Elinchrom Skyports, Nikon Flashes. Going Strobist
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
There is a style of lighting using standard camera flashes off camera in place of studio style strobes. This has become known as “Strobist“. Its not really meant to be a replacement for a studio setup, but rather to complement it. Of course, not having a studio means it is a replacement in my case. Most strobist sets are very cheap, in terms of photographic kit anyway. So what have I got, how does it work, and what are the advantages?
I’ve invested in 2 Portaflash light stands with brolly mounts (they are solid and cheap), 2 umbrellas (one white, one silver), 2 Nikon speedlights (an SB25 and SB28 - same output), and an Elinchrom Skyport universal set with an extra receiver. I bought the speedlights because they are cheap compared to the ever popular Vivitar 283/285s, they have a PC sync socket, and they are very powerful for their size. The Skyports were the most expensive purchase, but I think they are worthwhile. I’ve tried the chinese ebay radio triggers and found them very unreliable - not recommended by me - but I understand some people get on ok with them. I also needed to buy 2 Pocket Wizard PC1 cables which are required to connect the receivers to the sync socket on the flashes.
It works very well. For the 2 shots here, I set the one speedlight firing into the white umbrella at about 45 degrees to Ethan at 1/4 power. The other is under the chair at 1/16th and is pointed at the wall. I took around 100 shots and had no mis-fires. In fact, 100% reliable. The set up took around 5 minutes. 3 or 4 practise shots to get everything looking more or less how I wanted it (who needs a flash meter), and then it was play time.
The great benefit of this style of lighting is that you don’t actually need the light to be on a stand. Although I’ve got the stands now, I could just have easily used a tripod, a handy shelf, or taped the flash to a chair. There are no sync leads, and no power cables. So it is all a lot safer in a crowded environment, such as at a wedding. Now there’s an idea… The lighting is a much nicer quality than an on-camera flash, and gives you much more control. I’m looking forward to trying it in anger.
For more details on Strobist, click here. There are lots of links on the site, including links to the Strobist Flickr group. Well worth a look.