Mr Kris
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.1 #12 · New to lighting. Need opinons. | |
buckeyeguy1 wrote:
My goal for the next 2-4 years is to get a small setup to start practicing and learning more one subject portraits. These portraits will include newborns, several young children and several adults. The adults will be torso and up photos. All of course will be as you guessed family and friends. I anticipate them to be your more traditional portraits with black backgrounds. Please note that within this time gap, this is strictly a hobby that I will be able to work on a couple times per week. This is why I am giving myself what I feel is a good time period to accomplish this.
...Show more →
This seems very specific: newborns, children... and adults, torso up, black background. Are you intentionally trying to limit the physical size of your subject for some reason? Here's my take: If your pictures are half decent, friends will ask you to take pictures that aren't only adult torso sized. And you'll probably want to do it, because you actually enjoy it. So I wouldn't focus specifically on making good pictures in this limited set of scenarios. But it could be a good starting point!
In regards to gear: I would say speedlights! Here's my list of reasons:
1. As mentioned, versatility. BrianO covered that.
2. Speed of setup. You mention only being able to work on it a couple times a week, but is that because you are envisioning needing a lot of time for a "setup?" With speedlights, you can setup 2 lightstands with flashes and umbrellas in about.... 3 minutes. Less with practice  If you get away from the thought that you need a purpose specific backdrop, you can eliminate having to setup background stands as well. Which brings me to #3...
3. Portability. (I guess really an extension of point 1, versatility.) Anywhere is a "studio." Anything is a "backdrop." If you work outside, you have a free extra light. Yeah, monolights are portable too. But I'd rather carry a duffel of speedlights than a wheelbarrow of monolights and battery backs if I can get away with it.
4. No need for radio triggers. Assuming you go with a speedlight that has a built-in slave. You can go a long way with the optical triggers. I mean... check out Joe McNally. I think he must own everything Nikon makes, but has a bag full of radio triggers that he seems to avoid using at all costs. Yes, there are times when a radio system would be convenient.... and there might be some shots you can't make. So just make a different one!
5. Now, assuming you go with Nikon flashes..... TTL flash metering. No need to meter the flashes or guess the power. That will take one variable out of your learning. (Some may argue that the CLS TTL is difficult to learn... but I disagree. I think it's only because many are used to doing it the old fashioned way. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
6. Cheaper grip gear. You don't need a crane to support a speedlight.
Disadvantages, and I can really only think of 1.5:
1. Power. You'll certainly have less power. I don't think this will be a concern for studio type shots of individuals or small groups. Small flashes have plenty of power for that. But, you won't be going outside at high noon and overriding the sun with small flashes (well... not 1 or 2 anyway). That's not to say you can't make good pictures in full sunlight.... small flashes, especially with high speed sync, can fill in full sunlight. But you're not going to fight the sun... you'll be working with it.
2. (and this is my "half" reason): Access to less light modifiers, as mentioned previously. This is a half reason, because it's not entirely true anymore. Most "big" modifiers can be adapted to small flash, albeit with less power. And there are flash specific versions of many types of modifiers now. The funny thing is, they're not always cheaper, even though flash specific versions are typically smaller.
If you do go the speedlight route, I own both SB700's and the new SB910. Advantages of the SB910:
1. Slightly more powerful. Up to a stop more powerful in some situations.
2. Capable of using an external battery pack, for faster recycling.
3. The head zooms to 200mm, as opposed to 105ish on the SB700s.
4. If using as a commander, the SB700s only support 2 zones.
5. SB910 has a flash repeater mode.
The 910 is definitely the superior flash but.... is it worth $200 more than the SB700? It was for me, maybe not for everybody. Especially starting out, 2 SB700's is only $100 more than 1 SB910.
I would pick up 2 umbrellas as your first modifiers, since they are so darned cheap and useful. Get the kind with a removable backing, so you can bounce them, or shoot through them. And in shoot through mode, you can control the spill with the backing. I agree with Mark_L about light going everywhere with umbrellas..... to an extent. If you work them up close to your subject, you have much more control, especially if you keep your subject away from your backdrop. (Look up inverse square law and such for examples.)
Photoflex umbrellas are nice- they have fiberglass ribs and I've found them to be far more durable than others.
Websites: definitely visit strobist.com, and read lighting 101 and 102.
Books: Hotshoe Diaries by Joe McNally
For reference, I use both speedlights and monolights. But I really think it's quicker to learn on speedlights. Not necessarily because they're inherently easier, but because I think you'll find it's easy to spend 10 minutes playing with speedlights and do something productive, and I think you'll find yourself playing with them more often than if you go with monolights.
|
