Which Flash System?

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Yip great stuff you need to read and reread great can i just add that there is a lot of great second hand equipment out there I would consider buying secound hand everytime as long as oyu have back up equipment.

All the best
 
Abraxo said:
What preference do most people have regarding softbox and umbrella reflectors? I've always wondered what the noticeable differences are between the two, results wise.
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They are both tools for a job and there are things that you can do with a soft box that you can't reasonably do with an umbrella such as pointing it so the edge creates a more pronounced drop off in the light. Umbrellas take up less space and are more portable.
 
cowasaki said:
They are both tools for a job and there are things that you can do with a soft box that you can't reasonably do with an umbrella such as pointing it so the edge creates a more pronounced drop off in the light. Umbrellas take up less space and are more portable.
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Thanks a lot for the advice. I may get a softbox after so I can do some direct comparisons.
 
Great thread and very useful information.

As mentioned elsewhere I am going down the strobist route and recently found the StroBeam kit, bought these at Focus:

StroBeam dl250 Mk III

Had little time to test them, but seem very good so far.

Regards

Chris
 
G2EWS said:
Great thread and very useful information.

As mentioned elsewhere I am going down the strobist route and recently found the StroBeam kit, bought these at Focus:

StroBeam dl250 Mk III

Had little time to test them, but seem very good so far.

Regards

Chris
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Chris, I would be very interested to hear about flash duration, power rating, how many shots on full power can you get from one charge and recycling speeds!
 
Hi Sebastian,

I am very new at it and only just managing to mess around. But I can tell you the kit is 250W which I guess is obvious.

Cannot remember how many shots on one charge, but it was many thousands if memory serves. I have asked a friend who was with me at Focus and has just bought a set also.

I did a test and set at 1/16th power, camera at F2, 125th on slow multi shot on the D3S and it just kept taking shots no problem. I think that is about 4 or 5 frames a second.

I now have two 'professional' photographer friends who have bought them. One is a member on here and portrait photographer, so I will point him to the thread and the other is a professional landscape photographer.

Best regards

Chris
 
Hi Sebastian,

Check out the thread I have put up about them:

StroBeam TP Thread

Just about to put some data on there as well for you.

Regards

Chris
 
Garry Edwards said:
Sometimes, I feel a bit like John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness with nobody listening and nobody understanding what he’s actually saying
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The opposite is true, at least for myself. Keep preaching!

Nice addition to the thread Garry.
 
cowasaki said:
They are both tools for a job and there are things that you can do with a soft box that you can't reasonably do with an umbrella such as pointing it so the edge creates a more pronounced drop off in the light. Umbrellas take up less space and are more portable.
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In general, softboxes are much more directional than umbrellas.

In a wide open space umbrellas are great, but in a confined environment unwanted light spill can de-saturate sadows and carry with it unwanted colour casts.

The character of a softbox can with some systems run seamlessly from that of a beauty dish to a full softbox look --- in simple to understand steps.

Great for learning lighting !
 
Flashtec said:
In general, softboxes are much more directional than umbrellas.

In a wide open space umbrellas are great, but in a confined environment unwanted light spill can de-saturate sadows and carry with it unwanted colour casts.

The character of a softbox can with some systems run seamlessly from that of a beauty dish to a full softbox look --- in simple to understand steps.

Great for learning lighting !
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I agree, as I said they are all tools for a job. There are so many other options such as beauty dishes, a multitude of different shaped softboxs, different sized reflectors, barn doors , funnels/snorkels, reflector panels and more. Unless you are rich you have to chose the ones that fit in with what you are doing. I personally like softboxes and have 2x2'x2', 140x40 & 1.2m octobox but a couple of brollies are very cheap and do make it all far more portable. Some things are just much simpler with the right kit. I like low key studio images in black and white and as such the 140x40 is useful. I generally use the 1.2m octobox as the main light in the studio as I like the catchlights it produces but again this is just personal preference.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Sometimes, I feel a bit like John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness with nobody listening and nobody understanding what he’s actually saying
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Garry, you want to be careful though.... Don't start dunking people under water with all those studio lights around. Remember water and electricity don't mix :rules:
 
cowasaki said:
I agree, as I said they are all tools for a job. There are so many other options such as beauty dishes, a multitude of different shaped softboxs, different sized reflectors, barn doors , funnels/snorkels, reflector panels and more. Unless you are rich you have to chose the ones that fit in with what you are doing. I personally like softboxes and have 2x2'x2', 140x40 & 1.2m octobox but a couple of brollies are very cheap and do make it all far more portable. Some things are just much simpler with the right kit. I like low key studio images in black and white and as such the 140x40 is useful. I generally use the 1.2m octobox as the main light in the studio as I like the catchlights it produces but again this is just personal preference.
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By seamlessly, I don't mean that you need to buy all the accessories --- I mean that there are inexpensive accessories for softboxes that will enable some systems to run through from a beauty dish look, to a full blown softbox.

For example, if you were to choose an octagonal shaped softbox, this will closely carry the catchlight (reflection in the eye) of a circular beauty dish. But it has the advantage of folding up !

