starting out..

[jimbob12]

ok im looking at advancing into flash/strobing photography what is the ideal start up kit to do this? i have been looking through websites/ebay etc for start up kits so im sort of aware what i need but im looking for peoples opinions on what is ideal for starters eg power levels of flash/lights, how many are needed all that stuff. any help and advice is most welcome
as im just starting out i dont intend on outlaying millions of dollars straight up just the basic kit that will get half decent results

[Adrian Fischer]

Hi Jimbo,

have a look at some of the YongNuo models. Cheap as chips. I have a couple of the lower end models which have been pretty good work horses. I have just finished a round of shooting for dance studios and took about 10k shots using one of them as a hair light set to remote off my soft boxes. Worked flawlessly (if you dont count the few times they ran out of battery power and I didnt notice). Newer models are also capable of TTL. Good starter kits and for my money, a good investment (havent seen the need to buy better just yet).

[jimbob12]

thanks for the reply so i ended up buying a kit and set it up, tried it out and this is what come up...

lol only half a pic!!! hmmm what am i doing wrong?? obviously i am missing a setting of some sort, i take the hotshoe transmitter off and take a pic and everythings fine, i put it back on and i get half pics??? its getting late now so il pack up for now and try again tomorrow but anyone with ideas can help me

[wolffman]

It looks like you set the shutter speed above the sync speed of the camera. The sync speed is the maximum speed that the entire sensor is exposed by the shutters at the same time. Go above this speed and the shutter blades will cover part of the sensor as the flash fires and you only get half a frame exposed.
Read your manual and check the maximum sync speed and don't go above that speed.

[jimbob12]

ahhh ok then soooooo if the max shutter speed limit is set at 200 i have to vary the power of the flashes and arpeture size to get a correctly exposed pic?

[wolffman]

More or less. The flash power, distance from flash to subject and the aperture sets how well lit your flashed subject is.
Remember that your flash fires in thousands of a second so is incredibly quick. That's how the intelligent flash systems work. They fire little monitor flashes to establish distances and flash communications as soon as you press the shutter button before the shutter lifts.
The shutter lifts and opens, pow goes the main flash for illumination, bounces of your subject and then reaches the sensor. Once that flash is finished then the ambient lighting from the scene ambles through the aperture for however long you have left the shutter open for.
The bigger the aperture, the more light from the very quick flash will reach the sensor, so you need less power. With a smaller aperture, less of the reflected light can reach the sensor so you have to make the light brighter, or more powerful.
With the shutter speed the longer you set it the moremambient light will reach the sensor. 1/200 will give very ambient light so you flash will have to light the whole scene. Cool if you have enough power in your flashes as this will enable you to remove colour casts from different light sources.
If you want to only use the flash for light then you are also fighting the inverse square law- lights gets much weaker the further it is from the flash. That's why most p&s cameras small flash show pictures of a persons bright face in the middle of a dark murky room.
The other ingredient is iso. Higher iso means less flash power required, but also more ambient light effects for the same shutter speed.
Easy peasy, All sounds japanesey
Slower shutter speeds mean that your flash doesn't have to light everything as ambient lighting is seen, but you may get odd colours from other light sources, eg green skinned people standing under fluoro lights.
If your subject is light by sunlight then yor flash doesn't have to do all the work as the colours are the same.

[jimbob12]

ahhhh thanks wolffman i seem to have it sorted out now if i keep it at 160ss it seems to be the best for me... now to experiment with light positioning

[warhammer]

i should have my flash and pocket wizards in the mail tomorrow, so some thing for me to think about too....
cheers big ears..

[Ozzi Paul]

I just got my RF 602s today. They work well, I got the Canon version to use on my Pentax K20D, they work well up to 1/125 sec but need to have the button on the Tx unit held down when taking a shot at 1/160 or 1/180 to stop getting the shadow from the shutter curtain, thats only a minor issue though.

[n00g33]

you should prob start with a flash that gives e/i-ttl for your camera so you can use on camera flash easily for a while. for off camera flash you can go random manual ebay flashes..

+1 to YongNuo.
GEt a set of radio triggers for off camera flash. Looks much better in a lot of cases.
I got the RF602s and Yn 460 II .. but the newer YN 560 is better to get it if you're buying now.

the you can add a couple of flash stands with umbrellas.

and i guess.. as with every other thread here... go to strobist.blogspot.com - great place to start.