# Speedlights vs. Monolights for portraits



## adamhiram (Nov 10, 2019)

Fstoppers: Using Speedlights Versus Monolights for Location Portraits

For anyone starting out with studio lighting and off camera flash, I found this article to be a nice validation that you can do a lot with speedlights in all but the most challenging situations.  I am by no means an expert in studio lighting, but I really haven't felt limited using speedlights for smaller/shorter shoots.  They are very inexpensive at $65 each (Godox TT600), easier to transport, and can be used in many modifiers when mounted in an S-type adapter.  It's also helpful that they use standard AA batteries, so keeping a bag full of spare Eneloops isn't a big deal, and there are no concerns with being unable to get replacement proprietary LiIon batteries in the future when a MoC company decides to stop making this product line.

The only limitations I've experienced are wanting more power in very large modifiers, and faster cycle times when shooting at full power.  As a Nikon shooter I don't have any f/1.2 lenses, and finding open shade is easier than trying to overpower the sun in bright daylight, so I haven't had the other issues mentioned.  This related article makes a great point that shooting all day with smaller battery powered lights likely means burning through a lot of batteries, but to be honest I rarely shoot for more than an hour straight anyway.


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## smoke665 (Nov 11, 2019)

In studio, there's no comparison between my AB's and speedlights for power, and ease of use, plus the addition of the modeling lights. On location I use either depending on the circumstances.


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## adamhiram (Nov 11, 2019)

smoke665 said:


> In studio, there's no comparison


100% agreed!  Other than portability and price, bigger lights are probably better in almost every way, and may be next on my wishlist depending on how good the Black Friday sales are this year.  What I liked about this article is that it answered a question I had 2 1/2 years ago when I wanted to learn more about lighting without investing too much in new gear, which didn't really seem to be addressed elsewhere at the time.  Strobist's Lighting 101/102/103 tutorials stick to speedlights and umbrellas, while every Youtube tutorial from Adorama, Fstoppers, etc, seems to assume you use $2k Profoto lights.


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## Braineack (Nov 11, 2019)




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## Destin (Nov 11, 2019)

I shoot with the xplor600 that @Braineack mebtiined above. It’s a great for on location work because it’s a battery powered monolight. It’s also far cheaper than comparable products..

AND it offers a feature that pretty much nobody else does. It’s part of the flashpoint R2 family of products. That means it can be controlled wirelessly with an R2 trigger, just like every other R2 light they make. The product line ranges from full size moonlights and everything in between. It’s great because it allows you to use your monolight as a key light and some mini speed lights as accent/hair lights, and you can control the power of each from one single transmitter. 

IMHO, it’s the best system on the market at any price.. and it happens to be one of the cheapest.


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## Derrel (Nov 11, 2019)

I enjoyed the video that was posted, the video by Gavin Hoey.


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## Derrel (Nov 11, 2019)

I do not really look at it as a question of power as much as one of how the actual shooting goes and how the results look. I own a lot of Studio flash gear, and most of it is fairly old technology,but there is something to be said for the modeling light issue.

Modeling lights allow you to preview your lighting effect, and you can see Shadows and highlights, and you can see where the catchlights fall, and modeling lights cause the pupils of the eyes to constrict giving more color to the eye, and much less of that wide pupils or "heroin look" or the cow-eye look. I personally do not like the look of formal studio portraiture done with speedlights. A studio light is a remarkable tool, and a speedlight is a different tool. Sometimes you can substitute one tool for another, but there are certain situations in which there is no substitute for the right tool.

