Lets talk lighting... seriously.

[TROLL]

Warning: Longwinded Lighting blabberings ahead!

Anyone here using any off camera flash or doing studio work? Its my latest 'project'. I've gone on a mad shopping spree in the past couple of weeks...

The story goes that I assisted a very well established photographer a few weeks back and we talked a lot about everything photographic from the industry and where it is headed, to file management, to location lighting. He does a lot of location lighting, and I don't.
After working with him for the 2nd or 3rd time now and seeing how he operates, I couldn't hold back any longer, I had to follow in his footsteps and get some of my own portable lighting. To make matters worse (better?), he told me about a great portable strobe blog/chat I have linked below which has been incredibly helpful and inspiring.
My main reasons for wanting portable lighting are to shoot cars, portraits, and weddings without being too tied down to bulky, heavy, slow to set up gear.

I currently have a D200 and a single SB-800. I also have some older White Lightning strobes, but they are big and require AC power which I have found very limiting on a number of occasions, namely every time I wished I could light on location. I long for portable power, but its not cheap.

Enter The Strobist... a site dedicated to using hotshoe flash units creatively for efficient and effective results. Of course hotshoe flashes are battery operated, they are light weight, and surprisingly there are quite a few out there with plenty of power to cover most shooting situations.

Nikons Creative Lighting System is quite impressive, and although I could have gone a cheaper route, I wanted to take advantage of it... for those who don't know, Nikons newer equipment has a very advanced i-TTL metering system built in as well as a ton of other features including built-in wireless capability, and controlling 4 different flash groups all from within the camera. So without further adieu, I'll just go ahead and list my current and most recent purchases, most of which are in transit now:

Currently Own:
(1) SB-800
(2) WL 10,000 Strobes
3 Lightstands
Medium Softbox
Small Softbox
Medium White Umbrella
Backdrop Stand
Crappy Backdrops
Clamps, Tape, etc etc

Just Purchased:
(2) Nikon SB-800 Flashes (for a total of 3)
46" Photek Softlighter II
15"x18" Morris Softbox (hairlight)
Impact Backlight Stand
Colored Flash Gels
Hotshoe/Umbrella Lightstand Brackets
edit: homemade snoooooot

and I got a BR-2A reversing ring for my 50mm f1.4 and 24mm f2.8 AI-S lenses, just for some fun super macro shots.

I am still lacking a hairlight boom, which I am currently shopping for an Amvona one on eBay, and I am probably going to need a proper bag or two for this gear, but I havent taken the plunge there yet either. And I need some decent backdrops, but hell this gets expensive so quickly...
Oh, I am either ordering more rechargeable batteries for the strobes, or I may be making some homemade battery packs for them, we'll see how that works out.

Morris Softbox:


Photek Softlighter:

[Chris_PA]

You dont mess around
Be sure to post some results