basic portrait lighting?

mastertrinity

mastertrinity

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I'm after some basic lighting just to start experimenting with portraiture. I watched a few videos from Gavin Hoey when he was using Micansu lights and after careful inspection they seem like a cheaper replica of the elemental genesis lights.

Budget wise is in the lower regions, all I'm after is a two light set up for around £250-£300. I also have a Jessops flashgun so just to throw another spanner into the works is it better to spend the cash on making that flash into a portable strobe and even get a second one for less than a big strobe set up.

my portraits are in small environments such as living rooms and I am planning on shooting alot of paid portraits during the winter months because during the brighter months I like to use natural light but there's only little of that this winter.

any help would be gratefully appreciated.

here is the flash head in question;

http://www.micansu.co.uk/300w-Flash-head-p-37.html
 
You'll need another £30 to get the Elemental Genesis lights and I have found them excellent so far (there's a review in my signature). If you must remain in budget then the two kit Lencarta lights are cheaper and start at £249.95.

There's plenty of reviews on both manufacturers on the forum and I don't think there's any other makes worth looking at around your budget level. It's worth having a good read on all the makes and models so you get the kit that suit your requirements :thumbs:

It's easy enough to use them in small environments but I wouldn't ignore going down the strobist route - I think David knows a fair bit about this. You may find a bigger challenge with backgrounds!
 
does your jessops flashgun have full manual control, if not bin it now :D

if you want outside use then splash some cash on a single sony speedlight (the biggest one if you can run to it) as they're really really nice guns

personally I think if you want the studio look use a studio because its just better in everyway the big thing here being SPACE to get good results in a small room with white walls (you will redefine small when you start lighting) doesn't happen if you want full lengths and groups.

Light quantity is never an issue with decent modern kit (unless you're fighting the sun then you need some flash power) the problem is always quality, winter light is flat and dull, it means you use iso 800 to get some depth of field (guessing an issue on an entry level body)

personally I find doing non enviromental portraiture inside to be fairly hateful, especially when its families and kids and stuff

I'd be looking at pushing the budget and going strobist but I need to be man portable and I can do any job you like from a peli and a shoulder bag (considering adding battery powered pack n head to the mix but its proper money)

What is your aim, who are your clients?
 
I'm doing this mainly for the odd portrait client who might want a basic headshot but also I've been asked by a few models if I can do shoots plus some have asked for environmental portraits which is why I thought the best route would be strobist.

my jessops flashgun is a 360afs with manual control and I can get a light stand and ezybox softbox for £60 so that's already a one light set up however I weren't sure whether it was best to get an actual studio lighting kit like lencarta or elemental. I do alot of shoots around clients houses so portability and size are my biggest priorities. I will have a look at the lencarta kits and elemental kits and then check how much it would cost to do a two light strobist system and then see the advantages and disadvantages of the three.
 
personally I hate wires so snaking mains cables around is a pita especially for working in houses

I'd go for a pair of decent stands a + adapters brolly a softbox and 3x rf 602 recievers with 2x transmitters (a working redundancy) with say the smaller of the sony guns whatever equates to a 430exII

then when you have additional funds grab another rx a big gun and say a big stand

some black card gives you flexible snoots and flags for when you need them along with a few rolls of tape

I'll go price it all from calumet who give you a 20% discount on own branded stuff as a student

then grab the radio slaves off ebay and the gun off your supplier of choice
 
oh and the 2 sony guns later on give you maybe off camera ttl ( I use a 580 and a 430 with the 580 as a master on a 10m cable and the 430 remote, if I had more 580s or an st-e2 I'd use that but I dont and the cable is cheap)
 
I'm also a wire hater and especially when I sometimes have to do kid shoots I don't want it to be a hazard.

Would I really be able to afford all that for £300! that's a good price. so you'd recommend a two light set up then to start with? is it really worth spending £200 on the sony F42 flash compared to save £120 and buying another jessops 360 flash?
 
yes you will long term want to have exclusively big sony flashes as they are just plain better than 3rd party (working from what I know of canon gear) you'll drop a hundred quid ish at calumet + the softbox (god knows) and the slaves (like £40?) so either push the budget or get the jessops gun

I have a yn-460 and its handy sometimes but I never like relying on it as its just not as good, especially on recycle times and zoom heads are soooo handy
 
If you really don't like wires then you'll have to go the hotshoe route, but it will probably cost you a lot more money and you won't get the fast recycling, consistent colour temperature consistency and modelling lamps that you'll get with decent quality studio flash. And it's much more difficult to get creative lighting if you don't have studio flash.

You can get a SmartFlash kit for £250 and you can now customise it in any way you like, it's really a case of you pays your money and takes your choice.
 
Garry Edwards said:
If you really don't like wires then you'll have to go the hotshoe route, but it will probably cost you a lot more money and you won't get the fast recycling, consistent colour temperature consistency and modelling lamps that you'll get with decent quality studio flash. And it's much more difficult to get creative lighting if you don't have studio flash.

You can get a SmartFlash kit for £250 and you can now customise it in any way you like, it's really a case of you pays your money and takes your choice.
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they are however as useful as a chocolate teapot outside :D

Like a say studio kit in the studio, for this stuff its unwieldy (in the extreme)
 
well it must be a sign but my 15 month old Jessops 360afs has finally passed away so now it looks like I'm going to purchase the f42 by Sony which should have better build quality and it also gives me more power :D
 
hahaha yeah, then when you have funds you can add lights :D is the f42 the 430exII or 580exII equivelant?

should be funky, with a spare strap and some bungies you can throw the stand and brolly over your shoulder and go :D
 
the f42 is the 430exII equivalent (both have a GN of 42) so yeah I'm going into Jessops tomorrow to see if it can be fixed and if it can't or it's too expensive it's going to get binned and I might ask Santa for a new flash :D
 
I'd be asking Jessops to fix it free or offer a goodwill gesture on a new flash, 15 months is a very poor time span.

