roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Sorry, Vet, but the poster does not mean Speedlights, but strobes. They are totally different. I have used ancient Novatrons strobes for years. They still work, and I still use them. (Also.........thank you so much for your service to our country.)

CO

Adorama Camera has their economical Flashpoint series strobes. I have two Paul C. Buff DigiBee DB800 strobes. They're very compact and have a powerful 400W equivalent LED modeling light. P.C.B. offers a large variety of light modifiers. Be sure that you will be able to mount a variety of light modifiers to your strobe - beauty dish, softboxes, strip softbox, reflectors.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yongnuo is a good Chinese brand, and Nissin is a good product from Japan. Although I buy new flashes, many people buy used, exclusively,.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

Yongnuo. Reliable and cheap. I use mine on manual, both on and off camera. You can get inexpensive external battery packs for them that take 8 AA batteries. I use rechargeables and the recycle time is less than a second. Check on Amazon for both. Note: Not much documentation on how to set them up, but if you have used other flashes, they will make sense.

If you are shooting Canon or Nikon, I believe the Yongnuo flash can be bought to work specifically with those cameras. Some even will trigger off of a flash trigger transmitter, but I have separate receivers for that.

Good luck!

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

DavidM Loc: New Orleans, LA

Checkout Tim Payne’s site at flashgear.net. He carries godox units and warranties his products for two years instead of one. Send him a message telling him what you’re looking for and he’s very personable. Some of his strobes are very budget friendly!

bdhinson7

Good news, ProMaster is still in business. Their website is http://www.promaster.com. I'm looking at some of their strobes myselef.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Some people OBVIOUSLY don't read the entire post. Several of us have stated this.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

They are missing out on the full usefulness of this site.
I’ve leaned a lot by reading all the posts in threads and I've done this professionally for over 40 years.

A few posters are ignorant uninformed, others quite good.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Same here.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

If you want a speedlight type, Yongnuo makes strobes that people here have recommended.

Note: If you click "Quote Reply" we will know who you are talking to.

A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

I have White Lightnings which are great for studio and can be used on location but you need to find 120v power. If I was doing it today, I would use the battery powered mono-lights like Godox for ease of use and power of the flash.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

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When you say you haven't decided on what direction to take, I don't know if you mean WHAT STYLE of wedding photography you are going to adopt or apply or if you referring to other areas of photography. Of, course, one type or kind of lighting equipment can cross-over and be utilized for many kinds of work, however, since shooting events is likely to be your current entry level, I can make some suggestions based on that assumption.

In your degree program, lighting issues and applications must have been addressed. Although wedding photography entails a great deal of available light or natural light techniques, electronic flash plays an important role in many aspects of the job.

The lights that you are considering to purchase are categorized as mono-lights- they have certain capabilities that will be very useful in formal and casual portraiture and certain aspects of candid or photojournalistic photography.

FORMAL PORTRAITURE: Depending on your style and what you offer to your clients, a certain degree of formal/casual individual and group portraiture may be in your routine coverage. You may have to simulate "studio" lighting on location and yet be able to set up and take down your lighting gear in quickly and efficiently. One or two mono lights equipped with umbrellas or softboxes are very applicable to this situation. The modeling lights will enable the fast and accurate positioning of the lights and control of your lighting aesthetics. The units you are considering have enough output to enable apertures to effect adequate depth of field for groups and can be powered down sufficiently to diminish the depth of field for selective focus and "bokeh" effects.

The units you are considering require approximately 115 Volts Alternating Current so unless there are outdoor outlets in a garden or other out-of-doors locations, augmenting or fill in natural light will have to be relegated to speedlights or portable flash units or reflectors. There are accessory inverters that can be used to supply sufficient AC power from an automotive source.

MULTIPLE FLASH (ROOM LIGHTING): You mono-lights and be used to light large areas such as churches and function rooms at reception venues. Two or more can be strategically placed to create very dimensional lighting effects and negate the "black hole" effect of single on-camera flash, that is, overexposed foregrounds and underexposed backgrounds due to the inverse square law. two or more mono-lights can be placed around the parameter of the venue and triggered by radio slave. The can be coordinated with your on-camera speedlight whereby the speedlight is a basic fill and the off-camera lights act as main lights, kickers, sidelights and serve to open up dark background areas where the on-camera light would ordinarily fall off. Again, your selected lights will have enough of a power range to coordinate with your speed light and arrive at a good lighting ratio and depth of field scenario.