For example, let's say we need a great deal of flash power, or we need six flash heads to light up a very large interior such as a gymnasium or Banquet Hall. For $350 or so you could buy a very powerful used 2400, Watt-second, 6-outlet Speedotron Black Line power supply, and could buy used 103 heads for $100 each with bulbs. I bought five of them without bulbs about a decade ago for $40 each. For using with a portable battery  I bought the 103 style flash heads, because they have no fan cooling system, and are therefore much more efficient when used with a portable battery such as my Innovatronix Explorer. I feel that a 2400 Watt-second Speedotron power supply  will give a tremendous output equal to approximately 24 to 36 speed light flashes. The two 2401 b or 2403b power supplies that I have owned since roughly 2000 will give you six flashes of up to 400 Watt-seconds each. One power pack of this output level is all I have needed for almost every shoot I have ever done for the last 30 years. For roughly the past 10 years I have become a big fan of the Brown Line D402 power supply which will power four flash units, and with a splitter cable or Y cable as some call it,  the pack will power one additional flash, for a total of 5 units. You could use four Y cables and power eight flashes if you wanted to.

Box and Cable Systems, especially used ones, are very smart economically, especially if you want to use 4 or 5 or 6 flashes. Used Brown Line flash heads are available on eBay for $35 to $100 ,with new prices on $100 e-Bay heads being around three hundred bucks today.   I am speaking of the M11 model which retails for $299 today, but on the used market is often available for an equivalent price of roughly $40 when purchased as part of an outfit of one pack and three or four heads. Flash heads for this system are often deeply discounted when bought as part of a complete kit, but bring a lot more money often times when sold a la carte.

A few years ago a friend of mine asked me to help him light a job that he had been hired to photograph. He was afraid that his White Lightning  and Alien Bbe  monoights might overheat. The job was a company headshot session with about 97 people and a very short time frame to shoot, on location, at a tech company in Portland. We used a 2400 Watt-second Power supply and 3 fan-cooled heads, and it barely broke a sweat, even though we shot hundreds of photos per hour for basically three hours straight.

The key is to have the right tools for the way you want to work and for the type of results that you seek. In the case of high speed sync, there are quite a few good speed light solutions, but very few monolight solutions.
Size, weight, price, portability, and power meaning electrical power, as well as flash power--all of these things can factor into the equation when you need to determine what the right lighting choice is.


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## smoke665 (Nov 11, 2019)

Derrel said:


> of that wide pupils on heroin look or the cow-eye look. I personally do not like the look of formal Studio portraiture done with speedlights.



"Heroin eye" LOL, that's actually a good description. In addition to preventing the "Heroin eye", and facilitating light setup, the modeling lights provide light on set to keep you from tripping over stuff and falling on your face. (Don't ask )

Not mentioned is the gradual changes in light output/color temperature that happens with a speedlight as the batteries drain.


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## Derrel (Nov 11, 2019)

Another benefit in studio especially is the improved lighting that leads to easier focus acquisition especially with relatively slow lenses such as f/2.8. I have a wide range of flash heads with modeling Lamps ranging from one, single 25 -Watt night light type bulb, to three 25-Watt bulbs, to one 100 Watt quartz, one 150w quartz halogen, to one very bright 250 Watt quartz halogen. There is quite a bit of difference between having 750 total Watts of quartz halogen light and 200 or fewer Watts in the way of modeling lamp output. One can also use the 250 Watt lamps to light for video.

Real studio flash uses modeling lamps for a number of reasons. Speedlights on the other hand typically have only stroboscopic, weak modeling lamps, which give you a rough idea, but are in no way a substitute for real modeling lamps.


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## Derrel (Nov 11, 2019)

I have purchased only one Studio lighting kit brand new, and that was in 1986, when I bought my first one. Around 2008 the prices on used Studio flash gear and on film gear hit what I considered to be their historical lows. I went into basically a year-long E-bay Studio flash acquisition program, and when I was done I had something like six different power supplies and 24 flash heads. And all of the new gear cost me less than I payed for my original setup,which was one power supply of 1600 Watt-seconds and three Brown Line M11 flash units and a Bogen heavy duty boom stand.... all of that equipment, and I mean all of it, is quite serviceable to this very day and has never once needed service or replacement.

I really feel that buying Studio lighting equipment used is the smart way to go. An hour or two a day spent on eBay over a week will show you just how much bang for your buck you can get!

