SB lightweight lighting kit Comments
This week I’ve been shooting the Annual Report for the Dallas Metropolitan YMCA, doing portraits of YMCA members around town. I wanted to put together a light weight lighting kit to use where I don’t need the power of the Dynalite packs. My SB-25 has been sitting on a shelf for a couple of years since I bought the SB-800, so I dug it out to see what might work. . .
I used a Pocket Wizard receiver to trigger the SB-800 and put a small optical slave on the SB-25. With a couple of old umbrella adapters I had on hand and a pair of lightweight stands, I had a portable kit that would let me manually vary power from full down to 1/64 (SB-25) and 1/128 (SB-800). With the Sekonic L-358 flash meter and built-in Wizard transmitter, I was able to rough in the lights. A couple more SB-25 units, or something similar, would be nice to be able to either add power into an umbrella or box or have multiple sources. Pocket Wizard has a truly wonderful product out for Canon, soon (hopefully) for Nikon, which allows full TTL firing over RF (radio frequency) signals, and is backward compatible with older Pocket Wizard receivers.
First was shot at the main gym in the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. Fortunately, one of the overhead lights was out in a corner so I was able to put my subject there without having to flag off the available light. First shot is my client with available light. Second shot shows the simple two light setup, one strobe into an umbrella, the other bounced off the wall. Third shot is the final result. Not fine art, but quick and got the job done. We were in a working dance studio so fast and light were important. The light is a little harsh. Part of the problem was having to have the lights set so far to the side to avoid reflections in her glasses. The last shot is a gentleman outside the same building. One strobe into an overhead umbrella. I had been blocking the flare on the first few shots but liked this one best with the sun in the shot.
