STG Studios

I need suggestions on buying a photography strobe kit.?

I am looking for a strobe kit for my studio. Up until now I have been using continuous lighting, but would like to get into strobe kits. I would like to be able to shoot with at least 200 ISO With continuous lighting I feel like I am almost forced to shoot with 1600 and HATE the grain! I can never find bulbs/lamps with a high enough wattage, plus then the lights are so bright that the customers hate it. So anyways I do not know much about strobes and I am seeing some awesome prices online but the wattage is anywhere between 165 watts per second for 2,000... I found what looks like a good one here.... http://www.amazon.com/900W-3X300W-Lighting-Photography-Studio/dp/B003LZ6LYU/ref=pd_cp_e_2 but worried that 300 watts will not be enough light output to be able to shoot with 100 ISO and have a quick enough shutter to not be blurry, I mostly shoot children and infants and they move a lot lol.
any suggestions as to what wattage I should be looking at?

Continuous lighting is a LOT less powerful than strobes, so almost any strobe is going to produce better results for you than your continuous lights. 300WPS of strobe light is more like 55,000 watts of continuous light at 1/125 of a second.
Flash also stops motion so you can use incredibly low shutter speeds before you have motion blur issues.
My first recommendation is to buy at least 300 WPS strobes. You can dial down a strobe that is too bright, but you can't squeeze more out of a weak strobe.

Now the setup you are looking at. It is definitely a good start for the WPS. The lights, however are cheap quality. It looks like the ones that you cannot change the flash tubes without taking the entire unit apart and re-soldering it. Not user changeable-they are disposable. When they blow they are done.
The stands tend to be cheap and flimsy-NOT good if you do child photography.
The softboxes won't be ones you can use with different good strobes.

THere are many budget options that are good, this isn't it. You get what you pay for.
Check Adorama.com's flashpoint setups. They were rated very well by Shutterbug magazine (search the shutterbug site and you will find several different articles on them.) They are going to cost more than the crap you found, but they're a lot better quality. I have one I was asked to test with my white lightnings and i was very impressed with it.

If you really want good quality built to last a long time, on a budget go with AlienBees. They are more than the flashpoint option, but they are also better units overall.
Don't go with the super cheap. You will regret it and essentially feel that you wasted that money.

Video Photography Lighting Kit Assembly

HSN 125W Photography Studio Continuous Lighting Soft Light Kit Professional Studio Light Set SoftBox Lighting System 125W 5400K Daylight Continous Lighting Set Description: In this listing you are looking at this great continuous lighting kit, this is a professional multipurpose Lighting kit, The bulb inside is 125w and the inner layer of the soft box is white silver to provide Adequate lighting. There are two removable cloth to soften the light and you can m...

HSN 125W Photography Studio Continuous Lighting Soft Light Kit Professional Studio Light Set SoftBox Lighting System 125W 5400K Daylight Continous Lighting Set Description: In this listing you are looking at this great continuous lighting kit, this is a professional multipurpose Lighting kit, The bulb inside is 125w and the inner layer of the soft box is white silver to provide Adequate lighting. There are two removable cloth to soften the light and you can m...

PhotoSEL LS21E52 Professional Softbox Studio Lighting Kit with 2x85w 5400K CRI>90 Bulbs, 40x60cm Softboxes £119.99 If you have been trying to shoot pictures with an accurate colour representation of the items you are photographing it is very likely that you have been relying on special filters and/or software editing to improve the results. With the PhotoSEL LS21E52 Professional Studio Light Set, this may well be a thing of the past. Rather than providing inferior quality 6400K bulbs (as many other sellers do)...

PhotoSEL LS11E22 Studio Lighting Kit with 2x26W 5400K CRI>90 Bulbs £64.00 5400K pure white daylight bulbs If you have been trying to shoot pictures with an accurate colour representation of the items you are photographing it is very likely that you have been relying on special filters and/or software editing to improve the results. With the PhotoSEL LS-11E22 Professional Studio Light Set, this may well be a thing of the past. Rather than providing inferior quality 6400...

Ex-Pro® Photo Professional Mini Day (Natural) 15 LED Cool Running Continuous run Light Set Mini Lighting kit for Photo Tents for White back photography with stands, True Day Light Specific 15 LED Cool 6400K GU10C bulbs included to give clean white daylight. 240v, Mini Light Kit suitable for 30cm, 40cm Tents, Cubes or Desk Top Studio Lighting boxes. Ideal for small part / Product photo's. £29.97 Lighting SetEx-Pro® 15 LED White Mini Light Set The Dichroic bulbs provide a wonderful white light for excellent colour mixing etc. No need for filters or software editing (The colour of the image closely resembles the colour of the original item - 6400K Lighting) Foldable Light Stands - Max Height: 25cm, Min Height: 25cm, Leg Spread Diameter: 15cm, Weight: 2 x 300g (including stands & bulbs) In ...

Tags:   continuous photography lighting kits · kit · lighting · lights · photo · photography · photography studio continuous lighting kitsNo Comments