Need speed light stand and modifier advice

[Ligament]

Howdy,

I'm very novice regarding off camera speed light shooting. I have a Nikon SB900, quantum Turbo 3 battery pack, and two Pocketwizard flex TT5s. I may purchase a Paul Buff Einstein and battery pack in the future as well. I usually shoot on camera, but would like to get a quality stand and at least one modifier to get off camera lighting.

I'd be using this indoors and outdoors, usually for solo portraits or candids (never for group shots). Have no intention of blocking out the sun. I live in the pacific northwest of the US and it can get windy and rainy here frequently, so whichever modifier/stand combo I get I want it to be able to withstand mild-moderate wind.

Weight is not much of a concern.

Can you recommend a quality stand and modifier? I'd rather by quality once than buy the wrong thing many times over.

[Some Guy]

The stand I have my eye on is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWQGMglmQ20  The water thing I don't know about other than they say the threads are stainless steel Heli-Coil inserts so maybe.

I have some of the cheaper three-leg with the struts things, but the bracket the legs fit into and slides along the upright pole to fold up is plastic and one cracked around the rivet part.

Wheels are a nice option if you roll it around a lot too.

For modifiers, if you are going with Einstein, I'd use Buff's gear as it's affordable and well backed up.

SG

[Ken Bennett]

You can get started with a few things:

1. A basic 4-section ~7 foot light stand - this Manfrotto Nano stand is just tall enough and very compact. The larger 4-section stands that go to 7.5 feet might be better in the long run.
2. a simple double fold white "shoot thru" umbrella - I've used these Westscott for years
3. an umbrella stand adapter, this one seems reasonable

You can buy all of these things much more cheaply on Amazon, and those will all work fine too. You can also get inexpensive kits, look for Cowboy Studio and the like.

I like the shoot through umbrella - easy and fast to set up, nice light quality. You don't get a huge amount of control over the light, but it's very forgiving - just put it a few feet away at a 45 degree angle, just above the subject's head and pointed slightly down and slightly in front of the subject (aim for the tip of the nose.) Then play with TTL and Manual flash modes, and vary your ambient light exposure and see what the background does. Move the flash around and see what that does - directly over the camera with a big umbrella gives an interesting look, as does from a 90 degree angle or even more to the side for a profile shot.

When you really want more control over the "spill" of the light (what it's hitting that isn't your subject), then you can get an Apollo Orb and its associated fabric grid for a very reasonable price. It'll mount to the same stand and umbrella adapter, but provides far more control (and far less forgiveness ) I've been using one lately with my radio controlled speedlights, and it's very nice for a one person portrait.

[Ellis Vener]

"Weight is not much of a concern. "

Then the answer is simple. You want an Avenger C-stand with a 40" arm and a threaded stud to mount  the flash or the modifier to.

as to modifier you can't go wrong with a Chimera Octa 2 Beauty Dish and versi mount http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=827105&gclid=Cj0KEQjw4uSgBRDZveXz9M-E1aoBEiQA2RMP6kD-sCrTOFe4scdWpjSp7hEHoZOAJ5x2jY4PsG1aTkAaAqg18P8HAQ&Q=&is=REG&A=details

[synn]

For solo portraits, you can't go wrong with an Elinchrom deep octa 70CM (Comes in PCB mount too). I love mine, in the studio:



and outdoors:



It has a light quality quite distinct from that of generic octas. I usually use it with only the internal baffle and it has a nice "Bite" without turning into hard light. Just buy one set of Elin internal reflectors and there's a lot you can do with it. It will last a long long time, so the initial investment is worth it.

Just weigh it down when you use outdoors.

If you want to stick with speedlights for a while though (I don't like them because the beam spread isn't as good as a bare bulb, but I totally understand budgetary concerns), you can't go wrong with umbrellas as someone mentioned earlier. This is with two umbrellas, one for key and one for fill, with a speedlight inside each. Again, my personal preference is a reflective umbrella and not a shoot through as the former has a bit more "Bite".



Happy shooting!