Lighting advice

[xhippy]

Hi All

I'm in a situation where I have a very good opportunity to get myself a little studio, and I'm looking for advise on the best lighting for my budget.

I'm currently looking at these two kits for a starters but really open to suggestions:

Budget (£1000 - £1200)

Elinchrom D-Lite it 2 Studio 2 Go SetElinchrom D-Lite it 4 Studio 2 Go Set

The reason behind the two different sets was to have different configuration options with backlighting, hair light etc.

Am I going overkill for the size of the room, it's about 7mtrs x 5mtrs?

Thanks in advanced

 

[HoppyUK]

Welcome to TP

You'll not go far wrong with D-Lites, but you've chosen four lights there with four identical softboxes.

My advice would be to just get the D-Lite 2 kit, start off with just one head and learn about light, how it works and how to use it. Then move forward from there when you know what you need.

If that was my £1k, I would spend about half on three heads (though rarely use more than two) and the rest on some nice modifiers.

 

[xhippy]

Thanks Hoppy,

Am I right in saying there is only 1 stop between the two models? I've seen somebody state it somewhere and didn't know if it would be better to have a higher power set and reduce the power. That way I have room to maneuver later on.

Also portability needs to be considered in my case due to the studio not being secure, so I need to remove lighting each time I'm done (grrrrrrr).

Maybe I'll have a look at what Modifiers I can get to enhance the D-Lites, any suggestions?

Thanks again

 

[HoppyUK]

Thanks Hoppy,

Am I right in saying there is only 1 stop between the two models? I've seen somebody state it somewhere and didn't know if it would be better to have a higher power set and reduce the power. That way I have room to maneuver later on.

Also portability needs to be considered in my case due to the studio not being secure, so I need to remove lighting each time I'm done (grrrrrrr).

Maybe I'll have a look at what Modifiers I can get to enhance the D-Lites, any suggestions?

Thanks again

Yes, in round numbers if you double the Ws, you get twice the light - one stop. But how much light do you need? Studio flash is very bright and 200ws will give you something around f/16 from a 100cm softbox at 1.0m with ISO100. You can turn them down of course but most heads like the D-Lites only turn down about four stops (that's a 5 stops range) so at min power you'll still be around f/4. For shallow DoF effects you might want to go lower than that and having lights that are too powerful can make life more difficult rather than easier.

I use D-Lite 2 and they're usually around quarter power for portraits. If you do need more light, for groups perhaps, then raising the ISO one stop effectively doubles the power output, another stop doubles it again and so on.

If you want portable, then the D-Lites are much lighter than anything similar. You should also consider getting quick-fold softboxes as the regular/cheap ones are a right PITA to put up and down.

There are hundreds of different modifiers around, and beyond a basic regular size softbox or brollies for regular portraiture, what you want/need is entirely personal. What you certainly don't want is four identical softboxes! So begin with something safe that you know will a) do what you want for starters, and b) not waste money on duplicates or stuff that you won't use.

 

[xhippy]

Awesome, thanks for the great advice Hoppy. After looking at the premises today it's definitely big enough for groups, but I'm going to start off small, so I'll be taking your advice on board.

 

[HoppyUK]

Awesome, thanks for the great advice Hoppy. After looking at the premises today it's definitely big enough for groups, but I'm going to start off small, so I'll be taking your advice on board.

You're welcome. Dunno if this helps, but if it was me, for around your budget I would either be looking at D-Lites, or the BX-Ri 250/500 models - prolly two 250s and one 500.

Tons of power there when you need it, while the 250s go lower and also have the benefit of the shortest flash durations of anything at the affordable end. Then some Lencarta Profold softboxes (say 85 octa and 70x100 with grid, that I have), selection of brollies, then maybe a snoot, beauty dish, and something smaller with a honeycomb. Skyport Speed triggers are very good, don't forget backgrounds, and a white/silver reflector.

Don't think you'd go far wrong there for portraits, but I don't know exactly what you're planning. But either way, seriously get to learn what's what with just one light. Even when you have multiple lights going, it's always just one light that should be doing the lion's share of the main subject key lighting.