Lighting Kit

G

ggrantly

Veteran
Hello Listers,

I play in both video and still photo and want to expand my light kit for still work. Presently I have a Arri kit with a bunch of softboxes. Given time to set up, the Arris can do great still work, but they are both heavy and hot. I want a more portable and cool kit for field portraits and maybe an occasional wedding.

The things I have considered in no order of favor:

A set of Canon 580 strobes, stands, modifiers and remote trigger. This is the lightest possible setup.

A set of monolights with stands, modifiers and remote trigger. Heavier, but much more versitile than the strobes.

A set of daylight flourescents. More to lug around, but nice light and cool, and can be used with my video gear.

Any thoughts from those of you doing both video and still work.

Best Regards,
Grant
 
For weddings we use both hot shoe and mono strobes depending on where and what we are doing. For field photography flo's would be totally impractical, and you already have lights to use with your film work.

If I were you I'd pick up at least one high powered, like 600ws or more, mono and a battery/inverter to run it with when there is no power. Then I'd get a hand full of cheapo hot shoe strobes, tons-o-rechargeable AA batteries, and a bunch of reliable (CyberSync, SkyPorts, PW) triggers. Past that, a hefty stand for each light, a softbox for the big light, some umbrellas, and Honl grids/snoots for the little strobes. That would put you in serious business.
 
If your going the Canon speedlight route, I would recommend getting a 580ex, two 480exs, 1 flex mini and 2 or 3 pocketwizards flexTT5s. The 580ex is used in cunjunction on the camera with the flexmini and can give you power ratios with your 480exs. Get the third flexTT5 if you want to take the 580ex off camera but you can't set ratios in this manner (just manual power settings or uniform ETTL) Don't get the Canon STE2 unless you never want the 580EX on the camera and don't need more than 2 ratios. The 580EX provides you with 3 ratios. Also, don't get the STE2 to replace pocketwizards (it uses infrared which won't work well for long distances or outdoors).

If you go with speedlights, pick up a pack of rosco sample gels, they are ultra cheap and can be easily mounted on top of most speedlights to change flash WB.
 
egproductions said:
The 580ex is used in cunjunction on the camera with the flexmini and can give you power ratios with your 480exs.
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Just curious, what does a Flex Mini offer that the TT5 doesn't? The difference in price between the two devices is $20, so it would seem advisable to bite the $20 bullet to have another TT5 on hand. Of course, that's assuming they offer the same functionality.

I know the mini has 52 channels, whereas the TT5 has 32 channels, but that wouldn't affect my workflow.

I will throw in some praise for the ST-E2, though. I've used it before to trigger a 580 at 50 feet and it never failed to fire. Worth having one, IMO, if you're going the Canon speedlite route.

Good thread :thumbsup:
 
Some people, like Joe McNally, use wireless TTL a lot. Personally, I almost never touch it. I can tell you for sure that I 100% DO NOT use it for professional gigs. That is why I suggested cheaper flashes. The quality of light is the same from all of them (for the most part). I wouldn't blow too much money on the TTL route. But that's just me.
 
DivotDan said:
Some people, like Joe McNally, use wireless TTL a lot. Personally, I almost never touch it. I can tell you for sure that I 100% DO NOT use it for professional gigs. That is why I suggested cheaper flashes. The quality of light is the same from all of them (for the most part). I wouldn't blow too much money on the TTL route. But that's just me.
Click to expand...

Dan, I hear what your saying. For pro gigs that require consisten light output like studio work, TTL just doesn't fly because depending on what your lens is seeing (white or dark tones) its going to change the light output and effect the ambient light balance.

For events however, I like using it when i'm not shooting formal portraits. Basically anytime that I'm moving around where normally I would have used an on camera flash. If my lighting grip is moving around with a flash and I don't have time to worry about flash power levels ETTL is great.

It's also great because it allows for highspeed sync off camera.
 
Love it. Great for low cost. If I was shooting clients paying me $10k a shoot, then I'd likely have profoto or something, but for what I do they work great.

CyberCommander is a God send btw. Works perfectly!
 
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