Used bare, with nothing, there are two elements to the light --- the direct light from the modelling lamp and flash tube which will create a hard edged light, and the softer reflected light from the reflection material.

By varying the ratio of the direct light to the softer reflected light with an accessory called the Deflector Set (it fits down the central umbrella tube), you can easily take out a small, medium or all of the direct light (you can even add a warm tone if you wish), reflecting it back into the larger silvered reflector.
This is the beauty dish look.
On top of that you can then sequentially add diffusers to shift the lighting character from beauty dish to full softbox softness.

Low cost rental is the best way to experiment with this ... but it works incredibly well.
 
Flashtec said:
By seamlessly, I don't mean that you need to buy all the accessories --- I mean that there are inexpensive accessories for softboxes that will enable some systems to run through from a beauty dish look, to a full blown softbox.

For example, if you were to choose an octagonal shaped softbox, this will closely carry the catchlight (reflection in the eye) of a circular beauty dish. But it has the advantage of folding up !

Used bare, with nothing, there are two elements to the light --- the direct light from the modelling lamp and flash tube which will create a hard edged light, and the softer reflected light from the reflection material.

By varying the ratio of the direct light to the softer reflected light with an accessory called the Deflector Set (it fits down the central umbrella tube), you can easily take out a small, medium or all of the direct light (you can even add a warm tone if you wish), reflecting it back into the larger silvered reflector.
This is the beauty dish look.
On top of that you can then sequentially add diffusers to shift the lighting character from beauty dish to full softbox softness.

Low cost rental is the best way to experiment with this ... but it works incredibly well.
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You've posted this as a reply to my post :shrug:. Are you telling me this or just posting this information? I'm just a little confused as it looks like you are replying to mine explaining what you mean by seamlessly when I haven't mentioned seamlessness or any of the other things you mention.

However what you are saying is right and I agree with it. You can also do what you have said in other ways too. Cardboard, bin liners, black foil, reflectors and all manner of other things can totally change the way that a light modifier works. You can turn an octobox into a strip light with a cardboard box or turn a studio light into a spot light with a piece of drain pipe too :)

The point about the modelling light though needs discussion.... The modelling light doesn't really affect the exposure or shouldn't. Try shooting a model with just the modelling light on but with the other settings as per studio flash and you should get a virtually black frame.
 
I thought you were suggesting that buying all the accessories was expensive.

I was therefore mentioning that some systems are so integrated that something as obvious as an octagonal Softbox can be many other things besides.

In this case, from a fold up beauty dish (novel), to a full soft softbox, and many other things in between.

And maybe a little better than "Christmas" trimmings, because the system is modular and makes effects easily repeatable.

So a great learning device. And a great "creating your own style" device.

Apologies if this isn't how it read.
 
Great thread with lots of useful info - just what I was looking for - thanks all.
 
DrGed said:
As a newbie I would be grateful if someone could tell me exactly what this means.
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What this means is that most of the cheap flash stuff sold on Ebay is junk. It's made down to a price, it's sold at prices that people can't resist and it isn't built to perform, let alone to last.

One thing to consider is electrical safety. The product may or may not have the "EU" sticker on it, but if it does then it means nothing, because the factory will happily print it on there regardless of whether or not it meets the safety standard.

"ROHS" printed on the case may impress some people, all that it actually means is that the product is SAID to comply with rules on things like mercury content. Again, it's meaningless.

We get a few people on here telling us that their cheap Ebay lights caught fire, or blew up, or that the power adjustment doesn't work,or that every time they flash it it produces light of a different colour/and or intensity, and then we get others saying that they are perfectly happy with theirs.

There are various possible reasons for this disparity.
Firstly, nobody actually knows who makes the Ebay junk, there are a very limited number of casings used, and all of those casings are shared between a large number of manufacturers, so there is no clue there. Even if they are taken apart (definitely not recommended) there are no clues inside either, because they all use generic parts, and many of those parts are recycled. So, a fairly decent manufacturer may produce a reasonable product, but another one that looks exactly the same may be a dangerous pile of badly performing junk...

Add into the mix the fact that many Ebay sellers dabble in all sorts of things, they know (and possibly care) nothing about studio flash, they don't have any kind of repair facilities and their products only need to last until the customer has left feedback, or for 1 month, whichever is the longer.

Of course, you will never find any user reviews on the web. The reason for this is that these products are sold under so many different names, and the names change so often, that no one name is around long enough to cause problems for the sellers.
 
Thanks, Garry.

I have noticed gear on ebay that has a very tempting price but there's really no way of knowing how good it is. I resisted on the grounds that it was just too risky.

I am currently awaiting delivery of a Yongnou flashgun I bought from Amazon, mainly on the strength of a lot of good customer reviews.

Time will tell if I made the right decision.
 
I find the Yongnou flashguns to be very reliable and more than worth the money! So I think that you will be happy with your purchase Ged
 
Very interesting. Thank you. Compelling images also.
 
Dazb75 said:
Note sure whether someone has mentioned this ...

When shooting with flash, I tend to use ISO 200. It means that the flashes use less power, recycle faster and last much longer on one set of batteries.
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Use ISO400 and it will use even less, ISO800 less again, and so on.
 
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