How many watt seconds do I need?

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
. ..
Bandicoot wrote:

I agree, that would be a pain. But if you were to spend some money,
would you be better trading them both in to get two 200Ws heads
with infinite adjustment over three stops, or trade one in and spring
for
a 400Ws head with infinite adjustment over four stops? If you think
about the possible combinations, I think the latter is better.

I would get 5 stop infinite which is what AlienBees offer, AFAIK, on all
their monos.

This doesn't answer my point: if budget is tight, where is it best to direct
those limited resources? Just saying what you want _if_ you could afford
it isn't the issue.

I would avoid a pack set for a small studio.

Ditto - packs are good for high power, or inacessible heads, but you don't
need them for lower power applications. That said, I have a 3000Ws pack
with full asymmetry across three heads, and that is just as flexible as
monolights.


2 AB 800's and a 400 (really 320 W-s and 160 W-s resp) would be
ideal for a small portrait studio, supplemented with ac strobes as req'd.
If, in my small studio, I was doing anything requiring both lots of
difusion
and greater DOF, then higher power would be required. (I rarely use
anyhthing other than ISO 100 film in my little studio (Portra 160 being
100, of course)).

So, having said that, just adding the 800 (320 W-s) to my two 200 W-s
lights would be an improvment. But I'd rather replace those two as well
with more controllable lights as well.

One big problem I have with simple portraits is that my subject can't be
much further than about 3-4 feet from the BG (room) when I use the
100mm. My 200 W-s light, set at seat level to light the BG, and at 1/2
power puts too much light on the BG (unless I want a 2 stop blowout).
I've bought an AC-strobe (60 W-s) and put a sheet of white plastic over
it, and I can now get the BG to -1 to +1 stop as required by moving the
AC strobe in/out/up/down.

The closer that main light is to the sitter, of course, the more fall off
will reduce the relative brightness on the background - but then you need to
be able to turn down (or gel) that main light to give you the stop you want
for the subject. So this comes back to the general point I was making:
having one really good light in this instance, with lots of control, plus
the cheap and simple light on the background, helps you more than having two
lights with 'some' control does. It's all about where you put the money.


So you can see that more control of the individual lights, regardless of
power, would be a big help.

Of course lots of power and lots of adjustability is better - but if the
budget is limited I think it makes most sense to think carefully and
recognise that what matters is how much you can adjust the heads
_relative to_ each other, rather than how much you can adjust every
single one in isolation.

Certainly.


Ah, so we agree after all ;-)



Peter