My next purchase for wedding and portrait work will be studio flash. My plan is to slowly work towards studio flash with medium format for formals. For now, studio flash with 35mm for formals will be a big jump in quality, IMO. Monolights with really big rechargeable batteries to power them (one for each) is what I prefer. But I don't know how powerful they should be. 600 w/s? 800? 1000? I only shoot NPH and I prefer shooting at about f/5.6 and would only shoot f/8 very rarely. How much power do I need?

-- Colin Miller (ckmiller@pond.net), August 29, 2000

Answers

Colin,

If you go with monos, I would recommend 800-1000ws each. This is because you are then stuck with the power that you have. With a pack system, you can start with a single, lower power pack and add more as you go. But, it also depends on what you are trying to light. Are you talking about trying light the reception, or just the alter returns?

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), August 30, 2000.

I thought I covered everything in my orignal post. drat... I need monos only for the altar and posed formals. Outside I will switch to 2 remote mounted 550EX's with an ST-E2 transmitter, though. So the monos are for inside the church only.

-- Colin Miller (ckmiller@pond.net), August 30, 2000.

600 to 1000ws each should be plenty powerful. You are not going to find (I don't think anyway) battery operated monos that powerful. You will end up with AC powered units. YOu should consider using them at the reception as well. If you shoot at f5.6 during the reception, bounce the light off of the ceilings (if they are white) and try to get f4 or so in the entire room. This way your backgrounds are not so dark.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), August 31, 2000.

You may find that you're better off with a couple of good hammerhead type guns pointed into brollys. You won't have the problem of trailing AC cables all over the place (if you can find a socket to plug them into)
Monolite units have much less efficient reflectors than portable units, and the smaller ones really aren't that powerful when you look at their output in terms of a guide number.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 01, 2000.