A few weeks ago I posted on The Fear. Not sure what The Fear is? Check it out here.

Well, last night The Fear struck! My computer stopped working (throwing crazy erros - I’m a PC users). I actually ended up trying to swap in a new hard drive to fix the problem. When that didn’t do the trick, I turned to the web and did some troubleshooting. I eventually found out that it was due to corrupted memory. After pulling one of my memory sticks, I was back up and running.

The downside (and why I can hate my computer sometimes)? Hours of wasted time - as a result, I won’t be posting anything major today.

Just a reminder, though! Always make sure you are backing up your data - don’t let The Fear become a reality.

Elinchrom D-Lite 4 Kit

Who Should Buy It?

Someone looking for a nice set of strobes (and all the other gear like stands and soft boxes) at a good value.

the Cost

$900 for the kit, $350/head

the Good

Great quality for the value, fits with other Elinchrom accessories

the Bad

Could always use more power (these have 400 w/s per unit). Missing some of the bells and whistles of the higher end units.

Welcome to the third installment in the Studio Strobes and Setup for Beginners series. Check out the intro here or the Choosing Your Strobes segment here.

My choice of studio strobes that provide a great balance of features and cost are the Elinchrom D-Lite 4’s.

The kit comes with 2 identical, 400 w/s studio strobe heads, with stands, 2 softboxes, cases and cords. The kit includes everything you need to begin your studio lighting setup.

After several months of use, the units work consistently, providing good color and durable use. The units are very easy to set up and use and are one of the best additions to my lighting setup.

The Specs

Each flash head has a power output of 400 w/s, replaceable flash tubes, power variability (ranging 5 stops), modeling light and an optical slave (one can see when the other fires and fires at the same time). They synch at 5V (that is the amount of voltage that runs along the synch cord from your camera to the flash - you can use wireless triggers as well, which is the topic for another installment in this Studio Strobes and Setup for Beginners series), which makes it safe to use with any digital camera.

The soft boxes that come with the kit work best for 1-2 person portraits (they aren’t huge - 1 is 21" and the other is 25.5").

The Good

Good value. You can purchase the entire kit for about the same price as a single professional-quality strobe head. I also really liked the decent range of features and the fact that all the other great Elinchrom accessories worked on the strobe heads. For example, I also purchased the Elinchrom Midi-Octa Bank soft box and it worked perfectly.

The Bad

Not too much to complain about, really. The biggest downside is the power. At 400 w/s, the strobes put out about 1/3 of the power of the high-end versions (400 w/s is still lots of light - the bigger ones will give you about 2 stops of light, though).

The Verdict

Looking for a nice combination of features/power and cost? The versatility, compatibility with other Elinchrom products and the ease of use make these a great studio strobe. You’ll probably also want to purchase some large soft boxes as the two that come in the kit are best for 1-2 person portraits.

Hi all. See below for some Friday news. Have a great weekend!

• Looking for another way to display your Flickr photos? I gave this link a few weeks ago. Here is another great option, DestroyFlickr.
• Looking for a summer photo contest? Canon has one going for national parks. The prizes include a trip and a Canon 5D (one sweet camera)! You can check out the details here.
• Looking for a way to make your lighting more interesting? Check out this post from the folks over at FlashFlavor.
  

Usually, I post photos that I feel were interesting or technically proficient or are in any way interesting. I have, however, used the picture to instead tell stories about me and my family. This post, for example, tells a little something about my son.

This week’s says something about my daughter. As you’ll notice in this picture (click for a larger view), I was able to actually score a 200 about a year ago in bowling (I average just over 100, so this was unusual for me).

Over this last weekend, though, we borrowed a Nintendo Wii, which has a bowling game. My young daughter (only 5) was able to beat me EVERY time we played - by at least 40 points! I always considered myself part of the video game generation (I grew up with the original Nintendo and the other classics - which I donated a fair amount of my time to). But, with someone so young beating me when I was really trying, I’ve officially become my kids’ old man! Quite a momentous day.

Taking the day off - going up to see my brother - for some golf, some photography and some relaxing. See you next week for another installment in the studio lighting series.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the first section of Studio Strobes and Setup for Beginners. Check out the intro to the series here.

One of the cornerstones to studios and the focus for today’s post is choosing studio lighting. It’s time to decide what lights should be used. We’ll consider several options. Other aspects, like light modifiers, backgrounds, etc. will be examined in future posts in this series.

How to Decide

When deciding what type of studio lighting you should use, you’ll want to consider several questions:

• How much $$ can I spend?
• How much light output do I need?
• How flexible do I want my choice to be?
• How hot can the lights be?

Some Options

You’ll have several different options, depending on how you answered the questions above.

Continuous lights provide always on light, allowing you to see exactly how the light will fall as you set it up. Lots of options here. Tungsten are popular and can produce a decent amount of light (still less than pro-level strobes though) but get VERY hot. That was a deal breaker for me - I do a fair number of children portraits and the heat thing was a problem.

You can also do fluorescent continous lights, which run MUCH cooler, but you lose quite a bit of light output. If you’re interested in continuous light, check out a great description of popular continuous lights by Scott Kelby here (picture shown above).

If needed, this can be the cheapest way. As long as you get the same type of lights you can often get away with cheaper workshop-type lights from a place like Home Depot. Just make sure that you don’t mix different bulb types - like some fluorescent and some tungsten - each often outputs a different light color cast and you don’t want a little of both.

Entry level strobes are a great way to get into the strobe world at a reasonable price. They provide a reasonable amount of light output and some decent features (like adjusting the output, modeling lights, etc) without breaking the bank. They also run much cooler than continous lights. I chose an entry level strobe - see that section below.

Professional level strobes provide high light output, lots of flexible features (like remote controlled settings and more). The catch? The cost. 1 professional level strobe can run you $1000+. That’s without stands, soft boxes, etc. (see a picture of a strobe to the right).

A Mixture: Depending on your budget and needs, you may choose a combination of these. For example, you might choose strobes when you need higher light output and flexibility for outdoor portrait sessions. You might have another continuous light setup using fluorescent bulbs for indoor product shoots (when you don’t need as much light output and it helps to see exactly where the light is falling as you setup the lights).

My Choice: Elinchrom D-Lites

Choosing which strobes I wanted was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a while. I visited online retailers (like B&H Photo), searched on Google, read discussion boards and more. None provided a clear choice and why, especially in the entry-level ish price range. I knew Scott Kelby used Elinchroms, but his particular models are pro level and cost pro $$.

Then, one day, the Strobist ran a contest and was giving away Elinchrom D-lites (entry level models) as a prize. He gave them a general thumbs up. With that recommendation and the fact that Scott Kelby uses Elinchroms, I was sold.

I purchased them a few days later - my full review on them as my choice will be posted in the next installment of this series.

Studio Strobe Terminology

Flash Tube: The fancy ‘light bulb’ that creates the actual flash.

Modeling Light: Light bulb that sits near the Flash Tube. It can be turned on/off as needed and is used to get a feel for where the light will fall (it isn’t nearly as strong as the Flash Tube, but can show where shadows, etc. may end up). It also helps provide light prior to the full flash so that your camera’s autofocus has enough light to work.

Watt/Seconds: The power output of a light source. Every time you double your Watt/Seconds (from 400-800, for example), you get one stop of light. Luckily, both strobes and always-on light sources are measured in Watt/Seconds, allowing for easier comparison.

Continuous Lights: Lights that are always on. The bulbs are typically tungsten, but are more frequently fluorescent.

Monolight: The strobe plugs directly into the wall like any other electrical device.