the above as a starting point.
If you want any info on exactly what kit I use I'd be happy to help.
 
tdodd said:
Have a look here for an assortment of bits and bobs....

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=244521

This - http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac282/selectivefocus1/lbracket2.jpg - is one example of a brolly adapter. I have one that looks more like this....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flash-Shoe-Um...747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5c96439b

From the look of things I think the one Graham (FITP) sells is probably a better design because you should be able to position the flash head much closer to the centre of the brolly, and with better alignment towards the centre. The ball head fits to the top of the stand. There is a cold shoe to which you fit the flash directly, or the RF-602 receiver and then the flash, and a hole through which you can insert the stem of a brolly.

These adapters won't work with a softbox. The softbox will need to come with its own solution to supporting the flash, or you will need a different adapter onto which you can fit a more standard softbox. Here are examples I am considering....

Dedicated Speedlite softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/60cm-strobist...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb102ae67 (with grid)
- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/24-60cm-Hot-S...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item230a2c078d (without grid)

or....

Speedlite adapter to which you can fit a "standard" softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bowens-S-Fit-...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb0e4523e

Bowens fit softbox - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bessel-60cm-x...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3cb1012323

The advantage with the Bowens speedring adapter is that you can fit all manner of modifiers - softboxes, octaboxes, snoots, beauty dishes, reflector and grid, barn doors etc.. The disadvantage is that such attachments are probably designed for (semi-)permanent use and not intended to be rapidly deployed and packed away. A dedicated Speedlite softbox might be lighter and hopefully speedier to set up and pack down.

I don't speak from a position of personal experience here, but from what I've seen I'm not sure that trying to make Speedlites work with gear designed for monolights is that the light pattern emerging from a Speedlite is quite different to that from a monolight, and I can see the prospect of major disappointment with a directed beam of light from a Speedlight, albeit quite widely spread, compared to the much broader radiance of light from a monolight. This beauty dish is an example that gives me cause for concern - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/46cm-Beauty-D...graphy_StudioEquipment_RL&hash=item3a5ee8b585. I'm pretty sure that you can see through the whole of the grid, but the illumination of the dish looks absolutely pants, and I think is caused due to the constrained path of light out of the Speedlite, which seems not match the lighting required to illuminate a beauty dish.


I'm considering buying some studio lighting, so for me I am umming and ahhing about whether to get a dedicated Speedlite softbox for convenience as a Strobist, or to go down the route of the Bowens fit adapter and a Bowens fit softbox. There's not a big difference in price but I'm still weighing the pros and cons.
Click to expand...

That's fantastic. I like the look of the softbox with the grid attached. It's good to be able to see images of how things actually fit together. Once I get my head around it all it'll be fine.

pipperfect said:
I'm just getting into the Strobist thing seriously.
There are some very good tutorial DVD's made by David Hobby & Zack Arias, I found Zacks particularly useful for setup information although David's website is much better.
Both recommend kit but are very orientated to the (huge) American Strobist scene, some of which is hard to get hold of in the UK & on within a reasonable budget so I used the above as a starting point.
If you want any info on exactly what kit I use I'd be happy to help.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer of help. I might need to take you up on that if I encounter some sort of fail in my mission :D
 
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