Small lighting setup. Recomendations?

[Mick]

Hi All. I'm thinking about (again) getting some lighting for doing portrait shots. Mostly at home but with the idea that I might like to be able to take them places.

So far all I have is a speedlite 580 EXII. What I would like (I think) is either another flash on a tripod with soft box and or a strobe with softbox too. Here's a link to the sort of thing I'm after. Its just that I have no idea about what issues these things might have. I'd hate to buy something only to find out that its an industry joke or something.

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod599.htm

So I'm interested to find out if anyone could recommend a good reliable smallish light setup with some or most of the things in that link?

Cheers......Mick.

[JM Tran]

buy my 430EX for sale, use your 580EXII as master to trigger it:)

have the 430 on tripod reflected into a brolly

instant strobist set up for indoor and outdoor use and much more portable

the glanz one u are looking at is quite weak, and only suitable for small indoor set ups. For that price I would rather get the ones from D-D photrographics for more than twice the power.

[I @ M]

Mick, by far the easiest and most portable set ups are going to be a combination of 2 or more flash heads that will all marry to the camera and other flashes of your choice.

There are plenty of inexpensive stands, umbrellas and softboxes available to suit that allow for easy portability and creative use of "fake" light outdoors as well as a semi studio setup indoors.
Other than that you start getting into the more permanent studio light similar to the ones linked in your post above. Studio gear becomes a bottomless pit as far as dollars go and the ones that you linked to are only the start. :(

I don't know much about the Glanz brand but they look to be the typical low powered Chinese produced products that are literally everywhere on the net.

Have a look at the kit listed on the front page of Vanbar (http://www.vanbar.com.au/), I had a look at the V-Tec products a few weeks ago in Melb. and they looked reasonably well made.

A couple of other retailers that carry semi to fully professional gear are

Studio works (http://www.studiolight.com.au/index.htm) and Dragon Imaging (http://www.###########.com.au/index.asp).

[MrJorge]

I'm contemplating a small setup one day like this...

http://www.photocontinental.com.au/specials18

I have a 580 EXII on order at the moment and might top it up later on this year with something like this if I get into the strobist/portrait stuff a bit.

[Jules]

I just bought a lightstand and umbrella to go with my speedlight and so far I'm quite impressed with the results (same basic setup as Michael's link above, but with a convertable umbrella).

Obviously it's not a pro setup, but meets my needs and didn't involve a huge $$ outlay. It's light and portable and pretty easy to use given that I'm already familiar with my speedlight.

[Mick]

Thanks so much for the help everyone. I really appreciate it. Those links look like what I would like but the second flash seem to be a popular option and its easy to use too. I'm going to see if I can get that flash off JM then.

Thanks again..

Mick.

[notahonda]

Mick, by far the easiest and most portable set ups are going to be a combination of 2 or more flash heads that will all marry to the camera and other flashes of your choice.

There are plenty of inexpensive stands, umbrellas and softboxes available to suit that allow for easy portability and creative use of "fake" light outdoors as well as a semi studio setup indoors.
Other than that you start getting into the more permanent studio light similar to the ones linked in your post above. Studio gear becomes a bottomless pit as far as dollars go and the ones that you linked to are only the start. :(

I don't know much about the Glanz brand but they look to be the typical low powered Chinese produced products that are literally everywhere on the net.

Have a look at the kit listed on the front page of Vanbar (http://www.vanbar.com.au/), I had a look at the V-Tec products a few weeks ago in Melb. and they looked reasonably well made.

A couple of other retailers that carry semi to fully professional gear are

Studio works (http://www.studiolight.com.au/index.htm) and Dragon Imaging (http://www.###########.com.au/index.asp).


im also thinking about getting in to product photography, has anyone had experience or know of reviews regarding those china made light studio kits? are they dodgy? or will they do the job? for 150-200 bux for a whole set up seems cheap... :P

[ehor]

Depending how big your products are, a light tent or shooting table might be better. With some colour temp rated fluro's.