Lighting question

[andy1868]

Just a quick question. I am hoping to start taking portraits and was looking at continuous lighting to compliment my existing speedlites. However, i'm worried about how much light i'm going to be getting. As i have never used continuous lighting before i'm finding it hard to gauge how much i would be needing as i have no experience to call on for it.

For single portraits or small group shots i was looking at a couple of (2) Lencarta Quadlites which give a total of 105W per bulb. It is my understanding that this would then be a total of 820W (105Wx4 then x2) I would also have 2 flashguns but i was looking at using these to expose a Hilite in the background.

In real terms do we think that is going to be enough? I don't want to be spending 'X' amount on continuous lighting only to find i'm going to need more, or more powerful lighting :shrug:

Any help would be greatly appreciated If you need more information then please ask

 

[HoppyUK]

You sound fairly serious, so I would forget continuous lights. The Lencarta Quads are the brightest of the affordable units, and they are nowhere near as bright as flash. And you can't fit any other modifiers to them.

Suggestion: pop the flash guns in the Hilite and use just one studio flash head to the front. It's all you need - eg if you're on a budget, Lencarta Smartflash with 100cm-ish softbox plus a reflector.

 

[andy1868]

I think to be honest i was worried about flash because of the cost. But when you consider i was looking at 2 Quadlites, plus stands etc i was in the region of £300, when a twin smartflash setup can be had for the same sort of money HERE then maybe i was worrying about nothing. I assume that was the sort of equipment you were talking about?

With those coming with a 150W modelling lamp how would that compare to say the 420W of the continuous lighting? Is there something i'm missing? i'm sorry to sound so green but this is in the talk basics section for a reason

My other worry is sync cables/wireless triggers. I currently run the 2 flashguns off a wireless trigger that attaches to the hotshoe and all is well. How would i go about linking the Smart Flash heads to the camera? Looking through the Lencarta site there are wireless triggers etc but these would render the one for the flashguns un-usable as i can only attach one trigger at once

I assume the solution is sync cables but how do these attach to the camera? The camera body is a D7000 and hopefully a D200 as backup.

 

[PaulMW]

My other worry is sync cables/wireless triggers. I currently run the 2 flashguns off a wireless trigger that attaches to the hotshoe and all is well. How would i go about linking the Smart Flash heads to the camera? Looking through the Lencarta site there are wireless triggers etc but these would render the one for the flashguns un-usable as i can only attach one trigger at once

I assume the solution is sync cables but how do these attach to the camera? The camera body is a D7000 and hopefully a D200 as backup.

Most flashheads have an optical slave mode (which means another flash will trigger the light).

So you could just set the flashhead to this mode, and then use your speedlites as normal, when the speedlites are triggered then the flashead will also be triggered so no need for cables

 

[HoppyUK]

Most flashheads have an optical slave mode (which means another flash will trigger the light).

So you could just set the flashhead to this mode, and then use your speedlites as normal, when the speedlites are triggered then the flashead will also be triggered so no need for cables

^^^ Yes.

To the OP, you're confusing the modelling lamp with the flash output. The modelling lamp is a regular kind of bulb that is only used to simulate the light from the flash, so you can see what's going on.

The actual flash from the Smartflash is the equivalent of around 25x brighter than the Lencarta Quads, though you can of course turn it down.

 

[Garry Edwards]

Your best bet TBH is to get the mains powered radio trigger set, at £40. It plugs into one flash head and the other flash head then acts as a slave. Or you could use your existing triggers to fire an existing hotshoe flash, which in turn will fire the SmartFlash heads - as long as your hotshoe flashes aren't firing a pre-flash.

Sounds complicated but it isn't, because it all happens literally at the speed of light.

To answer your question about relative power, the modelling lamps on the SmartFlash are 150W each and the Quadlite lamps are a total of 420 watts (roughly equivalent to 1600 watts of tungsten light) but that's pretty irrelevant because the only role of the modelling lamps is to show you where the shadows will fall, they contribute virtually nothing to the actual flash.

Call the Quadlite 1600W, to make it simple, and compare that to the SmartFlash flash at 200Ws. Now, in a ONE SECOND exposure the Quadlite would produce 1600 watts of light. In a 1/100th second exposure (probably the longest realistic exposure that you can get sharp results at), the equivalent is 16 watts of light, making the SmartFlash about 12 times as powerful as the quadlites.

 

[Garry Edwards]

^^^ Yes.

To the OP, you're confusing the modelling lamp with the flash output. The modelling lamp is a regular kind of bulb that is only used to simulate the light from the flash, so you can see what's going on.

The actual flash from the Smartflash is the equivalent of around 25x brighter than the Lencarta Quads, though you can of course turn it down.

Crossed post.
The actual relative brightness will depend on the shutter speed. My figures assume a shutter speed of 1/100th sec, Richard's figure assumes a shutter speed of 1/200th sec, both are correct - if I've got my maths right

 

[HoppyUK]

Crossed post.
The actual relative brightness will depend on the shutter speed. My figures assume a shutter speed of 1/100th sec, Richard's figure assumes a shutter speed of 1/200th sec, both are correct - if I've got my maths right

LOL Garry.

I measured the Quad at 1/125sec at f/5.6 with ISO400, and the Smartflash at f/16 with a very similar softbox, ISO100 - both at 1m. So in theory five stops would actually be 32x brighter.

Edit: I guess your conversion also assumes that both lighting systems convert electricity to light with the same efficiency...

 

[andy1868]

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks guys you've answered perfectly what I was after consider my head unscrambled!

As for the extra wireless controller Garry I think I'll definitely go for it because if I wasn't using my speedlites then I have no way of triggering the flashheads! And I'm sure I remember reading that the flashhead will come with the wireless receiver if you order the trigger too. Or have I have I got that mixed up?

Once again many thanks guys, you have no idea how much you've helped

 

[HoppyUK]

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks guys you've answered perfectly what I was after consider my head unscrambled!

As for the extra wireless controller Garry I think I'll definitely go for it because if I wasn't using my speedlites then I have no way of triggering the flashheads! And I'm sure I remember reading that the flashhead will come with the wireless receiver if you order the trigger too. Or have I have I got that mixed up?

Once again many thanks guys, you have no idea how much you've helped

If you're not using your speedlites to trigger the studio head via optical slave, you can plug the triggers into the studio heads insteads. Or use the sync cable supplied, providing your camera has a PC sync socket (can use a hot-shoe adapter if not).

Problem with radio triggers is that they're incompatible - you can't mix brands.

 

[andy1868]

So the flashheads come with hotshoe attachments? In the same way a flashgun attaches?

Unfortunately my main camera doesn't have a PC sync attachment, So that's out of the question however my planned backup does

 

[HoppyUK]

So the flashheads come with hotshoe attachments? In the same way a flashgun attaches?

Unfortunately my main camera doesn't have a PC sync attachment, So that's out of the question however my planned backup does

No, they don't have hot-shoe attachments. The radio trigger plugs into the sync socket, almost always a 3.5mm jack these days. Many (most?) radio triggers come with a jack lead, but if you haven't got one already you may need to think again.

TBH, if you're mixing studio lights with hot-shoe guns, probably the easiest way is to get a set of radio triggers, one for each head/gun, with cables, so that way you've got every option covered, eg Yongnuo RF-602 are reliable and cheap, from Amazon/ebay, though there are numerous others.

 

[andy1868]

Okay, thanks Richard. I'll have to double check fittings etc on my existing equipment once I get home from work and see what i've got