Anyone ever bought one of those strobe lighting kits from Ebay? Usually under $300 for 3 strobes, 2 soft boxes, 1 or 2 umbrellas, and the sync cables and remotes?


My wife wants to get into portraiture, and we want to buy some starter kits for the lighting, not looking to spend $1000+ (as we did for the camera/lens) just to get a feel for it.


Looking for opinions...

 

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There appears to be some nice deals with lighting kits on ebay but i have a few questions. Are you going to be using these in a studio setting or on location? Why start with 2-3 lights at once?

If you are planning on using these strobe kits on location you have to think about portability. Those kits look like they can weigh a ton with 3 lights, especially if you end up ever trying out external power packs. And as for the question about starting with multiple lights, as someone who has just started lighting i would recommend starting with a single light and getting comfortable with that before adding second and third lights.

Personally i went the David Hobby strobist route and do not regret it one bit. Using a speedlight gives me so much versatility as i can keep my flash in my main camera bag at all times and still find ways to use it even when i don't have my light stand and umbrella. I spent about 200 bucks on a single light with radio triggers, an umbrella, umbrella bracket and a light stand. I could have saved even more money by ordering cheaper light stands online and using sync cords instead of radio triggers. I have had some really nice results just using a single light with an umbrella with the sun as a back light.

Check out this site if you haven't, it's the bible of off camera lighting:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html

Also if you can afford it Zack Arias onelight dvd is amazing, but pricey(could probably find it on torrents if thats your thing). Zack is the prime example of what you can do with a single, cheap speedlight.

 

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it will be in our converted Garage, just to learn right now. I bit the bullet and bought my wife a Canon 50D with the stock 28-135mm lens. I am looking at a new lens just for her portriats. We also have a Canon Speedlight 420EX, so I guess if we went with one light, we would actually have 2.


btw, great link, will study it more after the HS football game tonight


and just "aquired" that onelight DVD, will watch it tomorrow for sure!


thanks again.

 

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Sync cables suck :\ I use CyberSync remotes and they have worked flawlessly for me. One thing about getting into lighting is that before you get into it you are very unsure of yourself. I can damn near almost guarantee that you or your wife will be hooked after experimenting with it.

With that said you just need to consider over all cost. Sure $300 for a learning system is a good price. You will replace that kit so you need to factor in that $300 into your total cost.

For someone to start experimenting with lighting I would suggest buying 1 speed light, 1 Umbrella, 1 light stand, 1 4-in-1 reflector, and transmitter/receiver. That is plenty enough to start out doing portrait work and headshots. Once you get familiar with the setup and start to feel limited add in additional speed lights as you can afford it. After all that you can start messing around with more powerful lighting setups I have a few speed lights but I recently picked up a few of these and love them http://www.white-lightning.com/x1600.html

Yeah i agree with that about getting hooked and wanting upgrades. I also chose to skip sync cords and go with the yongnuo trigger system from hong kong, they are no pocket wizards thats for sure but they have been perfect so far. No misfires and great range, totally worth the 50 bucks or w/e they ended up costing.

You could always start with the speedlights and when you master those and need more power upgrade to some alienbees or profotos. You will outgrow cheap studio strobes but you can never have too many speedlights and it never hurts to have a studio worth of light power that fits in a back pack.

Check out this video, pretty awesome results with just a lamp, a diffused window and a point and shoot. You can go really far with minimal external lighting when you use the sun to help you out.

http://fstoppers.com/zach-andrews-and-corinne-alexandra-have-my-back/

 

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Sure, you can do alot with minimal lighting like that. The problem is that you don't have much versatility

 

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Oh. and about the kits.


What separates cheap from expencive in my experience is the reloadtime of the strobes. I don't think you'll be to dissappointed with a cheap one, as long as your expectations are accordingly.

 

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I have done some research on those ebay china built lamps, and it seems like you get what you pay for.


I have decided to save my pennies and get an Alien Bee B800 or perhaps even the B1600.

 

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If you are really considering Alien Bee's you should look at the While Lightnings. http://www.white-lightning.com/ They are essentially the same unit as an AB but they are able to also cut their power in half and act like the unit under it as well. These strobes are very powerful and a lot of times you don't really need all that power so it's really good to be able to knock it down.