What strobist kit do I need

Robclarke

Robclarke

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I have been given the go ahead by my wife to buy some strobist kit. I am thinking of getting one softbox (ezybox kit), one umbrella and stand and one reflector and stand. I currently have one 580 ex ii flash. I am not sure wether to get a couple more of those or upgrade to some of the new 600 rt flashes
 
Does that sound like the right kit for home family portraits.
 
ryandavid__ said:
How are you triggering the flash?
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Either with the pop up flash of the 7d. Or if I go the 600 rt route I will also get a ST-E3-RT. I am tempted to do this and will probably get 2 or 3 flashes and the ST-E3-RT trigger and sell my 580 ex ii.
 
Donnie said:
Definitely don't be using the pop up flash, get some triggers, even if you only buy some cheap manual ones to trigger the 580 and see what a difference that can make to your photography.
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Why do you say this? Do you find the pop up flash triggering unreliable?
 
Ultimately you want to be able to control the light completely. Using flash on camera to trigger off can lead to unwanted fill, no matter how subtle.

Get some cheap triggers for definite. Then a couple more flashes to give you more options. The single light setup will get boring after a while. You'll only end up wanting to go all 'Joel Grimes' in the end with a triangular 3 light setup ;)
 
As fraktion says, it's about unwanted light. If you want to do strobist work especially if you are looking at portrait type work then on camera flash is unflattering at best.

Don't get me wrong, Im no expert in any form, strobist stuff is, for me, still at an exploratory stage but I do enjoy it and find myself challenging myself to use flash more and more, but as soon as I had a flashgun, I also had a set of cheapy triggers, I don't think I have ever used the flashgun on the camera at all.
 
Thanks for the advice. Do you think I am right going for softbox, reflector and umberella?
 
Robclarke said:
Thanks for the advice. Do you think I am right going for softbox, reflector and umberella?
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I'm certainly no expert but from all of the advice I've taken on board it seems that umbrellas are the way to start out for strobe. I'm under the impression that softboxes are more useful for continuous lighting (might be wrong though).

Amazon do this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Westcott-43...BLEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358253362&sr=8-1

It can be used as a bounce light and has a removable black cover which means you can also use it as a shoot through. I got one and they're v good quality.

Hope this heps (y)
 
I've got a softbox for my strobe which is what I first used, now Im starting to use it a little less I have to admit and just using bare flash for some of my night shots so mixing between the two.

What I like about a softbox is that it can give more direction to the light for certain shots, though when I have a little cash I intend to buy an umbrella (shoot through) to try and see what effects / differences that has.

I'm approaching it all as experimental, seeing what I can get with one gobo before moving on to another, its just the way my mind works, helps me to be methodical.
 
Robclarke said:
I have been given the go ahead by my wife to buy some strobist kit. I am thinking of getting one softbox (ezybox kit), one umbrella and stand and one reflector and stand. I currently have one 580 ex ii flash. I am not sure wether to get a couple more of those or upgrade to some of the new 600 rt flashes
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That sounds fine, though you'll not know exactly what you want/need until you've got going and gained a bit of basic knowledge.

Comments: the pop-up will trigger the flashes well enough in a studio situation, though most folks prefer the simplicity (and price) of cheap manual radio triggers. Full manual is usually the prefered method for studio work.

600RT is a really good gun, but won't trigger your 580EXII via radio, neither will the ST-E3.

If you have access to mains power, studio flash heads win every time with a modelling light and fast recycle time, and they're not expensive. More power too, though it sounds like you perhaps won't need that. Might be an idea to get a couple of studio heads and use your 580EXII as a third light as and when, in situations where you can turn it down a bit for faster recycle.
 
Unless you have a very strong need for the portability, that sort of ETTL setup is a lot of money. For the price of 3 600ex rt's and a ST E3 you could have some very high spec mains studio gear.

You could run your 580ex with the YN triggers and buy a couple of 430 ex's (or even splash out on PW Flex's and save money.
 
Phil V said:
Unless you have a very strong need for the portability, that sort of ETTL setup is a lot of money. For the price of 3 600ex rt's and a ST E3 you could have some very high spec mains studio gear.

