Which softbox kit is best for me ? 300 w or 600w?
Posted on July 15, 2010 by Ed
I am in college for photography, and have yet to go into the studio lighting couse, however I had wanted to set up a studio in my home in the meantime and wanted to purchase a softbox kit. There are two that I was interested in and wondered whether or not 300 watt per seconds is enough for infant/childrens portraits or if I would need a flash that is 600 watts per second ?
Also I am unsure of how to wirelessly trigger the flash. My camera does not have flash built in flash, and from what I understand from other photographers describing how their softbox flash is set off, they use a trigger in the camera but the flash from the on camera flash also triggers the off camea flash … Would I need to have my shue mounted flash put on as well as a wireless trigger to make the flash go off .. Or if I had a trigger on my camera would it just make the flash go off when I pressed the shutter button to take the picture ???? What kind of wireless trigger is best, a pocketwizard ?
You didn’t say what strobes you are looking at here so I will keep this somewhat general in answer. (Alien Bees and Impact are my own favorites)
The 600wps will allow you to adjust downward, also consider that your softbox will diffuse the light to a degree as well. That said, I would go for the 600wps set. Also, look into a shoot through umbrella… I think you’ll like it.
As for firing. There are a number of different options. Most decent strobes will fire IR. You can trigger them remotely with your flash or by a wireless unit. Other options are to cable them to your camera (a pain, but effective) If you choose to fire them via a hotshoe mounted flash, look into a grip so that your flash is off to the side and you may want to consider a diffuser for your flash.
Happy shooting
Discussion: 4 Comments
4 Responses to “Which softbox kit is best for me ? 300 w or 600w?”
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fhotoace
- 15th Jul, 10 01:07pm
Actually you seem to be talking about the watt/second specification of your flash units. Higher is better since you can always cut back on the output, but not increase it. 600 w/sec is a power unit that you will be able to use in the most variety of applications.
If you had been asking about incandescent lamps, my answer would be 750 watts.
References :
digiPro
Mark
- 15th Jul, 10 01:07pm
Go for the higher 600 watts per second kit. You can reduce light more if needed with that kit but if you get the one with less power and need more light then you will be in a much tougher spot.
My 2 cents.
Mark
References :
Master Road
- 15th Jul, 10 02:07pm
You didn’t say what strobes you are looking at here so I will keep this somewhat general in answer. (Alien Bees and Impact are my own favorites)
The 600wps will allow you to adjust downward, also consider that your softbox will diffuse the light to a degree as well. That said, I would go for the 600wps set. Also, look into a shoot through umbrella… I think you’ll like it.
As for firing. There are a number of different options. Most decent strobes will fire IR. You can trigger them remotely with your flash or by a wireless unit. Other options are to cable them to your camera (a pain, but effective) If you choose to fire them via a hotshoe mounted flash, look into a grip so that your flash is off to the side and you may want to consider a diffuser for your flash.
Happy shooting
References :
Caoedhen
- 15th Jul, 10 03:07pm
For any flash application, be it hot shoe or monolight or strobe, *always* get the most power your pocket book will allow. It is always better to have more power than you need, than to need more power than you have. A softbox is going to rob you of 1.5-2 stops worth of light right off the bat, making those 300w/s monolights have to fire at full power every time to get enough light. The 600w/s lights may have to fire at 1/2 power, or possibly even less. The advantage to this is twofold: faster recycle to the next shot, and increase in flash tube life because it doesn’t have to work so hard for each shot.
If you camera does not have a pop-up flash, it will have a hot shoe and a PC socket. Any light set you buy will come with a PC cable, usually 10-15 feet long, letting you trigger one light from the camera, and any other lights via their optical slave. You can use a Pocket Wizard on your camera and another on one flash in the same manner, or you can put a receiver on all of the lights. For a home studio, where you should be the only person setting off a flash, the optical slaves will work just fine.
References :