Should I have just got speedlights?

mikeplow1961

mikeplow1961

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Okay, here's the situation.

I purchased one of those ebay studio in a holdall kits with three Neewar 300C strobes. Don't get me wrong, for the money they are pretty good and I've taken some nice shots of my daughter and friend's kids etc. However, I do find I am using them on minimum power all the time and because I'm generally working in my small home cinema/sitting room I'm tight on space so don't have a great deal of flexibilty in moving them far from the subject.

Would I fare better with speedlights? I'm finding it hard to be able to get more interesting shots because I'm so limited in how I can position them and how close I have to have them. Would I have more control, ie, be able to use less power/light but still get as bright as my 300c's on min when needed?

I'm going to have to buy some at some point anyway as my partner's sister has asked if I'll take photos at their wedding and, as it's for her sister, her indoors has agreed to sign off the budget expendeture form but thought I'd start seeking some advice before I begin pricing/reserach etc.

Thanks, as always, for any advice/info offered.
 
I don't know anything about these particular lights, but can I ask what modifiers you are using (brollies/softboxes/beauty dish etc) as it is these items that should dictate the usability in the space you have. Also, you say too bright... what camera settings are you using? I generally shoot at f/11 for my studio work so as to kill any ambient without having to turn off the room lighting for safety reasons with kids, and I'm using 500w/s lights at about 3/4 power through say a 100cm x 100cm softbox at about 3'6" - 4' from the subject.
 
I tend to be using a couple of softboxes 50x100 with two baffles, I do have a white brolly and a silver/black one but not used them in anger, and I'm shooting at f11 usually, but in a very confined space. The usable floor area I have is about 10x5 feet which is tiny I know. I am able to put the lights either side of the floor space but they are never really more than a few feet away from the subject. I can get really nice flat lighting, which looks lovely on the kid portrait shots that I've done but I'd like to start to use shade and shadow a bit and feel I'm struggling because I can't get my strobes any less bright and can't move them further away.
 
One of the problems with cheaper lights is that they have very limited power adjustment to start with, and another problem is that they rarely actually adjust as much as is claimed.

The answer is to firstly set your camera ISO as low as possible, and if that isn't enough you should use a neutral density filter over your lens. A 0.9 ND filter will reduce the effective power by 1/8th, so that's the one to go for if your camera will autofocus 3 stops down from normal...

Never try to reduce the effective power by moving the lights further away, as this will change the quality of the light. The correct distance is the distance that produces the lighting effect you want.
 
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