You could run your 580ex with the YN triggers and buy a couple of 430 ex's (or even splash out on PW Flex's and save money.
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It is not the portability but rather the space the kit takes up. I only have a very limited amount of storage space and everything needs to be easily foldable away. I am keen on the idea of going for the 600ex rt flashes because I like the look of the menu system. I have found the 580 ex ii not to be very user friendly. It still baffles me how to get it in to slavw mode
 
Robclarke said:
It is not the portability but rather the space the kit takes up. I only have a very limited amount of storage space and everything needs to be easily foldable away. I am keen on the idea of going for the 600ex rt flashes because I like the look of the menu system. I have found the 580 ex ii not to be very user friendly. It still baffles me how to get it in to slavw mode
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IMHO you're barking up the wrong tree. If you want good results and ease of use, studio heads and full manual working are the way to go. It's really not hard - the tricky bit is knowledge of how light works and while that's not difficult either it takes some practise. No technology can fix that. Get a flash meter to help with both set-up and learning (Sekonic 308, about £140 I think).

The bulky stuff is mostly the stands and softboxes, backgrounds etc. The heads themselves fit in a small case/bag. If you want really small and light, look at the new Elinchrom D-Lite Ones. Hardly bigger than a hot-shoe gun and very light, full featured, built-in triggers. I use them for most things now, in preference to bigger stuff. They have enough power for your needs.
 
What Richard said. The difference in size between a flashgun and a small studio head I nothing compared to stands reflectors soft boxes beauty dishes and backgrounds and props.

It's the price and lack of dependence on mains power that makes strobist kit attractive. But if you're using 600ex rts instead of cheap YN flashguns, the price attraction just left the room. Leaving portability, which you don't need.

You don't need to worry about the menus on the 580s as soon as you go radio, you can control them from the camera.
 
I'll back up exactly what Phil and Hoppy have said. For the cost of two 600s you could get a very decent two light set up for mains power and even start to look at portables if you do your research properly. They'll also give you far more flexibility than speedlites.
 
Have you read the strobist 101 posts? Good starting point.

I've just got going with strobist stuff so I'm still learning my way. Shot this itch a portable studio setup:


IMGP7006 by Pheo, on Flickr


Inadvertant One Light Portrait by Pheo, on Flickr

The setup consisted of:

Key light: 1 Metz 58 AF1 mounted in a Cotswold Photography Foldable Softbox, on top of a heavy duty stand

Fill Light: Pentax AF360FGZ westcott combo white/shoot thru extra portable bounce umbrella mounted on Cotswold Photography Portable stand.


Mobile Studio Setup by Pheo, on Flickr

I, like you, don't have storage o have brought small/foldable stuff. I'm sure it ill take me a long while to outstretched the capabilities of the kit!


Any questions let me know. I think I've been in a similar place to yourself, ie just getting started.
 
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DemiLion said:
I'll back up exactly what Phil and Hoppy have said. For the cost of two 600s you could get a very decent two light set up for mains power and even start to look at portables if you do your research properly. They'll also give you far more flexibility than speedlites.
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Thanks for the advice.
I am considering mains power lights instead. If I was to get a Lencarta 3 light kit with soft boxes and umbrella how small/easily would it fold away?
 
Robclarke said:
Thanks for the advice.
I am considering mains power lights instead. If I was to get a Lencarta 3 light kit with soft boxes and umbrella how small/easily would it fold away?
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If you're looking for easy to pack away, you might have to spring for an octobox type softbox, rather than the standard, although softboxes usually take up very little space when down, they're not convenient for constant assembly / dismantling.
brollies obviously take up little space, the lights aren't massive and the cables etc arent big either, the stands are the awkward things, but you can get some that pack away better, and if you want to move them about single handed, there's the spring loaded ones, which haven't really taken off over here yet. (the feet automatically retract when you pick them up:))
everything except the stands probably goes into a small holdall, you can possibly fit several stands in a tripod bag.

Don't think about a beauty dish though - not very dismountable:thinking:
 
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. I have pondered about getting mains powered studio lights but decided it wouldn't work in our domestic environment. So have ordered an additional 580exii, a 420exii (or is it 430), a lastolite ezybox kit and a lastolite umbrella kit. I am going to wait and see how I get on with the inbuilt triggering before I think about buying triggers. Thanks again for the advice.
 
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