Is this Portrait Kit any good?

cambsno · 5 Oct 2009

Seen this on Warehouse Express - http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-strobies-portrait-kit/p1031888 Has anyone used this or anything similar before?

Have a SB600 which is a pretty decent flash, and 99% of time just bounce off ceiling. Would these bits and pieces assist in being more creative with lighting?

Garry Edwards · 5 Oct 2009

Never tried it, but this thread may help http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=167565

HoppyUK · 5 Oct 2009

Garry Edwards said:
Never tried it, but this thread may help http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=167565

Get off the fence Garry

It's rubbish. If you want to develop your flash photography, you need to make the light source bigger - much bigger. Hence the use of brollies as big reflectors, and softboxes.

You could do a lot worse than start with a 60cm softbox like this one from Flash In The Pan. It's a bargain http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=157807

Garry Edwards · 6 Oct 2009

HoppyUK said:
Get off the fence Garry

It's rubbish. If you want to develop your flash photography, you need to make the light source bigger - much bigger. Hence the use of brollies as big reflectors, and softboxes.

You could do a lot worse than start with a 60cm softbox like this one from Flash In The Pan. It's a bargain http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=157807

I always tell the truth - the truth in this case is that I've never used it -
and I'll be accused of all sorts of things if I say that any piece of lighting equipment is rubbish

I agree generally that most people need larger light sources when they start out, but as knowledge, skill and creativity increases most people find that they also need much smaller ones too

HoppyUK · 6 Oct 2009

Garry Edwards said:
I always tell the truth - the truth in this case is that I've never used it -
and I'll be accused of all sorts of things if I say that any piece of lighting equipment is rubbish
I agree generally that most people need larger light sources when they start out, but as knowledge, skill and creativity increases most people find that they also need much smaller ones too

You should be in politics bud

I've never used it either, and although I like those kinds of toys I have no intention of going anywhere near it. That not snobbery or ignorance, just that I can see that it's small.

Hot shoe guns are already very small and there is no point in a snoot or honeycomb to make the damn things even smaller. The beauty dish is a joke. The mini-soft box might be okay, but Lumiquest and Lastolite make better ones much cheaper. That globe thing probably works okay too, but a Stofen is just as good, more practical and doesn't look so silly, or one of those Lambency jobbies that Flash In The Pan sells for a tenner.

It's gimmicky rubbish, cashing in on the current craze for anything with 'Strobist' in the name. I don't even think that is being controversial

Edit: they will sell shed loads for Christmas :lol:

Garry Edwards · 6 Oct 2009

HoppyUK said:
You should be in politics bud

I've never used it either, and although I like those kinds of toys I have no intention of going anywhere near it. That not snobbery or ignorance, just that I can see that it's small.

Hot shoe guns are already very small and there is no point in a snoot or honeycomb to make the damn things even smaller. The beauty dish is a joke. The mini-soft box might be okay, but Lumiquest and Lastolite make better ones much cheaper. That globe thing probably works okay too, but a Stofen is just as good, more practical and doesn't look so silly, or one of those Lambency jobbies that Flash In The Pan sells for a tenner.

It's gimmicky rubbish, cashing in on the current craze for anything with 'Strobist' in the name. I don't even think that is being controversial

Edit: they will sell shed loads for Christmas

Tell you what then - I'll think quietly and you can say loudly :lol:

HoppyUK · 6 Oct 2009

Garry Edwards said:
Tell you what then - I'll think quietly and you can say loudly

That's a bit more like it

But since I'm on a roll...

Consider the economics of shooting portraits with a kit like this. Three guns for at least £100 each, plus stands, and if you are going to make a decent fist of the main key light, a brolly too. Not much change from £400 for that, plus the Strobies kit. £500

You could do better with proper studio lights for less and get some decent power, fast recycling, and modelling lights.

Strobist style with hot shoe guns does not make much sense indoors or anywhere bear a mains socket, when studio lights are a cheaper and better option. However, they really come in to their own on location where studio flash is very difficult, cumbersome and expensive. Indeed, they have opened up a new genre of photography here thanks to usuable power at the higher ISOs that are now possible with digital. I am also a big fan of auto-TTL metering that Nikon and Canon (and others) top end guns are capable of, making off-camera multi-remote flash photography a doable prospect even for less experienced photographers, instead of being a general nightmare.

The likes of Joe McNally do remarkable things with hot shoe guns, putting wonderful light in impossible places and making pictures like we've not seen before. I saw a shot of the NY fire service where he'd mounted guns inside and outside the cab of the engine, shooting on the move at night. Fantastic images.

But when he's out in the desert and has seven SB900 guns lined up in a bank to do battle with the sun, and mostly losing, it does seem a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face with so many excellent battery-generator powered studio style systems about, and they're very affordable too. Even a set of those fabulous little Elinchrom Quadras is cheaper than a load of hot shoe guns.

Garry Edwards · 6 Oct 2009

HoppyUK said:
But when he's out in the desert and has seven SB900 guns lined up in a bank to do battle with the sun, and mostly losing, it does seem a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face with so many excellent battery-generator powered studio style systems about, and they're very affordable too. Even a set of those fabulous little Elinchrom Quadras is cheaper than a load of hot shoe guns.

Agreed. I used to recommend Elinchrom too, before I discovered Lencarta

But there's more to it than just lack of (effective) modfiers and lack of power with hotshoe flashes, it's wildly varying colour temperature too, depending on flash duration of course. Sometimes it genuinely doesn't matter that the light is blue, because it's better to get something than nothing (which is where the Strobist approach came from in the first place, for press photographers who needed to get SOME kind of a shot), and sometimes it does matter but the photographer or the viewers think the shooter is just being creative.

People simply need to understand that it's a case of horses for courses, hotshoe flashes do some things better than studio flash (especially when very short flash duration is needed) but are no substitute when mains power, or battery powered studio flash can be used instead.

HoppyUK · 6 Oct 2009

Garry Edwards said:
Agreed. I used to recommend Elinchrom too, before I discovered Lencarta
But there's more to it than just lack of (effective) modfiers and lack of power with hotshoe flashes, it's wildly varying colour temperature too, depending on flash duration of course. Sometimes it genuinely doesn't matter that the light is blue, because it's better to get something than nothing (which is where the Strobist approach came from in the first place, for press photographers who needed to get SOME kind of a shot), and sometimes it does matter but the photographer or the viewers think the shooter is just being creative.

People simply need to understand that it's a case of horses for courses, hotshoe flashes do some things better than studio flash (especially when very short flash duration is needed) but are no substitute when mains power, or battery powered studio flash can be used instead.

You've said this before Garry, and I've disagreed with you then. And while I concede that colour temperature (ie white balance) does change with output power on hot shoe guns, all I can say is that in my experience that problem is more historical than current, and I would never describe it as "wildly varying".

Today, I only have Canon 580EX guns to hand but running through the power range from full power right down to 1/128th power, and shooting a standard grey card just now, the difference is barely noticeable and certainly not objectionable. Maybe other guns are worse, I've not actually tested them, but that is a heck of a power range to cover (flash duration varying from 1/833sec right down to 1/35,000sec as tested here http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/flashdurations.html ) and I honestly doubt that modern guns are that bad.

Furthermore, if there is a problem, and that is quite likely to come from a reflector/diffuser/bounce surface (and equally possible with studio flash in this respect) then a custom white balance check sorts it out very easily. Or correction in post processing of course.