I Need Strobe Advice

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swiftmoonphoto's avatar
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I want to get into real strobe work, but it's kind of inscrutable.  Is this one of the things where I'm going to be fine with 250 Watt Neewers or am I going to eventually end up buying 600 Watt Alien Bees eventually anyway so I shouldn't waste money on the cheap stuff initially.

Also, how many do I need,  Main, Fill, and Hair, or do I need a fourth, or a fifth??

My current plan is to get two 300 Watt AC/DC lights for fill and hair and then a 600 Watt AC/DC to use as a main and as a fill light for sunlight.  Am I headed in the wrong direction?

Also, would be thankful for brand or feature recommendations, as well as accessories.  I have beauty dishes  and a couple home-made snoots (cardboard whisky bottle sleeves work great) that I use with speedlights, but am looking at a big softbox with a honeycomb and a couple umbrellas.

If you've read this far you probably know more than I do, any help would be appreciated.

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jblaschke's avatar
You can do a lot more with a simple two-strobe setup than you'd think, especially if you add reflectors and flags to the mix. I started out using simple optical slaves and worked up from there. The Strobist blog is a fantastic resource for this. Start at the beginning--it's really worth it.

Save the money you'd spend on the Bees until you reach a point where you know you need them and can quantify the strobes' limitations on your photography. Until then, invest where it will do you the most immediate good.