What You Need To Get Started With Off-Camera Flash Lighting – Cheap and Affordable

I get this question quite often and it usually takes me a while to answer because of all the components needed to do off-camera flash lighting; so the better way is to just make a blog post.

David Hobby (Strobist) has an excellent in-depth series of posts that explains everything you need, why you need it, and things to consider on his excellent blog (the post starts here) and I’m not going to that much detail. Think of this as rather a friend asking another friend: what do I need and where do I buy it sprinkled with a few thoughts here and there.

Flash/Light Stand – Required

This is one of those necessary items that you definitely need at least 1 of, if not 2 or more. I personally use the Lumopro LP604 5-section 6-foot stand (read our review here or buy it here). This is essentially a cheaper alternative to the popular Bogen Manfrotto 3373/Nano-001 used by Strobist. The reason I chose the Lumopro over the Bogen is two fold: it’s cheaper $39.99 versus $59.95 and it’s a bit thicker meaning a bit more sturdy.

Both light stands are very light and easy to carry around. I took Strobist’s advice and drilled two 1/4″ holes for a carry strap to make it easy to take with you. The 6-feet stands are very versatile and work great for a majority of your subjects. The major limiting factor is that it only goes up to 6-feet. You sacrifice versatility for portability. If you don’t travel with your light stands often or need to, I recommend that you invest some heavier 8-13-feet light stands, such as the Bogen Imaging Manfrottos here. The reason for light stands that can go higher is because sometimes you have taller subjects or you need to put up reflectors. I have 2 of the LP604 and 2 taller 8′ light stands.

As with any light stands, it is always good safety practice to weight down your stands with sandbags or anything else to prevent tipping over.

Umbrella Swivel – Required

In order to mount your flash and an umbrella to the light stand and be able to tilt and swivel, you’ll need an umbrella swivel. I use the Lumopro LP633 because it’s one of the smallest umbrella swivels and is made entirely of metal. There is one major drawback to using the LP633 is that the flash hot-shoe mount does not swivel at all. This is not a problem if you use remote radio triggers such as PocketWizards or Elinchrom Skyports, but can be problematic when using Nikon’s CLS (Creative Lighting System) or Canon’s wireless flash system as they are heavily dependent on line of sight. There have been a number of times where I’ve used the Canon wireless flash system and had to swivel the receiver in a way that it would see my master flash to receive the signal and information. You can get creative sometimes and bounce the master light off of walls to trigger the remote flash, but what if you are outside? Had I not had a Photoflex Shoe Mount Multiclamp, I wouldn’t have been able to get the shot because we were outside with nothing to bounce the light off of to trigger the remote flash. I recommend having both. If you never use or never plan to use CLS or Canon’s wireless flash system, might as well spend the few more dollars and get the smaller, portable umbrella swivel.

Umbrella – Required

Everyone doing off-camera flash needs at least 1 shoot-through umbrella. Or 2. Or 3. They break and get damaged so often, it’s always good to have spares around. The ones I use and like are the ones that Stobist recommends, the Westcott 43″ Collapsible Umbrella with removable black cover. They are cheap ($26.00), light, very portable, and work very well. The reason you want one of these “shoot-through” umbrellas is because more and more people are finding by firing the flash directly into the umbrella pointed at the subject, there is a lot of soft, diffused light making for excellent portraits. And with the removable black cover, you can add it back to be a reflective bounce also. There’s not much to say except get a couple.

Flash – Required

Definitely one of those required things for doing off-camera flash is having an off-camera flash. For the most part, you can get any brand flash (Vivitar, Canon, Nikon, Quantum, and etc.) you like regardless of what brand camera you use. But it does makes sense to invest in your camera manufacture’s flash as there are a number of advantages such as eTTL (iTTL) when used on the camera’s hot shoe. It’s essentially the same thing as regular TTL (through-the-lens) where the lens is passing on distance and focal length information to the camera to calculate exposure and by using the camera manufacture’s flash, it also use the lens’s information to help the camera calculate how much power the flash needs to exposure without over-or-under-exposing the subject. The other main advantage of using a Canon 580EX II (if you shoot Canon) or a Nikon SB-900 is their respective wireless system that allows for triggering other similar brand flashes without the need for a manual-sync cable and also to do what is called high-speed sync (shutter speeds faster than the max-sync speed). Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS) is much better than Canon’s wireless flash system, but that only matters and is useful if you use Nikon. If you are planning to use the flash with radio transmitters such as PocketWizards (what we use), Skyports, Radio Poppers, or others, then the flash you get must have a sync-port to connect the radio transmitter to or you will have to buy a Paramount adapter.

Please note that you could any number older flashes with the new flashers such as Canon’s 550EX or 580EX or slightly less advanced versions such as the 430EX II, 430EX, or 420EX. There will be a few issues using the slightly less advanced versions such as the 430EX and 420EX are that they can not be used as master flash triggers when doing Canon’s wireless system, only as slave units. When used with a radio trigger or with a Canon ST-E2 (remote optical trigger), it does not matter. Nikon, on the other hand, most of all their flashes can function as master or slave and even the built-in flash on most of the Nikon bodies can be used as the master flash trigger. There is a lot more that can be said about this topic, but it’s beyond the scope of this blog post.

Remote Radio Triggers – Optional

There are a number of remote triggers out there, but only three I would recommend: PocketWizard, Elinchrom Skypots, or Radio Poppers. If you are a professional photographer, don’t waste your time or money on any of the other knock-offs. The remote radio triggers are pricey, but they are an investment. They allow you to do creative lighting from a distance that would not be possible with a wired sync cord, optical triggers, and in many cases, Nikon’s or Canon’s wireless system.