There are also some incredible new made in China Lights which do not cost much, and which offer a lot of good features. I have become convinced of the wisdom of going to the new Flashpoint R2 system. The efficiency of having a built-in radio triggering system that works across a system of both speedlights and battery powered monolight flash units... simply beyond words.

A few years ago Yongnuo was the leading third-party speedlight maker, but they have lost the plot and have scads of arcane compatibility issues, and this forum was filled with users who had compatibility  problems with them for about 5 years. So many people had so much difficulty with what was supposed to be a "system Flash, but other brands such as Godox/Cheetah/Flashpoint have really stepped up their game, and now offer products that look pretty good, especially for the amount of money. Studio flash monolights and box-and-cable systems are one of the few areas in photographic equipment that has not been refined until fairly recently. Within the past 5 years there have been some major advances both in speedlights and in studio Flash gear.

There has even been a sort of hybrid which is sold as the Streaklight by Adorama. I know that@ronlane here on TPF has one. In reading the Forum the other day, I noticed that I had written a post about the Streaklight 180 a couple of years ago. And just this week I re-watched the intro video for that unit on YouTube. The big difference between the Streaklight and other shoe Mount type flashes is that it uses a traditional elongated round flash tube, and does not have the fresnel type of lens in front of a very tiny little flash tube.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

I really like to use a small plug-in box and cable speedotron flash generator, even on location. I have a D202 which is a very small 5 lb pack with a built-in power cord and only two outlets. It offers not very many power combinations, but it does have symmetrical and asymmetrical distribution and I have one Y- cable, so I can power up to three flash heads. This is a very small unit , and I also have three 400-watt  packs, two Brown Line D402 models which have four Outlets, and one Black Line 405B,which powers only three flashes, but which has finer power output levels via a click-stopped rheostat. I quit using speedlight flash for most everything except Run and Gun about 20 years ago. I personally prefer working with the same equipment both in-studio and on-location, and have a portable sine wave and Battery unit called the Tronix Explorer. This is a fairly big unit and weighs in around 18 lb, but the Paul C buff company has a _much_ smaller product called the Vagabond.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

Here are three pictures made with about 100 watt seconds of light as the main light. Locations were a small bedroom, a hotel room, and the TV room at the little girl's house, where they had an old style projection TV which used a very large light gray screen, which I used as a backdrop and fired a pink gel at. These images have been edited very little, and this type of equipment is available for less than $300 used on eBay every day, all day.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

I only have these three speedlight-lit location portraits on my new phone, and the first two of the three of the three are quite old, having been shot in the late 1980s on Kodacolor Gold 200 film. The mini Christmas lights background shot was shot on digital in 2007  using a Vivitar 285HV in a 43 inch umbrella box as the only flash light.


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## cgw (Nov 12, 2019)

The key binary here that's getting fudged a bit is "studio" vs "location" flash equipment.  That's what the Strobist and others made clear by bringing effectively a new look to life with Speedlit outdoor location shots with leaf shutter cameras like the little Fuji X-100 series. Horses for courses?


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## smoke665 (Nov 12, 2019)

I've also watched many of Gavin Hoey's videos. They're excellent hands on, and easy to follow. One theme of his throughout seems to be "use what you have". His "studio" is a small converted storage bldg in his backyard, but there's nothing small about the creative results he churns out in it.

The OP's title and refrenced link are as @cgw pointed out above different circumstances. If you're on location, then   "Use what you have", applies to lighting. Studio strobes, speedlights, natural light, street lights, LEDs, candle light, even car headlights, can provide creative applications in the right situation. It's up to the photographer to see the light and determine how to best use it. Another good source of information on location photography is Nick Fancher's  https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Anywhere-Photographers-Unconventional-Locations/dp/0134084179 this is the first of two that he's done, both are great hands on type reads from start to finish. Recognizing and using what you have on location is a far better option then worrying over which is better strobes or speedlights.

