Strobe Questions From A Lighting Noob

[slee320]

Hi folks,

Lots of questions, but I'll keep 'em down to the essentials for now. Basically: I'm in the market for a two to three head lighting setup for 2 Gs or under. I've been strongly considering the Elinchrom 400BX kit or White Lightnings/Alien Bees - an X1600 and two X800s...or something like that. (I thought monolights would be a prudent direction in which to turn, btw, for the reason that losing one light doesn't mean you're JFW'd.)

I will generally be shooting on-location portraits (a lot of performing arts-related stuff) and some fashion. Both indoor and out.

So...questions:

Would you recommend any of what I've listed above (brands, power, number of heads...monolights at all?)? Another brand? Why?

Would two heads only be terribly limiting for what I want to do? (Somehow I'm guessing yes.)

What is the minimum that I could get away with in terms of w/s for fashion, outdoor, funky straight-into-the-sun shots, etc? (i.e. Would 400 w/s be enough for those situations?) Is 400 w/s enough for full-body fashion shots?

Umbrella vs. Softbox?

If I sound like a rank beginner here who doesn't know what he's talking about, it's because I am one (who definitely doesn't). So any thoughts on how to get started and what to git started with would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[dhyravy]

I think I would start with a single light if I were you. The first thing you need to understand is how light direction, falloff, diffusion, etc work before attempting to work with multiple light setups. You also didn't mention how you were going to trigger these lights?

[slee320]

Thanks for the reply.

Okay, so then... if I were to purchase one strobe, what would be recommended - brands, power, etc.?

(I'd forgotten to mention that I was looking at Dyna's Twinkle Lights, as well.)

For triggers, I was thinking of Pocket Wizards for the Elinchroms or Alien Bees' own triggering system if I were to go with one of their lights.

Thanks again.

[MJS]

I shoot the Alien Bees and love them. As far as simple set ups, check out the forums page on the alien bees site, they have some very nice simple set ups with diagrams that you could try, post them here afterwards and see what everyone says.

Good luck.