Recommendation for first indoor studio light for portrait

Thank you all for the help.
My wonderful lights have arrived. Hoping we find our new home soon to get them set up and play:)
Cathy
 
Seajay said:
Thank you all for the help.
My wonderful lights have arrived. Hoping we find our new home soon to get them set up and play:)
Cathy
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Well, 49 of these kits went out on Monday, so you're one of the very first to get one.
Here's your opportunity to have a play with it (please don't wait until you've got your new house) and to be the first to report back on your findings:)
 
I'm sure you'll be suitably impressed Cathy. I received the Elite pro kit yesterday.


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TAT2 said:
I'm sure you'll be suitably impressed Cathy. I received the Elite pro kit yesterday.


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Yep, the ElitePro 2 is brand new too
 
Any pictures or specs of the new stuff Garry, or do we have to wait till 'not Focus'?
 
Phil, the new SmartFlash 2 and ElitePro 2 have been on the website for a while now. There is going to be 1 new product that won't be announced until 'not Focus'
 
Interesting, I like the idea of the Wave sync working across different products. :)
 
Phil V said:
Interesting, I like the idea of the Wave sync working across different products. :)
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This is the main reason that sold the Elite Pro's to me over the Ultra Pro's. It makes them, to my mind anyway, more future proof.


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Gary we are renting a very small flat right now until our house hunt is complete but!
I will open it all over the weekend and have a little play in one of the rooms just to see how I get on
Need info now on a good lens that will do full body, family ,and portrait shots for my camera in a small studio setting now.
I am quite excited about it all :)
Cathy
 
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Ok lights now set up trigger on receivers in (took me an hour to find out where they went lol!)
Can anyone give me the settings for the 550 D that will make my flashes work
They are fine and when I click the test button they flash but not when I click the camera
Sorry to be a pest but never had lights before
Cathy
 
Taken from another site:

Under the [camera icon] tab, select [Flash control], then press .
The flash control screen will appear.
Normally, set this to [Enable].
If [Disable] is set, both the built-in flash and external Speedlite will
not fire. This is useful when you only want to use the flash’s AF-assist
beam.

Also you aren't in live view are you? This apprently disables the hotshoe on the 550
 
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I would have assumed all you need to do is attach the Wavesync commander to your camera body and pressing the shutter release should set off the flash with the receiver attached. You'll probably want to set slave off on that unit and on for the one without the receiver too.
 
Both units have receivers simon you get two with the kit
 
Seajay said:
Ok lights now set up trigger on receivers in (took me an hour to find out where they went lol!)
Can anyone give me the settings for the 550 D that will make my flashes work
They are fine and when I click the test button they flash but not when I click the camera
Sorry to be a pest but never had lights before
Cathy
Click to expand...
I'm not a Canon user and don't know how to set anything on your camera but...
Set camera to manual
Set shutter to 1/125th
Set aperture to f/8
Set flash heads to about 1/2 power, which on this model is 3.5 on the LED display. Do this either by twiddling the knob on the back of each flash head or by using the remote on the camera.
Take test shot and see what you've got, then adjust aperture to suit, e.g. if too light, set it to f/11, if too dark set it to f/5.6. Fine tune by adjusting the flash power.
 
Another huge thank you everyone!

Checked my settings on the camera and flash was enabled but I also had live view enabled and have now switched it off
I will set up again tomorrow and follow the instructions given.
I only set up one of the lights with a receiver as I did not know how to set up the softbox yet. However I now have a link to watch it being set up. Thanks Gary:)
I used the little sliders on the transmitter and receiver set them both to 1 and used F4 I think.
My little model off 6 got bored waiting lol!
But I will get her back once I know what I am doing.
Cathy
 
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You'll nail the basics much easier if you photograph something that isn't 6 years old, that doesn't move and doesn't get bored... one of her toys for example.
Allocate different channels (eg. 1 and 2) on the receivers, then you can adjust each flash independently by toggling to each setting on the transmitter.
 
Gary you are right I will try that tomorrow.
Anna just happened to be here when i was setting up and i thought oh great here we go! Huh! Not!
You know what it is like when you get something new you just barge in and it is not ideal I know that now.
However i did try your settings and also switched of live mode etc and everything came together.I only used one light tonight but I got it working.
Probably not right but had to be sure all was well.
Only thing I caught was Kylie the cat LOL! Tomorrow I will try something still like you suggest.
 
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Well I can't speak for Cathy but I ordered an Elite Pro kit at around the same time. Whilst they haven't been hammered they've had a fair bit of use by myself at home, been used on four groups shoots all four hours of constant use and used on a couple of 'pro' shoots by the guy that owns the studio. They haven't skipped a beat, never once failed to fire and have proved to have consistent repeatable output. A set will be added to his studio lights in the near future to compliment the existing Bowens lights.
 
Hi Chris thanks for your input, I am hoping to get the smart flash kit with the soft box, also i have 2 Nissin flash guns the 866mk 11 and the 622mk 11, i would like to use these as hair lights or background lights do you know if i need extra receivers for them? Thanks Judi :)
 
No just set them to slave mode the other lights should trigger them
 
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