Which to buy??

[snapsnap]

Hi I have now the cash to buy a full flash system i don't no to go with Lencrata ep 300 or the elemental 2 flash head. I will be spending around £600.

I will be using it for home photo's of the children.

I guess i willl need a soft box but looking at getting both flash heads with softbox. or will something else be better?

I would like a different colour bg so i was thing a set of gels too. so maybe a barn door? but then that will only leave one flash for the subject.

If you had the money to spend what do you think will be best for the money.

Thanks in advance

Cheers

 

[Garry Edwards]

A two head kit will do pretty much everything you need, unless you want pure white backgrounds, which will need 4 heads ideally, 3 at a pinch.

If you want coloured backgrounds you're better off getting backgrounds in the colours you want, rather than lighting them with gels. Gels will do the job on a grey background but need a fair bit of space - and if you want the lighting to be even then you're looking at 2 lights just for the background. Gels really come into their own for splashes of colour on the background.

A softbox is a good choice for your kind of shots, the bigger the better if you have space for a large one. A lot of people think that one softbox each side of the subject is 'good' lighting but it always looks unnatural and flat, my advice for most situations is a softbox as key light and either a white reflective or shoot through umbrella, placed on axis with the camera, as a fill light.