In studio, a strobe (mono or pack) will always perform better. As @Derrel pointed out, options are available both new and used that you can build on. If you buy quality equipment it will serve you well for many years.


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## cgw (Nov 12, 2019)

David Hobby, anyone?

Strobist: Lighting 101: Introduction


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## Braineack (Nov 12, 2019)

Derrel said:


> I do not really look at it as a question of power as much as one of how the actual shooting goes and how the results look. I own a lot of Studio flash gear, and most of it is fairly old technology,but there is something to be said for the modeling light issue.



My biggest point to my post was about the recycle time vs. the power output.

I'm almost at the point where I'd like to ditch all my speedlights for eVOLV200s.   Lots of strobe for the price in such a compact package.


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## adamhiram (Nov 12, 2019)

A little off-topic from the original post, but really enjoying the discussion!  Something I've wondered for a while is just how important it is to have modeling lights.  Obviously they are useful for seeing how light and shadows fall on the subject and positioning lights quicker and more accurately, but how much is this worth?

Most working photographers I know primarily do event and location work, and use mostly Evolv200s, which don’t have any modeling light.
I recall hearing complaints that its big brother, the first-gen Xplor600, had a pretty dim modeling light (is it really that dim, or is it still pretty usable?).  I know Godox addressed this in the "Pro" version, but now we're talking about a large unit that weighs 6lbs and costs $900
I've had several opportunities to shoot in a professional studio with 500Ws Profoto lights, and nobody really used them other than initial positioning.  If I recall correctly, on at least one occasion the model said it was too bright and they generated a lot of heat over time, and the other photographers didn't seem to find it that useful.  They were more experienced than me, but that's not really saying much...
My other questions had to do with the point @Derrel made about pupil size.  This definitely makes sense, and I've read a few articles about it in recent years, but in my limited experience it seems like there are factors other than the modeling light that have just as much of an impact here.

Unless someone wanted the subject to have large pupils, why would they shoot in total darkness?  Even in my home studio space with the blinds open and sunlight streaming in, I can shoot at 1/250s, ISO 100, at f/8 or smaller and kill all ambient light.  With the blinds closed, I can still shoot at 1/250s, ISO 400, f/4 with indirect lights on with no issues, which is 4 extra stops of light without having to sit in the dark.
Wouldn’t the subject’s pupils shrink after firing off a few flash pops anyway?  I took at look at some recent studio shoots I did with speedlights in soft boxes, and at least half of them have very small pupils - especially high key setups with lots of light.
Even in the examples @Derrel shared showing work he’s done with studio strobes vs. speedlights, I didn’t see much difference in pupil size, but perhaps I’m missing something


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## Braineack (Nov 12, 2019)

adamhiram said:


> Most working photographers I know primarily do event and location work, and use mostly Evolv200s, which don’t have any modeling light.



they actually do.



adamhiram said:


> I recall hearing complaints that its big brother, the first-gen Xplor600, had a pretty dim modeling light (is it really that dim, or is it still pretty usable?).



see my image above, it's pretty damn bright -- especially if you're shooting in a darker studio setting.



adamhiram said:


> I know Godox addressed this in the "Pro" version, but now we're talking about a large unit that weighs 6lbs and costs $900



look up the new XPLOR400 Pro - 400w/s in the pro model, but a good in between price.  really small form factor.



adamhiram said:


> Obviously they are useful for seeing how light and shadows fall on the subject and positioning lights quicker and more accurately, but how much is this worth?



It's really helpful for positioning, not vital, but adding a rim/hair is no longer guess and check.   Super handy for still life.



adamhiram said:


> Unless someone wanted the subject to have large pupils, why would they shoot in total darkness? Even in my home studio space with the blinds open and sunlight streaming in, I can shoot at 1/250s, ISO 100, at f/8 or smaller and kill all ambient light. With the blinds closed, I can still shoot at 1/250s, ISO 400, f/4 with indirect lights on with no issues, which is 4 extra stops of light without having to sit in the dark.



