Speedlight Accessories

In the UK we say “flash” and in the USA they say “strobes”. Either way using them for more complex lighting scenarios has become all the rage and the technique has become commonly know as strobist or even strobism. But let’s face it, all we are talking about is adding light and how we add light to our subject, preferably without having to spend a small fortune on a load of studio kit, ranger packs and generators! In this video Karl takes a look at some setups for strobists and some tips on how to make your flash work better and more effectively.

Comments

  1. Candez Photography

    Hi Karl,

    I am on holiday in Italy and have been spending many hours of the day watching the courses from the beginning all the way up to this video and I must say that having my “studio” back home, in my dinning room, which my wife by the way, is enchanted with loool I am considering getting 3 “Godox V860 ii Sony” flashes that in my opinion have a very good quality to price ratio with a retail price of 170 dollars

    The flash has a guide number of 60 as well as modeling light for previewing your shots and a lithium battery with a capacity of 650 flashes with the battery fully charged. You can use it on manual mode from 1/1 to 1/128 with a high sync of up to 1/8000 s

    I am thinking of getting 3 in total. One to mount on my Sony a7R III camera and two of them that I will mount as shown in this video on a stand with an umbrella on another stand to get light to hit the middle of the umbrella in order to get perfect lighting from it.

    I also have a VGM 80 watt softbox with a color range of 5600k that you can adjust from 10%-100%

    Do you think that if I get those three Godox V860 ii Sony flashes + a round 48” with/silver reflector with my crappy VGM 80 watt 😂 I would already have pretty decent lighting system for my living room studio ?

    I was thinking it would be great if you offered a paying service that would be called “custom studio design” where we send pictures and dimensions of our futur studio with our budget as well as the type of photography we are wanting to do and then you or your team send us the list of everything we need. I’m sure that newbies like myself would really appreciate this service in order to not go out and not knowing what to buy.

    Have a great week end Karl, team & community ☀️

    1. Hi, the lights you described are speedlites and the modelling lamps are not very powerful. Personally I find speedlites hard to work with in the studio and if you really want to get into studio lighting then I would be opting for a studio lamp head with a good modelling lamp. If you are on a budget then something like this: starting at 400W – https://www.godox.com/studio-flash/

      1. Candez Photography

        Thanks for all of the replies I got from you today🙏🏻

        I found a pretty cool looking set from Godox like you suggested.

        https://www.digitec.ch/fr/s1/product/godox-kit-de-studio-qt400ii-c-400-w-set-flashs-studio-13322590

        2 x 400 watts flash studio lights
        1 x umbrella
        1 x softbox
        2 x stands

        All that for 1100 dollars.

        But like I said before buying I will look at ALL of your videos and then decide which lighting solutions I get : )

        Have a great day Karl. I’m loving the Karl Taylor educational journey💎

  2. Hi Karl,

    I understand that you in general prefer to not use speedlites but I was still wondering… When it comes to speedlites, what are the most important features to look at when buying? I understand it might all depend on your purpose with the light to begin with.
    I guess what I really want to ask is, what makes a speedlite better than another besides more power and is it worth the extra costs?
    The price range of different speedlites is really big. I’ve seen that it can range from $60 to even $1000 if not more.

    1. Hi Jacques, if you were going for an $800 speedlite then I would instantly say go for a studio light instead. The most restrictive thing about speedlites is lack of power and/or lack of modifiers and the efficiency of their use. Although you will see me achieve great images with speedlites in Karl Taylor Education but it is just a bit more fiddly. I’ve used cheap speedlites and the light quality is OK but reliability and consistency of power is not always good but I’ve had some cheap ones work well enough for a while.

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