These are important lighting techniques, especially if the existing light is insufficient for a practical handheld camera- candid coverage of the event. The shutter speed, within your camera's synchronization range, can be used to add ambient light to your flash exposures.

These are some of the lighting techniques I use in my wedding work. I always work with at least one assistant to help with the lighting. My own approach is that I usually use one mono-light equipped with a softbox for my formal portraits. For close-up and 3/4 length bridals portrait, I use a simple silver reflector for fill. For full length and groups, I use the same mono-light but use my on-camera light for fill. At ceremonies and receptions, I have my assistant operate a battery powered portable unit on a monopod which serves as my main light and the camera unit is my fill. Where the is time and space, we set up the mono-lights in the aforementioned manner. When the mono-lights are used in this manner, I use the modeling lights to aim them, and once the lighting pattern is established, I turn off the modeling lamps so they don't disturb the mood in the room or annoy the guests. Once I establish the exposure, I usually have one aperture setting that covers the entire room. I can adjust the lighting ratio by simply controlling the power output of my on-camera flas.

OK-If you may have noticed, I did not delve into brand names, makes and models but instead suggested a number of scenarios. I encourage photographers to make equipment acquisitions based on their practical applications and to make certain that the gear the buy will accommodate their requirements adn stand up under continual professional use.

As a student or aspiring wedding photographer, you realize that the reliability of your equipment is of the utmost importance. If any of the gear malfunctions, you need to have spares or alternative methods to complete the job- there are no retakes! Spare gear is mandatory because event the very best, brand new or well-maintained equipment CAN unceremoniously drop dead at the most inopportune times- like right in the midst of a wedding assignment. You plan and budget shoud consider spare or alternative equipment.

Equipment should be durable and able to withstand hard usage. Unlike gear that is confined to a studio, location usage can subject electronic flash systems to potential damage due to vibration and/or impact during transport, quick setups, and takedowns, breakage of glass tubes and lamps and stands that can accidentally tip over of unexpectedly telescope downward. Also to be considered are long duty cycles and rapid firing whc can cause overheating. Make certain that the units are adequately protected against overheating when they are used in a softbox or other enclosed light modifiers. Some flash units have fan ventilation (build in or accessories) or heat sinking or convention that accommodates modifier usage and long duty cycles.

Precaution are, of course, some redundancy and duplication of equipment. An emergency kit should contain spare modeling lamps, perhaps user replaceable flash tubes, spare fuses and cords and batteries where applicable.

Well- good luck with your work! Wedding photography can be a challenging, creative and lucrative venture. It's not for the impatient or lazy photographer or the faint of heart. It was my entry level to the profession over 50 years ago and I am still at it. My present "day job" is commercial and industrial photography and corporate portraiture but I am still shooting weddings. FYI- there is a "Wedding Photography" section here on the site. It is no heavily trafficked but there are a few of us who like to exchange and share ideas, tell war stories, rant and vent in a nice way, and help the new folks. Visit and participate any time!

I hope this helps!

Tim Stapp Loc: Mid Mitten

Regarding the "Wedding Photography" section: Please come and visit! Ask questions there, please! I'm seconding Ed's suggestion because there is the place that you WILL NOT be brow beaten because you dare even think of wedding photography. Not to mention, you might ask a question that I'm too shy to ask -:).

The folks there are some of the friendliest and most helpful folks around. There are folks there with decades of experience. There are folks that are "weekend warriors" (Ed, you don't count. It might be your weekend gig, but....)

I've met some of the folks over there and my wife and I have become close personal friends .

So, stop on by!

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

Sorry. It did not say that (and I wasn't about to visit B&H just to see what a honey badger (lower case) is. Might be slang for something for all I know. Also, NO NEED TO SHOUT