I usually knock out ambient, so I've never really had a problem with this.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

You ask some very insightful questions about modeling lights. How important are they? They are very important especially with regard to setting the exact height in the exact placement of your lights. The more experience you have the less critcal the need for modeling lights becomes, at least in basic situations.

 As you develop familiarity with your equipment you can get by with  no modeling lamps, especially in rather generic lighting situations . But for example let's say we are trying to establish exactly where a reflection falls on a piece of glassware or where the nose Shadow Falls, or where exactly the highlights are placed on a person's eyeball, or more importantly, where the reflection falls on someone's eyeglasses. I used to shoot family portraits every day for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I personally think that modeling lights are the separator between great work and good work. Or between good work and poor work. It's quite easy to slap up a light stand and umbrella and fire away, but let's say you are trying to position a kicker light or a hair light and you want the highlight to be placed "just so". When you have a modeling light the model or portrait sitter can "feel the light"  and how it shines upon their eyes and face, and you the photographer can see when a person has moved or turned so that the light is no longer in the ideal placement. Modeling lights come into play in difficult and demanding situations, whereas shooting with speedlights you have no modeling lights and are going upon immediate-but-still-after-the-shot feedback. With modeling lights you are kept apprised of exactly where the light is falling,at every second, before and after the shot, and the subject can feel how the light is hitting them. When you shoot without modeling lamps you are basically shooting based upon experience and review of the images, but at the margins you are prone to falling into making shots in which the light is no longer ideal and its placement is "just okay", as opposed to excellent or optimal.

One might say that modeling lights are a lot like seatbelts. Lots of people do not use them, or whine about them, but when you need them, they're really good to have.

When you are shooting in dark environments people's pupils will become quite wide. I have always been aware of this and have always tried to keep ambient light levels high enough to avoid the cow eye look, but when you're in a dark studio, shooting with speedlight flashes, you will often see really large black eyes, which have very little color, and which look to me like heroin addict eyes or cow eyes-- this is why the Paul C. Buff Einstein monolight has such bright and fully adjustable modeling lamps. People who are expert and demanding at studio lighting look at the eyes as a matter of course, and work that looks good to some people will be unacceptable to demanding clients who are used to seeing photos done by master-level photographers and in high-end publications. These days, and in the past, bright modeling lights in professional level studio flash allowed for easier focusing especially with a view camera stopped down, and of course you can also shoot with the  lamps using tungsten based film, or a white balance achieved with a custom setting while shooting either digital video or digital still images.


The other unstated advantage to modeling lamps is the ability to preview your lighting setup in terms of ratio, in a WYSIWYG way. The modeling lamp gives you a visual clue as to how lights interact with one another. Most newer systems use quite a bit of adjustability in terms of flash power and have modeling lamps which proportionally track the power output of the flash, so you can see, literally see, in a WYSIWYG way, the effect of one light  in relation to another light based upon what you visually see---- there is no guesswork. This allows you to work quickly and fluidly and to make changes without the need to constantly take flash meter readings or test photos.

One can literally see the effect of a light and the modeling lamp will show you the relative strength of the flash burst you will get when the picture is made, in advance of taking a shot.

When you work with speedlights you have to keep in mind , "Oh, that light's more powerful than that one", as you look at little black boxes and mentally keep track of the power settings.Modeling lamps turn what is a mathematical nightmare into regular everyday seeing.

Bright, powerful modeling lamps can also turn dark interiors and locations into more brightly-lighted places, and you can also pick up a little bit of warmth by using a somewhat slower shutter speed than the maximum synchronization speed.

No, a few flash pops will not cause a person's eyes to constrict, that is not how the human eye works. If you want small pupils, you need to keep the ambient light High and in the past I have used a 75 watt work lamp as a focusing aid, and to keep my subjects out of the dark and with their eyes constricted somewhat. The problem really occurs in the traditional photo studio, in which most extraneous light has been eliminated. It is in this traditional "studio environment" that Speedlight formal portraiture looks so different from work which has been done with modeling lamps. For example, with the top end lights from Speedo ,you have 250 watt quartz lamps, which cause the pupils to be very small. This is seen most often in high-end fashion and lifestyle magazine work, in which you see very small pupils and colorful eyes.

