My old rule of thumb was, 400ws for 35mm, 800ws for 120, and 1200ws for 4x5. That is with 4 heads for Portraiture, and with a single head for commercial stuff. It always seemed to give me enough light when I needed to rent strobes. Large groups call for mutiple lights not more powerful ones.
I have two old Norman 200B, and a couple of shoe mount (Vivitar 283) strobes that work well for portraiture (with umbrellas on the Normans). This provides Key, fill, background, and hair or back lights. The varipower modules on the Vivitars allow good control of the latter. This outfit has the advantage of being 100% battery powered. It lacks modeling lights, though I can get by with my flash meter as I have a good idea of how standard setups are going to look. Despite the Normans, et al, I would suggest going with the type system Bill recommends if you have to build from scratch on a budget. A few years ago I suggested to some one on the rec.photo.* newsgroups to get a power pack and one head, add heads, as Bill suggests, as money and needs dictate, then add power packs for redundancy and commercial needs. Sort or a growable system. Much portraiture can be done with one light and a reflector. Adding lights makes things more versatile, but many photographers I have known chose to work with a maximum of two lights outside the studio. With the retro look in as it is, some current photogs try to make their strobes look as much like hot lights as they can, one can even do a lot of work without lightmodifiers these days. Ciao, Graywolf http://pages.prodigy.net/graywolfphoto ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: William Robb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 2:12 AM Subject: Re: ok crazy camera people...a ? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: David Spaulding > Subject: ok crazy camera people...a ? > > > > My question is...how much light to I need? Anyone gotten away > with using > > 330WS or so? This seems like a real risk...I might get a big > group and need > > the little extra I don't have. > > I presently use a Photogenic 800ws box and cable with 4 heads. > This is tons for 35mm, I rarely use full power with 35, > sufficient for medium format, and a bit of a stretch for large > format portraiture. > If you are on a budget, get a box and a couple of heads, and add > heads as your ability to control the light improves. > I have disliked monolights since my head was nearly crushed by a > 600WS Bowens that was on the end of a 7 foot stand. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