My 430ex is more than double that and it's still doing it's job perfectly.

I use the interfit xs flash brackets as they allow the fitment of any other accessory with the S type coupling. That effectively means I can swap my beauty dish, brollies or softboxes from strobe to studio heads without an issue.
 
digitalfailure said:
I'd be asking Jessops to fix it free or offer a goodwill gesture on a new flash, 15 months is a very poor time span.

My 430ex is more than double that and it's still doing it's job perfectly.

I use the interfit xs flash brackets as they allow the fitment of any other accessory with the S type coupling. That effectively means I can swap my beauty dish, brollies or softboxes from strobe to studio heads without an issue.
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yeah to be honest I thought that the flash should last at least 2 years which would have kept me happy. Somehow I doubt they will give me a new free flash or in the case you mentioned give a discount on a new one but they might be willing to fix it for free.

As for the XS bracket I have noticed them but they can start to become expensive and with flashes with low power of 36 or 42 I don't think that the larger softboxes and umbrellas are going to make much of a difference however I can see from your POV, I can go both routes, start out basic strobist and learn flash photography and then get some bigger strobes if I start needing more studio work and I only have to have a limited set of accessories then due to the S coupling. cheers digital failure :)
 
everything I use day to day job - job is non mount specific, I'd really like to go to apollo softboxes for this. The softboxes I've played with for studio heads are a pita to set up. Even my ezybox takes too long sometimes, for a lot of jobs the focus is to be as quick and clean as possible
 
I've had no problems using a 430 with the interfit xs softbox.....think it's 40x40, or by using a brolly. In a lounge environment your going to be pretty close to subject as the stands etc suck up available space.

If you have massive softboxes you run the risk of blocking your shot and needing multiple flashes inside each box to get the power.......that's starting to look like a :eek: prospect.
 
digitalfailure said:
I've had no problems using a 430 with the interfit xs softbox.....think it's 40x40, or by using a brolly. In a lounge environment your going to be pretty close to subject as the stands etc suck up available space.

If you have massive softboxes you run the risk of blocking your shot and needing multiple flashes inside each box to get the power.......that's starting to look like a :eek: prospect.
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the softbox I've found is a 50x50 and it's an ezybox lookalike from elemental. Do you think that will work well with the 360afs or f42 ya reckon?

I'm pretty much trying to keep minimal so I'm only going to be using smaller softboxes and umbrellas. :)
 
Ask the shop if you can try it tbh. My interfit box is 40x40 and that's fine with the 430ex as it's double diffused. I don't think i've ever had the 430 on 1/1 power with the soft box on because of the distances it's typically used to cover.

Groups and full body are more evenly lit with shoot through brollies I find.
 
mastertrinity said:
the softbox I've found is a 50x50 and it's an ezybox lookalike from elemental. Do you think that will work well with the 360afs or f42 ya reckon?

I'm pretty much trying to keep minimal so I'm only going to be using smaller softboxes and umbrellas. :)
Click to expand...

if its a pop up one then consider it, don't consider a conventional one, takes too long and right now you don't need any of the options they can provide
 
mastertrinity said:
I'm after some basic lighting just to start experimenting with portraiture. I watched a few videos from Gavin Hoey when he was using Micansu lights and after careful inspection they seem like a cheaper replica of the elemental genesis lights.

here is the flash head in question;

http://www.micansu.co.uk/300w-Flash-head-p-37.html
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that It is not a cheaper replica of the Elemental. It is made by the same Chinese factory that supplies Elemental gear.

Here are the links to manufacturers sites:

http://www.mettlecorp.cn/siteengine.php?do=productdetail_en&id=89

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=5505784504

http://www.nb-ocaso.com/EnProductShow.asp?ID=751

http://www.nb-ocaso.com/EnProductShow.asp?ID=871
 
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The elemental ones have an extra 6 capacitors driving the leds on the back to give better colour consistency
 
LEDs on the back light up the buttons. How does that have anything to do with colour consistency. Any capacitors driving LEDs would be the micro ones, I wouldn't think they can affect the flash tube in anyway. Bear in mind the flash tube typically have a triggering voltage of 1kV-2kV. To achieve that, the main flash capacitors (the huge electrolytic ones) have a typical rated voltage of 360-500V. Now that sort of voltage will fry any LEDs.
 
I think he was joking and I can guess why ;)
 
Ah... that was a waste of time then :bonk:
 
david1701 said:
The elemental ones have an extra 6 capacitors driving the leds on the back to give better colour consistency
Click to expand...

:'D


And yes, not a rip off of the elemental, but likely similar shared components or more. But consider prices, what with import, shipping of heavy things etc, buying stands, it may be cheaper in those cases to buy local, plus you get the support of a reliable UK seller.

But what Dave said really... spend the money on the mini stands as opposed to the £10 cheaper (after student discount) konigs, etc, and you'll have a really nice, genuinely useful kit - you can't use light if it's not with you, so it end of the day needs to be easy to use and cart about the place.
 
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Thats rather spiffing of them.

Well done to Jessops for doing the right thing and providing excellent customer service.
 
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