When I see a formal portrait, meaning a studio-type portrait with great big, black eyeballs, I immediately think shoestring budget, speedlights pressed into where they are not the right tool for the job.

We are talking about a specific look. The difference is between an eye which is inviting to look at, and one which looks like a big cow eyeball. If the environment is even relatively bright, people's eyes will look okay. Regarding this black eyeball or cow eye look , I am speaking mostly of dark Studio work, but it can occur on location as well especially in darkish interior settings. One always has to be aware of how people look. Look for lint balls, necklaces out of adjustment, rings turned so that the gemstone is off to the side,shirts unbuttoned, neckties crooked, lapels badly adjusted, shirt collars out of whack, and yes, eyeballs which look like they belong to cave explorers.

I think as I mentioned, the more experience you have the more you can compensate. But let me tell you this, when I was a working family portrait photographer we used roller base stands, which allowed us to easily move the light through an arc on the floor so that we could determine by visual evidence the exact, best placement of the main light. There is a difference between predicting or estimating and actually moving the light. This (  actually moving the light and evaluating its placement in real time) is quite a bit different from plopping down a light standand and umbrella and setting it to 20 or 30 degrees to one side or the other of the subject and just firing away.

When you are doing Paramount or modified Loop lighting, one of your biggest concerns is the exact length of the nose shadow, and the angle of said shadow. The shadow should be close to but not touching the upper lip of the subject. When you actually take the time to set the main light's height and angle, before the shot is made, your photos will be better,or maybe tremendously better. If however you just plop down a light on a stand and set a rough angle you will have to work out the details based upon what you see upon review of your shots. One method is the old school way, and other method is how people who are less than expert shoot when they get their hands on some studio lighting gear.

People who whine about the brightness of modeling lamps are typically not in front of the camera very often. Models, even amateur models, have developed or should develop a sense of finding and feeling the light. This is perhaps the biggest thing you can help your subjects with, especially if they have aspirations of becoming a model; they need to learn how to sense when the light is hitting their face in an attractive way, and modeling lamps help do this. You can literally _see  the effects_ of your lights upon your subjects as they are move about the shooting area.The word modeling lamp is in itself a clue as to what the lights are there for.

Modeling lamps show you both how the light models the features of the subject and they let models understand how to interact with said light. The fact that you have seen people who turn off the lights does not mean that the lights have no value, but that the people who were using lights do not fully understand what the lights are designed to do, or that at certain times there is much value in having additional light besides what is ambient.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

You asked how much is a modeling light worth. How much is a seatbelt worth when you crash into an oak tree at 65 miles an hour? How much is a net worth when you slip on the high wire? How much is a surgeon worth when you severely cut yourself wide open with a power saw in your home shop?

Have you seen any AC-powered flash units designed for studio photography that feature no modeling lamp?


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## smoke665 (Nov 12, 2019)

adamhiram said:


> I've wondered for a while is just how important it is to have modeling lights.



Man @Derrel got the keyboard humming today! Think he gave a pretty detailed answer to your question. I'll add that once you start really using the modeling lights you quickly see the validity of everything he said. Adding to something Derrel said, with experience you might stand a good chance of setting a one light setup, maybe even three, but try guessing a four, five or six light setup.



adamhiram said:


> Unless someone wanted the subject to have large pupils, why would they shoot in total darkness? Even in my home studio space with the blinds open and sunlight streaming in, I can shoot at 1/250s, ISO 100, at f/8 or smaller and kill all ambient light.



Lighting is not just about adding light but subtracting it as well. The more sources, the more difficult control becomes. It takes just over  a 4 stops difference in the "reflective reading" between the subject and the background to change a white background to black or a black backround to white, by decreasing the difference you can get any shade of gray in between, with repeatable results, no guessing required. Add gels and you can make any color you want, again repeatable results. You cant do that with sunlight streaming in or lamps on, not to mention the headaches with color temperature.