All three of these radio triggers work exceptionally well, you can’t go wrong with any of them. The PocketWizards have the new Flex system which allows for high-speed sync via radio transmission, which is more reliable than wireless flash transmission as with on the Canon’s built-in wireless flash system. The PocketWizards can also trigger Profoto brand studio strobes and battery packs. The Elinchrom Skyports work excellent as well and can trigger Elincrom brand studio strobes and battery packs in addition to wirelessly dialing up or down power on the Elinchrom Ranger battery packs.

Manual Wired Sync Cable – Required

Regardless if you use radio or wireless flash sync technology, you should always own at least 1 wired sync cable (make sure you get the right connectors) that you plug from the off-camera flash to your camera. This cable is very straight forward. You plugin one end into the flash’s sync port and the other into the camera’s flash sync port. It pays to be prepared.

Light Modifiers – Optional

It’s always nice to have additional tools at your disposal to shape the light depending on the picture you are trying to take. This can be a number of tools such as gobos, grids, Sto-Fen Omni Bounce, barn doors, snoot, and etc. It’s not necessary to jump right into this, but something good to keep in the back of your mind as your lighting gets more advanced and complex.

Gels – Required

Get this special Strobist Color Correction Gel Pack from MPEX here. For $15.95, you’ll get the gel sheets you need and enough to last for a long time. You could also get this, the Lumiquest FXtra Compact Gel Holder, that seems to work really well. I use a number of Lumiquest products and can personally vouch for them. If you do get the Lumiquest FXtra, I would definitely invest in the velcro Cinch-Strap also.

Technically gels are also considered light modifiers, but they are one of the single most hidden and powerful weapon in a photographer’s bag. By default, an off-camera flash’s color is neutral white. Most often, it appears as a cool bluish tint. Over time as it is being used, it starts turning more yellow and yellow, which is natural as the strobe puts out a lot of power and eventually begins burning the plastic cover.

By why do we need gels? Because you want to combat color cast and to use it to create interesting effects. First, let’s address the color cast issue. Ever took a photo in a gym or a place with lots of incandescent bulbs with flash and when you extract your images later, your subject’s skin tone looks relatively right but the lights in the background look green? That’s what happens when you introduce a white neutral light to light that operates at a cooler temperature. So how do we fix this? You put a full-cut (or half-cut or quarter-cut) green gel to match the ambient light source and set you Camera’s white balance to florescent and everything should look very close to right. Same thing with tungsten bulbs but instead of using green, we use what’s called CTO, or color tungsten orange. The same concept applies when doing off camera flash, you need to match the color temperature of the ambient light. Sure, you can try correcting this by shooting RAW and using Photoshop, but 9 times out of 10, no matter how many hours of correcting you do, you won’t get that image to look right. Why not save yourself the hassle and wrinkles from exhaustion and stress by doing it right the first time.

How can we use gels creatively? Ever see those cool shots where the evening sky looks blue and the subject looks nicely lit by flash? Ever tried getting that same shot but your sky looks blah? Know how to get the nice deep blue sky with the subject’s skin tone looking nice and warm? I do and now will you. You set your camera to tungsten white balance which will make everything blue. Neat effect if you don’t mind your subject looking like a smurf. To correct that, we put a full-cut CTO gel on the flash and that counter-attacks the blue and gives your subject the nice warm skin tones. Too orange? Make it a half-cut CTO. Cool huh? Obviously there is a bit more to making that shot, but you’re like 90% there. You could also use different color gels to create interesting backgrounds. See this cool video by Strobist on what you can do with some gels for creative backgrounds:

Light Meter – Optional

I’m a big user of a Sekonic L-358 light meter as it helps me get perfect exposure. A light meter in off-camera lighting can be of great help, as the camera can’t meter for exposure unless you are using CLS or Canon’s wireless flash system. The Sekonic has an optional wireless module that lets you trigger PocketWizard transceivers.

If you have the money to spare, a light meter can go a long way in cutting down post processing time by nailing the exposure. Without a light meter, you have to estimate exposure, f-stop and chimp to determine the best exposure, which can be a time consuming process and can still lead to under-exposed shots.

White Balance – Optional

The less time I spend correcting bone-head stuff such as incorrect white balance or color cast, the quicker I can get my photo shoots online for my clients to see. Sure it takes a few extra seconds to set a custom white balance, but would you rather spend ten or more minutes trying to correct the color? I particularly like the Lastolite EzyBalance for off-camera lighting, but you could also try using the Expodisc.

Other Optional Items

These are a few other items that are incredible useful when needed:

• Justin Spring Clamp – great for clipping your flash to a book case, ledge, LCD monitor, or just about anything
• Super Clamp with Stud – great for clipping your flash to doors, bigger ledges
• Gaffer Tape – everyone needs a roll of this to tie down cables, make super quick snoots, and millions of other uses
• Sandbags – essential for keeping your light stand and umbrella from becoming a kite.

Conclusion

Off-camera lighting doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. At the minimal you need:

• a light stand
• an umbrella
• an umbrella swivel
• a flash
• wired sync cable

With those items, you can tackle a number of portrait or product photography with off-camera flash. As you get more comfortable and proficient with off-camera lighting, you can start introducing reflectors and more flashes to create even more unique effects such as:

With this result:

Good luck and happy shooting.