Lighting is a real minefield.

There are good, better and rubbish ideas, but that comes mainly from the perspective of the user, as all lights seem to fit in with someone for something.

My journey has been a little patchy, so I thought I might share some thoughts and maybe help others from repeating some of my mistakes.

It started with a Yongnuo 560 III and 560 IV with the TX 560 (mk1) controller. I am not really sure what even prompted me to buy these a few years ago as I had bounced in and out of flash several times before with Canon, so predictably they sat around idly for most of the time. I must admit, after a good understanding of speedlite and studio gear in the film era, I became quite out of touch over the last 15 years or so, so buying the YN’s effectively blind was probably an odd decision (one of many when it comes to flash).

Earlier this year, I had a chance to shoot a senior’s students ball for the school who are my main employer.

Being a COVID year, what was going to be allowed was pretty much an unknown up until the day of the event. I had already started to think “assume the most rigorous” when dealing with the school and COVID restrictions, so assumed I may need to (1) shoot red carpet arrivals and (2) couples portraits, but probaly little more. This left me with a little dilemma. I had 2 untried flash units, and nothing else.

A hurried purchase of a second 560 IV, a couple of shoot through brollies (internet wisdom seemed to point to these as a safe bet) and a pair of small stands, then a late purchase of a TTL Godox 685, “tooled me up” but I still had only a vague idea it would work. As it happened on the night, over 600 images of couples and groups, all arrivals and some dancing images were needed, so my “expect the most” instincts were a life saver.

All went surprisingly well, except for some battery issues toward the end of the night , so I felt safe enough handling this or similar situations in the future.

Then it started. Too much thinking, reading and worrying started me on a course (wise I guess, but involved) of making sure I had depth and knowledge in my gear.

Two more YN560 IV’s were purchased, giving me more depth and power.

Yongnuo manual flash units have the following benefits;

• They are powerful for their size and cost (about $120au), especially compared to LED’s.

• They are small and portable.

• They have 2.4g radio controllers (no line of sight needed) and can control each other or you can use a separate unit.

• They can fit into almost any modifier, especially if S-type clamps are bought (these are also more stable).

• They can be mounted multiply (up to 3) with a $10 adapter, making them close to a basic mono-block such as an AD200 or SL60 Godox in grunt.

• They can fire very fast “blips” at lower power settings (speedlites always fire at the same intensity, cutting off excess output as needed, making the duration of these shorter/faster).

• They are versatile, being on camera, floor, stand, taped to the wall, hand holdable etc and head-flippable.

• They have a focussed and zoom-able beam which is good for reach in some situations.

• Gels are small and cheap, flagging is home made and some modifiers can go in a pocket.

• They are comfortable for the subject, firing fast and gently from dormant.

The down sides are;

• They do fire a focussed beam, which needs to be spread (wide fresnel setting) or diffused, which reduce power in some wide coverage modifiers*.

• They are battery hungry*.

• They are slow to recharge*.

• They are generally weaker than studio lights* .

• They can be over stressed*.

*problems all reduced if more units are used.

Making up a 5 flash kit means I have a 3 flash solution always with back-ups and options, which equals roughly 2 mono block lights.

Godox TTL flash units.

The only real issue with the above is a lack of TTL control. For studio or “measured and controlled” photography, manual is the way to go, but for “on the fly” shooting, TTL has it’s benefits.

In the scenario above, the 685 was employed for the red carpet arrivals, a situation that did not allow for more measured manual control.

The 685 seemed to be the most recommended unit around (so I did not look for a Yongnuo equivalent).

Recycling times were relatively poor, most attributable to battery choice, but other than that the unit works well.

*

The next phase is where research and careful thinking should have saved me some money and increased my capabilities, and for the most part it did.

Lots of stands, modifiers and ideas. I felt deep and robust in lighting options, but the more I read and used, the more I wanted to try.

The questions of “do I have enough light” started to become “can I do that look”, “how much light would I need to reach that” and “how was that achieved?”.

Recently three things specifically have been addressed;

Eneloop Batteries. I now pack 30+ Eneloop Pro rechargeable AA’s, which have fixed most of the battery issues. They will give about 500 full charges and recharge faster than the alkaline’s I was using, costing about 0.01c each over their life.

The Godox was still not capable of a three shot HSS burst of a small group, so I…….

got a Godox 860 with the lithium battery. This is effectively the same as the 685, except for the battery, which halves recycle times and doubles overall life. The two can work together in HSS and TTL, so my minimalist field kit is much more versatile and slightly more powerful especially for outdoor portraiture.

At the same time I looked into LED panels, also as a HSS fix, namely the well respected Neewer range. These punch well above their weight, matching many of the much dearer options in power, colour correctness and running time, at up to one quarter the price. So far I have a little 176 for fill, a 480 RGB for background and rim lighting and the 660 Bi-colour, used more as a gentle main light.

The strengths of these (176/216/480/530/660) panels are;

• They run cold, meaning you can drape diffusers over them and a bank of them won’t cook you and for video, no fan noise.

• What you see is what you get.

• They are small to medium sized and light.

• They take Sony NP batteries (their bigger cousins do not seem to).

• They are either Bi-colour (continuous) or RGB-any colour making gels etc redundant.

• They are powerful enough for cordless units (660’s are about 40w compared to basic AC only 60w studio lights and are still cheaper).

• They “sync” at any speed being continuous.

• They can last a long time in the field (up to 5-6 hrs continuous).

• They can be stand mounted or sit on the floor.

• They have special effects in the RGB’s, which may be fun.

• They have no “re-cycle” lag.

• They are tough and have plenty of life.

The down sides;

• They are harder to find mods for (any diffusion is ok, but focussing is limited to barn doors).

• They are not super strong compared to wall powered continuous lights.

• They can be bright for the subject to look directly at, but generally that is in proportion to how harsh the light is and where it is situated.

*

From here I am not sure. The options if more power is regularly needed would be;

Godox AD200 battery power mono blocks. These are well respected and allow for “bare bulb” firing which maximises light spread in diffuser type modifiers (flash units tend to need further diffusion and/or wide zooming, reducing their power).

If my main work style was strobe based location portraiture, I think these would become mandatory, but for more occasional use, probably not.

or

Godox SL60W mono blocks. Limited to wall power and needing strong diffusion, these lights are by far the best “bang for the buck”, but come with a few issues;

• They run a cooling fan, which can be heard during video.

• They and their modifiers can be big and heavy, needing space and heavy stands.

• They are limited to indoor use.

• They are continuous, so can be bright for your subject (even more so than the panels).

Ideal for a cheap, semi-permanent studio set-up, I think these would be too cumbersome, inconvenient and wholly un-necessary for my work.

More Neewer LED’s. This is likely the way I will go. Three 660’s are roughly the same power as two Godox SL60 mono-blocks (120w total) and come in at about 60% of the cost. They are portable, nice to work with and more video friendly (if needed). The option of colour accurate Bi-colour’s or versatile RGB’s is also nice.

More Neewer Lithium speedlites. Another possibility, the 850 is the manual version of the 860. A couple of these, some spare batteries and I would have similar power to my Yongnuo’s, faster re-cycling and HSS capability with my two TTL units. Maybe a single AD200 and some of these?

Likely a second 660 B-C and 660 RGB unit and I would be set, producing between the 4, about 150w continuous. These can slot into an existing flash set-up, adding power or reducing strain as needed.