If your're using modeling lights in a darkened studio you see first hand the shadows and highlights, again you don't have to guess. My AB's and controller allow me to turn on/off individual modeling lights, set the light to track with the setting (really nice feature because you see the effect of changes in real time) or set a defined power independently of light setting.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

WYSIWYG. The old school way of achieving beautiful lighting often involved using three or four or five or six lights of equal power and changing the distance among the lights to achieve the desired lighting effect. This is known as symmetrical power distribution.

Using asymmetrical power distribution, it is common to use a main light which is more powerful than the fill light, and varying the power of background and accent lights as desired.

When all of your lights are at 100 or 200 Watt-Seconds, it is pretty easy to adjust the light distances so that you get the desired effect, and you can see the lighting effect at all times before the shot, during the shot, and after the shot. WYSIWYG. Think three eyeglass wearers in a family portrait group of seven people.

With modeling lamps set to on , you can pretty much be assured of full-time, real-time feedback over the entirety of a session. When you shoot without modeling lamps, you only see what you got after the shot has been made. Let me put it this way. If I set up four lights all in symmetrical mode  with each flash firing at 100 watt seconds, I can set up a main light, a fill light, a background light with an 11.5 inch parabolic metal 50-degree reflector, and a grid-and -diffuser-and-barn door hair light, and I can adjust their height, angle, and distance visually,without need of light meter readings constantly, and see exactly what my lighting effects will be before I even fire a shot. I can see what my lighting is if a subject turns to his or her left or right 10 degrees or 50 degrees, and I can see before I even waste a shot,or a pose,or a joke, or a cajole, what my lighting looks like. I can ask a subject to crouch down or to stand up, and I can see what my light is doing----- BEFORE I take a shot. If you are shooting small format film, a shot costs you about $0.85  ...if you are shooting large format (4 x 5 inch) film a shot costs from $3 to $7 a shot.

In this era of setting up a huge softbox or flooding a set with light from a 7-foot umbrella, in this era of a "huge wash of light", the importance of making precise decisions about how high and at what angle and how far a light should be placed has become lost on most people. If however you work with smaller light sources, or have more critical discernment, then you start to appreciate why every single AC powered studio light has some type of modeling lamp which is either switchable to high or low, or to proportional tracking, or to off.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

cgw said:


> The key binary here that's getting fudged a bit is "studio" vs "location" flash equipment.  That's what the Strobist and others made clear by bringing effectively a new look to life with Speedlit outdoor location shots with leaf shutter cameras like the little Fuji X-100 series. Horses for courses?



There has also been a tremendous amount of development of high speed sync capable flashes, both speed light and powerful battery- powered monolight-style such as the Elinchrom Quadra and even a new development called high synch ( somewhat different from high-speed synchronization, and too complicated to go into here).

A few years ago there was a young photographer who wrote some really good articles for Fstoppers on how to shoot basically at F /1.8 or F/2 to take control over backgrounds, using high speed sync flash and fast shutter speeds,such as 1/1000  to 1/8000.

He had some really good results using a fabric under-chin reflector and a high-speed synchronization capable speedlight flash. The difference in background appearance between f/1.8 and between f/8 at 1/250 was quite remarkable. This shooting technique was very amazing, and was one of his specialties, and I am sure that one can still find links to his articles and videos.


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## adamhiram (Nov 12, 2019)

Braineack said:


> adamhiram said:
> 
> 
> > ... Evolv200s, which don’t have any modeling light.
> ...


Do they really?  I thought only the fresnel head had a dim modeling light, while the bare bulb head was better suited for use inside most modifiers.  Is this incorrect?  Really curious what your experience has been, as I love the small form factor for portability.



Braineack said:


> It's really helpful for positioning, not vital, but adding a rim/hair is no longer guess and check.


This is something I definitely struggle with.  Not to say that I've mastered other parts of portrait lighting - I can get a decent photo with appropriate key, fill, and background light placement and power.  But most of my portraits  seem to fit into 2 categories: either it looks like it could benefit from a hair light, or I wish I didn't try to add a hair light.


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## Derrel (Nov 12, 2019)

It's better to light a candle than to stumble around and curse in the dark.

Imagine learning to light with WYSIWYG ease and efficiency. I suppose I could field dress
A deer or elk with a razor blade, but I would rather have a real hunting knife. I believe I could hit a baseball pretty far with a 9-iron, but I would rather have a Louisville Slugger. I could land many small salmon on my
Trout rod, but I have purpose built salmon rods.


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## adamhiram (Nov 13, 2019)

Well, the XPLOR 400 Pro is on sale for $419 at Adorama today, down from $650.  Looks like my key light just got an upgrade!
https://www.adorama.com/fplfx400ptb.html


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## Braineack (Nov 13, 2019)

thats a great price.  I moved all my flashes to the R2 system so I never have to deal with compatibility.


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## Derrel (Nov 13, 2019)

The 400 looks like a very Nifty unit. I perused the Adorama link, and it looks like a really great mono light. I am really in favor of the R2 system, meaning the built-in triggering system which is useful across their whole lineup coming from Studio Flash, to portable evolv 200 units, and all the way down to their on camera Speedlight flashes.


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## adamhiram (Nov 13, 2019)

Braineack said:


> thats a great price. I moved all my flashes to the R2 system so I never have to deal with compatibility.


Thanks for spending my money!  I don't know that I would have caught this sale price if you hadn't mentioned this unit above...  I think I hit my limit for Black Friday sales this year.



Derrel said:


> The 400 looks like a very Nifty unit. I perused the Adorama link, and it looks like a really great mono light. I am really in favor of the R2 system, meaning the built-in triggering system which is useful across their whole lineup coming from Studio Flash, to portable evolv 200 units, and all the way down to their on camera Speedlight flashes.


I've been using the Godox/R2 system for the past 2 years with TT600 speedlights, and honestly can't imagine going back to using separate wireless receivers or not being able to set flash power remotely.  I'm not sure how much I really need the XPLOR 400, but I've had my eye on it since they announced it last year, and am definitely excited for my first "big light".


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## Braineack (Nov 14, 2019)

Derrel said:


> all the way down to their on camera Speedlight flashes.


The $50 manual ones mind you...


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## adamhiram (Nov 14, 2019)

Braineack said:


> I'm almost at the point where I'd like to ditch all my speedlights for eVOLV200s. Lots of strobe for the price in such a compact package.


FYI eVOLV 200 Pro is $50 off today @ Adorama.
https://www.adorama.com/fplfev200pro.html


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## adamhiram (Nov 15, 2019)

I will likely start a new discussion thread as I get more time to use it, but here are my initial impressions of the XPLOR 400 coming from speedlights.  It is big and it is heavy.  It has 4x the max power (metered), and the modeling light is very bright.  It is fairly intuitive to use coming from other Godox/Flashpoint products, with many of the same quirks.

But here's the thing that really surprised me...  Every review talks about recycle time at max power, and 1 second between shots at 400Ws is pretty impressive.  But nobody really talks about just how fast it is at lower output.  I tried shooting at 10fps to see how many misfires I'd see and THERE WERE NONE.  At 1/32 flash power I can literally shoot at 10fps using flash.  At 1/16 power I'm still at 9fps.  Even at 1/8 power, which is the equivalent of where I typically max out with my speedlights, I can reliably shoot at 4fps.  Maybe this is old news to those already using studio strobes, but I am truly blown away.


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## Designer (Nov 15, 2019)

adamhiram said:


> Braineack said:
> 
> 
> > I'm almost at the point where I'd like to ditch all my speedlights for eVOLV200s. Lots of strobe for the price in such a compact package.
> ...


Interesting.  Thank you.


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